Beyond Millennials: Engaging Generation Z in Business Law Classes

• Date: 01 August 2017
• Published date: 01 August 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jlse.12064

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 34, Issue 2, 317–324, Summer 2017

Beyond Millennials: Engaging

Generation Z in Business Law Classes

Elizabeth A. Cameron∗and Marisa Anne Pagnattaro∗∗

We are not millennials. We are our own generation.1

When students take out cell phones in class and are typing, the first response

many professors have is that the students are not completely engaged, when

in fact students are taking notes at impressive speeds. Facing similar criticism

in a workplace setting, seventeen-year-old Jonah Stillman protested, “I’m not

Texting. I’m taking Notes.”2Seriously? ☺Before dismissing the claim out of

hand with an emoji, it is worth taking a look at what characterizes Generation

Z, this current generation now in our classes.

Although there is no bright-line standard, Generation Z is generally

considered to be those born in the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.3Unlike

millennials who are viewed as having lost their innocence following the

September 11 attacks and the economic crashes in 2000 and 2008, Gen-

eration Z is seen as having “its eyes open from the beginning.”4Called

∗Professor of Law & Management, Alma College. Of Counsel with Towhey Maggini, P.L.C.,

Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2017 MALSB Master Teacher.

∗∗IW Cousins Professor of Business Ethics and Meigs Professor of Legal Studies, Terry College

of Business, University of Georgia.

1Jonah Stillman quoted in David Stillman—Gen Z, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjsk70-

gfqaQ. Jonah Stillman and his father David Stillman are the authors of GEN Z@WORK:HOW

THE NEXT GENERATION IS TRANSFORMING THE WORKLACE (2017).

2Jonah Stillman, I’m Not Texting. I’m Taking Notes,NEW YORK TIMES (Apr. 7, 2017), https://

www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/jobs/texting-work-meetings-social-media.html.

3Alex Williams, Move over Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z, N.Y. TIMES (Sept. 18,

2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/fashion/move-over-millennials-here-comes-

generation-z.html.

4Id.

C2017 The Authors

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2017 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

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