Explore
Sessions
In “Mindset Matters,” Daniel R. Porterfield advances the argument for the value of undergraduate education and suggests ways to improve education for new generations. Three college graduates join to talk about how the experience helped them launch the lives they’re living.
The Walton Family Foundation’s latest research with Gallup shows that young people need a sense of purpose in school and work to feel happy—and the right adult mentors and guides can help them find it. Learn how leaders who are working with youth to help them navigate challenges on the path to adulthood.
Academia is beset by challenges related to free speech, admission policies, donor pressures and soaring costs. University leaders are simultaneously negotiating these minefields and convincing the next generation that college is still worth it. Can academia rise to these challenges?
Structural racism, reflected in uneven access to care, inequitable community conditions, and the wealth gap, drives persisting racial disparities in health. Unconscionable differences in life expectancy and the incidence of numerous diseases are the result. The systems and structures at the root of these inequities were created intentionally and need to be dismantled just...
Mental health crises are plaguing Americans. Despite parity mandates that require mental health services to be reimbursed like any other medical service, clinician shortages, knowledge gaps, inequitable access to services, lack of culturally appropriate treatment models, and stigma combine to undermine effective care. To address the growing crisis, we need more research an...
The Broadway musical “How to Dance in Ohio” is the true story of a group of young people with autism preparing for a formal dance. Based on a documentary of the same name, the autistic characters are played by autistic actors in a musical celebration of neurodiversity and the universal need for connection. “If you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person,...
Do American universities have an obligation to educate their students to be the next generation of citizens and civic leaders? What does it mean for a university “to offer students an education that will promote their flourishing as human beings, their judgment as moral agents, and their participation in society as democratic citizens”? Join a workshop with leaders from th...
At a moment when decades of academic achievement have been lost, can we amplify the benefits of A.I. equally across society, or will we allow a deeper digital divide to leave out even more students? Khan Academy founder and CEO Sal Khan talks about the potential for this nascent technology to transform education, activating and engaging an entire generation to create chang...
Digital skills open doors to jobs in tech, media, and across all industries. Connecting diverse students and workers with the education and training needed for the 92% of today’s jobs that require digital skills creates a pipeline of talent, critical to driving economic opportunity and mobility.
As members of the Giving Pledge, Melanie and Richard Lundquist have given more than $400 million over the past decade to critical causes ranging from educational opportunity to health care access to climate change mitigation. What drives a modern philanthropist to do what they do, what models of giving work best, and where are the opportunities for private dollars to make...
With students learning in more places and different ways than we have ever seen, the pace of change in education is dizzying. Join our panel of education experts in a discussion about what the classroom of the future will look like, how educational innovation can bridge divides, and how we can work together to get there. Presented by the Walton Family Foundation
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. This year, the Supreme Court is once again considering the constitutionality of race-based affirmative action programs, and its ruling may have a profound impact on the makeup of America’s most selective colleges and universities. How sh...
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. Debates over the content of our historical narrative and cultural values have Americans of differing ideologies engaged in heated battle, with educators and students caught in between. Meanwhile, have we failed to meaningfully educate o...
Why is there resistance to the idea that public funds should be used for art? What does it mean for the stewardship of cultural and educational organizations and the support of individual artists? And how does the relationship between non-profit and commercial culture impact how we value the creative sector?
Be it in her commanding, critically acclaimed written works or her masterfully insightful lectures, author and professor Azar Nafisi has given so many others the space and language to reflect on their own — often unseen and unacknowledged — experiences; enlightening and inspiring us all. Moderated by Zinhle Essamuah whose own command of storytelling includes working both i...
Whom do we trust to tell us what to read and, perhaps more importantly, should we trust anyone to tell us what not to read? And why? We put our trust in people and organizations for so many facets of our lives and our children’s education, but the perennial issuance of banned-book lists elicits confusion, questions, and controversy. The chief executive of the nation’s larg...
At first blush, this year might be considered the year of parental power, with the proliferation of parental bills of rights across the country that put limitations on what can be taught in public schools and allow objecting parents to seek removal of books from the school library. These bills and similar legislation purport to provide parents a greater voice in their chil...
For over a decade, Ascend at the Aspen Institute has lifted up parents’ voices and experiences to inform bold solutions for economic mobility in the United States. How does lived expertise influence the way programs and policies are created? What can we learn from a new wave of philanthropic efforts to invest in communities and their parent leaders? Four dynamic leaders sh...
Over the past decade, Walter Isaacson has explored the minds of history’s most curious innovators. Leonardo da Vinci. Benjamin Franklin. Albert Einstein. Steve Jobs. Jennifer Doudna. And now: Elon Musk. All geniuses, to be sure. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their...
As the world watches refugee families stream out of Ukraine, there is a renewed urgency to meet the needs of children caught in conflict zones — not just the basics of food and shelter, but also their emotional needs as they experience displacement and worse. How do we provide them the tools to cope with their circumstances? What initiatives are helping to mitigate the tra...