86 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT supportive, empathetic, and cooperative community of fellow learners. Work-life balance. The high-stress college-bound culture of Northern Virginia schools notwithstanding, most of the FS teens I work with value a healthy work-life balance and make achieving that a basic part of their day-to-day choices. They recognize the signs of burnout and weigh the pros and cons of taking a gap year or choosing a postsecondary option that is not on the list majors like computer programming or business management. The advent of artificial intelligence and the significant social changes of recent years, however, have made many more of my students interested in broader liberal arts and sciences fields. They are asking why people make certain choices and how we can shape the future to be better than today. Perhaps subconsciously, they are seeking those generalist skills in creative thinking, analysis, and problem-solving that are likely to be flexible and useful in the uncertainties of the future, regardless of technological or social change. In other words, the kids are OK, and they’re about to show us all how awesome they are as young adults. n Virginia and 26 other U.S. states mandate that all students pass a class in personal finance before graduation. of “Top 20 Most-Stress-Filled Colleges or Universities.” Future-readiness. It may some- times seem like they don’t have a clear enough plan for what they want to do with their life. They’ve got no clear major identified, no in-field internship lined up, but today’s students recognize that the future of work is somewhat of a mystery. Ten years ago, many of my students applied into clearly career-focused
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