Our challenges are immense -- from climate change and educational stagnation to health disparities and persistent incarceration rates. For our country and world to prosper and flourish in the 21^st Century, the best of the next generation must devote their time, energy, and skills to solving these problems at home in our local communities, in the halls of government, and around the world.

Today, there remains a striking disconnect between talented people and careers of service and social impact. There is little data on how and why young people choose their careers and our understanding of what it would take to ensure a greater number advance the public interest is limited. This makes initiating and improving existing solutions difficult.

2012 Research:

The team at ICI will bridge this gap in understanding through a comprehensive research initiative. To begin, we will generate a complete preference profile of talented young people by evaluating all existing data on millennial career choices while generating new insights and answering unanswered questions through focus groups and surveys. Second, to identify the institutional barriers impeding the connection of top talent to impact careers, our team will conduct an extensive landscape analysis to map the market for top talent and identify those organizations that successfully – and unsuccessfully – compete for the nation’s top talent. We will glean and aggregate insight from leaders in public, non-profit, and private organizations through interviews and strategic partnerships.

To convert thought into action, we will design and launch a venture that responds to the results of our research and builds upon work already underway in the field of impact career development.

2012 Goals:

A successful 2012 would achieve the following milestones:

1. Publication of original research on the allocation of talent in solving large public problems. Incorporating qualitative and quantitative data, the research would answer the following research questions:  What are the career preferences of talented youth? What prevents top talent from pursuing careers in public service? What is required to ask and empower more top talent to pursue impact careers?
2. Mapping of the landscape of social impact and career development organizations relevant to this mission.
3. Generation of a national dialogue around public service and social impact.

ICI Approach:

Context:

1. Literature Review
2. Stakeholder interviews
3. University career services engagement

Explanation:

1. Survey design and implementation
2. Focus groups
3. Causal inferences from data

Intervention:

1. Landscape analysis
2. Venture design
3. Venture launch