The morning after an evening flight with my then three-year-old daughter, I couldn’t wait to get her to school. I was tired from the anger, and her inability to communicate because of her slowed language development.

As I accompanied her into the car, I felt desperate. Nothing was right with our world. She had been born around the same time the nation was witnessing the birth of another Great Recession(经济萧条）.My job and my house had been victims. Then this happened. My child’s language delay was identified, but doctors struggled to properly diagnosis her. I felt like we both needed to be rescued.

I returned that afternoon as disenchanted with the little girl I loved as when I left.

Walking slowly toward the school’s playground gate, I found her preschool teacher racing to greet me.

“You should have seen her today!” His breathy words were supported by excitement.   I didn’t interrupt.“See that climber.”He pointed to a piece of wooden playground equipment that looked like a rock wall. I nodded. “Well, every day since she started school, She’s tired and failed to make it to the top.” He took a breath. “And today she made it.

He expressed his joy just like he'd witnessed her conquering (征服) Mount Everest “”She cheered and celebrated! I wish l'd recorded it.” . His words comforted me. My daughter had conquered her mountain.As she ran toward me, I recognized something I hadn't before. I saw her perseverance. I saw her strength.I saw a hero.

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Forget about the “post-1995 generation”. Young people born in 1995 or later have another name in English—Generation Z.

Now entering adulthood and soon to join the workforce, Generation Z grew up in a special period of time—a time in which technology developed fast, social changes happened every day, the internet became universal and, sadly, so did global terrorism.

It is believed that Generation Z is the generation that is going to shape our future, which is why policy makers, sociologists and company leaders are trying their best to understand these young people.

So, what are Gen Z-ers really like?

Most people agree that the single biggest difference between Gen Z and other generations is how connected they are. This is a group of people who have been familiar with social media as soon as they were born. Social media has changed the way Gen Z-ers communicate with each other and how they get and understand information.

“We are the first true digital natives. I can almost create a document, edit it, post a photo on Instagram and talk on the phone, all at the same time,” said Hannah Payne, an 18-year-old student at UCLA, according to The New York Times. “Generation Z takes in information very fast and loses interest just as fast.”

It may be true that Generation Z-ers have a shorter attention span (注意力持续时间) than a goldfish, but since they grew up among social changes, they are more active in politics. According to the British Election Study, 58 percent of 18-to-24-year-old voted in the 2015 general election in the UK, a big jump from 38 percent in 2005.

Generation Z-ers are also culture creators. “Growing up with the internet has freed this generation from traditional cultural expression.” Wrote Grace Masback, a Huffington Post blogger and a Gen Z-er herself. According to Masback, these young people are no longer willing to let their creativity be limited by their parents of traditional rules. They watch videos and read news online instead of on TV, and they share their experiences on social media.

“We decide what kind of content we want to experience and choose how we experience it,” wrote Masback.

Chef Bruno Abate owns one of the best pizzerias in Chicago. His restaurant makes thin pizzas, heated in an oven with a wood-burning fire. They come with fillings like mushrooms, onions, olives, tomatoes and Italian meats. Each pizza sells for between $12 and $18 at Abate’s restaurant, Tocco. But do you know you can get a similar pizza for half the price at the Cook County Jail (监狱) in Chicago?

Abate leads a cooking school at the jail. He shows prisoners how to make pizza, pasta, and Italian ice cream, called gelato. The cooking school is called “Recipe for Change.” There, behind the jail’s barbed wires and security barriers, a number of students, including Shaquille Slater, are making pizzas. “I like everything I do,” he says.

Slater makes pizza dough (面团), and then adds fillings to the dough. He makes sure the pizza and its fillings look just right before they come out of the oven. He says working with food makes him forget about being in jail. “It brings up memories of days when you were free and when you were having a good time,” he says.

Workers at the cooking school make about 200 pizzas every week. The pizzas are sold to other prisoners in the jail for about $7 each.

Abate says he is teaching cooking skills to the prisoners, and how to use good, fresh in-gredients (佐料). When they finish the class, the Students have skills they can use to find jobs when they are released from prison.

Abate says his program teaches more than how to make food. He helps the students learn that they need to have a plan for their future so they do not return to prison once they leave the prison. “Through food, I try to teach, you know, how to change in life,” Abate says.