According to MillennialMarketing.com, one in four U.S. millennials are parents. What does this mean for education marketers? Well, your prospects are more than potential students for your program—they’re key influencers on future generations of students, too.

For better or for worse, there are a lot of stereotypes floating around about the disposition of millennials. However, there’s a good portion of this demographic that are striving to become role models for people in their communities. We’re calling them millennials with grit.

As we look for the best-fit students for our programs, it’s important to understand how and why these driven millennials view the world the way they do. Here are some key personality traits to look for as you identify and recruit these individuals.

They embrace rejection with positivity.

We can all agree that the feeling of rejection and failure is one that doesn’t sit well in our stomachs when we go to sleep at night. While some millennials deal with rejection by playing the blame game, others rise above it with positivity.

Working as a sales associate at Signature Inc, I signed up to go door-to-door selling Verizon Fios to people who were not so eager to have me on their front porch. One cold rainy day in December, I was on my sixth hour and eightieth house of the day. A man answered the door to me, waving my hand hello with a big smile on my face.

In a high-pitched perky voice I said, “Hey I’m just stopping over for dinner, is it ready yet?” He couldn’t help but laugh. This man was so happy and surprised by my positive attitude in 30-degree weather that he was willing to listen to my pitch. I ended up saving him money on his cable bill and we had a great conversation that ended with him telling me, “Thank you for making my night.”

Keeping a positive attitude through adversity and rejection is easier said than done. Millennials with grit adopt and demonstrate this skill in their place of work and day-to-day lives.

They know and pursue their purpose.

Millennials with grit also like to give back and work towards the greater good.

They want to work for companies and consume products that support a cause or charity. More than other generations, millennials with grit define their role in society as one with social impact. They strive to make their community a safer and more enjoyable place. Identifying these individuals as prospective students will help strengthen the reputation of your school and community.

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They make the right choice—even when it’s unpopular.

It’s easy to identify a millennial that will go with what his/her friends or colleagues are doing, rather than one who will make the unpopular, but right choice. Mind Gym USA—a psychology based learning solutions company—performed a case study on this sort of conformity.

The image above shows a test where the answer to the question (which line is the same length as line A?) seems clear. The trick here is they told the participant that the first three people who answered the question stated line two was the same length as line A. Their studies showed that 36.8 percent of participants gave incorrect answers by responding with line two. The point being that over one-third of participants were influenced by the popular choice.

Take inspiration from this study and find your own litmus test for identifying those millennials with grit—the ones that are willing to go against the grain and challenge the status quo.

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Finding these millennials can be challenging.

But they’re the ones who are going to make your campus community a better place. They’ll go onto to change the field they pursue, make new discoveries and sing praise for their experience with your brand. Millennials with grit will give back to your institution—and the world. If you find students with any of these three qualities, you just strengthened the quality and impact of your program.

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