“The Millennials: The Most Consequential Generation?” is the subject of the annual Rocky Young lecture to be given Friday, April 27, by Santa Monica College political science professor Christine Schultz.

Co-author of “American Government and Politics in the New Millennium” Schultz is an expert on the effect of mass media on presidential politics.

The 18- to 29-year-old Millennial generation probably will be the most educated in American history, but the 50 million Millennials also have the highest share of unemployed in almost four decades, according to a Pew Research Center study.

“It’s a very consequential generation,” says Pew’s Paul Taylor, the report’s co-editor. “It has made its mark in some fairly dramatic ways.” Overall, Pew says, Millennials are confident, upbeat and open to change. They’re more ethnically and racially diverse than their elders and also less religious.

One of four recipients of the statewide 2008 Hayward Award for Excellence in Education, Schultz has taught at SMC since 1984 and has been chair of the Philosophy & Social Science Department, which includes political science, economics, sociology, philosophy and women’s studies, since 2004. She also taught from 1979 to 1997 at UCLA, where she earned her doctorate.

She has twice been named SMC Alpha Gamma Sigma Outstanding Professor of the Year and twice named University of California Los Angeles Professor or the Year.

Known as a demanding teacher, she also has one of the highest student retention rates at the college, with more than 90 percent of her students finishing her courses and more than 75 percent receiving As or Bs.

From 1986 to 2002, Schultz was the faculty coordinator of SMC’s Scholars Program, an honors program whose students are essentially guaranteed admission into such schools as UCLA as long as they follow a prescribed curriculum and maintain the required grade point average.

The Rocky Young lecture is named for a former SMC vice president who went on to become chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District.It will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, April 27, in Humanities & Social Science Lecture Hall 165 on SMC’s main campus, 1900 Pico Blvd. Seating is on a first-arrival basis, and parking is free. A reception will follow.

The lecture is sponsored by the SMC Associates, a community-based group that brings in speakers and funds special events and programs on the campus.