Joe Biden believes that young people are at the cutting edge of Northern Ireland's future

There's a well known song that starts with the lyrics: "I believe the children are our future."

Well, Joe Biden believes young people are at the cutting edge of Northern Ireland's future.

It's the sort of language you would expect a US President to use as he opened the new Ulster University campus in Belfast - the only public engagement during his recent trip to the city.

But it's not every day you get a nod from one of the world's most powerful political leaders.

And so for Aimee Clint and Jordan Graham, the Presidential recognition they received is still sinking in.

Speaking about Aimee Clint, Mr Biden said: "Born in 2000, she grew up thinking about how she'd support her beloved brother and other children with autism.

Watch President Biden's full speech in Belfast.

"Today, Amy's social enterprise has donated more than 5000 copies of her book to schools across Northern Ireland to help children better understand autism and to learn to treat others with kindness and respect.

"That's the real power of the Good Friday Agreement. Compassion."

Aimee says she was surprised at how much detail about her the President chose to include in his speech.

She said: "At the time, I thought it's my name and I was like, 'oh, my goodness'. And then he kept going and going!"

Aimee was born after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was reached.

Now aged 23, she writes and publishes books for the social enterprise company she founded - Books By Stella.

Aimee is frustrated with the lack of political progress and hopes we can move away from the past to bring about change for the future.

She said: "The situation in Northern is awful. But the clock is ticking. I think that was one of the main messages from Joe Biden, is that it's time to do something. It's time to act. And what better movement than to act now whenever the world is watching?"

President Biden also spoke about Jordan Graham, saying: "Born less than three weeks after the agreement was signed in 1998.

"His whole life unfolded under the wing of peace which means at not quite 25 years of age, he's been able to build an expertise in branding and marketing that is used to help grow local businesses, support start ups, consult for charities."

Jordan, who co-founded marketing and business innovation companies 'Giant Kelp' and 'Sugar Snap', shares Aimee's frustrations.

He said: "I can't speak for my entire generation. But I don't think we'll tolerate it. I think there will be a point where we get so frustrated with what's going on and the divisions of the past and how people aren't willing to work together.

"There will be a breaking point. I think that Stormont does work when everyone wants to work together, I think it works quite well when everyone wants to work together. But we really shouldn't have these instances where it collapses."

Both Amy and Jordan have been helped along the way by Young Enterprise, a charity which helps inspire and enable entrepreneurship and enterprise skills among young people.

Its Chief Executive, Carol Fitzsimmons, says that the life young people have is fundamentally different to how she grew up.

"We may have stalled at the moment, but we can pick it up. We have not come this far to only come this far," she said.

FYI: The next line in the song (originally recorded by George Benson but better known as being a Whitney Houston classic) is 'Teach them well and let them lead the way.'

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