The CoGen^® Big Ideas Challenge to Reimagine Higher Education

The CoGen^® Big Ideas Challenge

Intergenerational models that reimagine the future of higher education for all ages

Announcing the Winners!

CoGenerate and the Stanford Center on Longevity have named six winners of the Big Ideas Challenge to Reimagine Higher Education:

Hope Chicago

Live Together, Inc.

The Cogeneration Lab at Bennington College

Humans of Virginia Union University

Community Learning Labs at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

Art Speaks at Penn State

All six innovations promise to transform campuses into thriving centers for intergenerational collaboration and education. All six bring generations together to foster economic opportunity, lifelong learning, and institutional sustainability. Learn more about each idea here.

Hope Chicago sends a student and a parent, guardian or grandparent to college simultaneously by offering “last-dollar scholarships” to ensure that all generations graduate debt-free. The nonprofit now helps 1,900 students and 300 older adults attend more than 30 higher education institutions.

Live Together, Inc. wants to transform a vacant residence hall at Frostburg State University in rural Maryland into affordable housing for students, families, and older adults; a five-unit assisted living household for older residents; and a site for workforce development and wellness programs for the community.

The Cogeneration Lab at Bennington College, a small liberal arts college in Vermont, is asking how it and other colleges might design the college experience to meet the needs of 100-year lives. A research and development hub, the CoGeneration Lab will develop, pilot and scale new models for intergenerational living, learning and working.

Humans of Virginia Union University: Conversations Across Generations, an intergenerational storytelling project at an HBCU in Richmond, Virginia, aims to build connections on campus while redefining “who holds knowledge and how it is shared.” Conversations across age will be transformed into civic projects – short films, podcasts, photographic essays and digital archives.

Community Learning Labs at the University of Missouri-St. Louis will bring educational and social services – such as job training, degree-granting programs, counseling, tutoring, even childcare – to existing community spaces. The Labs will become off-campus hubs where community members of all ages can learn, teach, and train together.

Art Speaks at Penn State will bring older learners (affiliated with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) and traditional college students together to discuss plays, dances, art exhibitions and concerts. The goal: Use art to build understanding and empathy, fight loneliness, reduce ageism, and prepare students for the multigenerational workplace.

DIGITAL SHOWCASE

Watch our digital showcase, including all 6 winners.

MEET THE WINNERS

MEDIA

Media: Read the news release from CoGenerate and the Stanford Center on Longevity announcing the Big Ideas Challenge winners. Send questions and requests for interviews or speakers to Stefanie Weiss.

✉️ [email protected]

CAMPUS COGENERATE

Learn more about our partnership with Campus Compact to make campuses centers for cogenerational collaboration and learning, and to bring generations together to secure a more stable economic future for all.

LEARN MORE