Simple question: Do you miss human connection when you use self-checkout at the grocery store? Complex question: How is cogeneration threatened by AI, profit-driven “efficiencies,” and automation — and what can we do about it? Allison Pugh, author of the book The Last...
On Friday, May 15, I had the great honor to address the 2026 graduates of Drew University, including the undergraduate College of Liberal Arts, the Theological School, and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. I'm very grateful to Drew's remarkable President...
Across the country, young people and older people are stepping up as civic leaders. But too often, they do this critical work with peers, in age-segregated spaces. Young people work without the benefit of older generations who bring lived experience, networks, and a...
Is your organization ready to tackle one of the toughest but most transformative shifts in intergenerational collaboration? In this session, you’ll hear from three leaders spearheading efforts to diversify board involvement. This will be a learning-in-public...
Today, we’re launching the CoGen Big Ideas Challenge to Reimagine Higher Education, an open call for big ideas and innovations that can create campuses where people of all ages learn, work and thrive together.
Our goal is to elevate ideas and innovations that can transform higher education institutions into thriving centers for intergenerational collaboration and learning, while fostering economic opportunity, lifelong learning, and institutional sustainability.
It’s a good time for visionary thinking. Today colleges and universities are navigating demographic changes, declining enrollments, evolving learner needs, and the opportunity to leverage the only growth area in sight – the midlife and older adult markets.
Yet few higher education leaders are using one of the most powerful and underutilized strategies for individual, institutional and societal growth and resilience – intergenerational learning and innovation.
We believe the future of higher education is cogenerational. When generations come together to learn, teach and lead, they build bridges across differences and between campuses and their communities. These bridges are key to unlocking student success, economic empowerment and institutional growth.
So we’re asking for your ideas. We’re inviting bold thinkers to share visionary models that bring generations together to learn, work and thrive. Selected innovators will help reimagine higher education as a hub for economic opportunity, lifelong learning and institutional sustainability.
We’re seeking up to five Big Ideas that:
Ideas and innovations may take many forms, including but not limited to intergenerational housing, new co-teaching models, civic or business incubators, workforce initiatives, or bold redesigns of campus systems.
Selected applicants will receive:
Learn more and apply now. Applications are due Oct. 23, 2025.
Our presenting partner in this work is Campus Compact. Outreach partners include AARP, the Stanford Center on Longevity, the Nexel Collaborative, the Age-Friendly University Global Network, Project Pericles, Pacific School of Religion, and University Retirement Communities.
This work is made possible by the MetLife Foundation.