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Today CoGenerate and the Stanford Center on Longevity announce six visionary ideas that promise to transform campuses into thriving centers for intergenerational collaboration and learning, while fostering economic opportunity, lifelong learning, and institutional sustainability.
At a time when colleges are under pressures driven by questions about cost, value and relevance; technological change; and fewer 18- to 22-year olds, the Big Ideas Challenge to Reimagine Higher Education, launched in September 2025, encouraged campus leaders to look to longer lives as part of the answer. The Big Ideas Challenge is supported by MetLife Foundation.
The six winners are:
HOPE CHICAGO
Sending two generations to college at the same time
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.
Turning unused campus space into a hub for intergenerational connection
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
Creating the first campus completely redesigned for 100-year lives
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
Valuing life stories as both curriculum and catalyst
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
Reimaging where and how higher education happens
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
Leveraging the arts to unite generations
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.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WINNERS →
“In an era of unprecedented longevity, the traditional three-stage model – education, work, retirement – is obsolete,” says Dr. Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. “These big ideas spread learning throughout the lifespan in ways that enrich the educations of younger and older people, while bridging divides, boosting economic opportunities, and providing paths to institutional stability.”
Campuses are rarely places where older and younger people learn together, says CoGenerate Co-CEO Eunice Lin Nichols. “Even most college-connected programs for older adults operate in age silos – older adults in one classroom, younger adults in another.
“The innovators behind these winning ideas are working to make campuses intentional, intergenerational hubs that benefit all ages and the institutions that create them,” Nichols adds.
“I see a day when campuses are thriving town squares for intergenerational connection and collaboration across the lifespan.”
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Join us March 31 for a virtual showcase featuring the winners. |
Media contact: Stefanie Weiss, [email protected]
Stories, photos, videos available: Features about each of the winning ideas – written by journalist Nandita Raghuram, with videos produced by Second Peninsula – are available on CoGenerate’s website, cogenerate.org/big-ideas.
About CoGenerate
As one of the nation’s leading social-impact organizations dedicated to making the most of our increasingly multigenerational society, CoGenerate brings older and younger people together to solve problems, bridge divides, and co-create the future.
About the Stanford Center on Longevity
Guided by its bold framework of the New Map of Life, the Stanford Center on Longevity redefines aging by advancing cutting-edge research, transformative education, and meaningful public engagement that unlock lifelong opportunities for growth, connection, and contribution.
About MetLife Foundation
At MetLife Foundation, we are committed to driving inclusive economic mobility. We collaborate with nonprofit organizations and provide grants aligned to three strategic focus areas –economic empowerment, financial health and resilient communities – while engaging MetLife employee volunteers to help drive impact. MetLife Foundation was established in 1976 and for50 years has continued MetLife’s long tradition of community engagement and involvement.Since its inception, MetLife Foundation has contributed over $1 billion to strengthen communities where MetLife has a presence. To learn more about MetLife Foundation, visit www.metlife.org.