REP4Ⓡ accelerates student-led learning at 2025 Alliance-Wide gathering

Leaders, learners and REP4Ⓡ alliance partners met in Chicago for the 2025 REP4Ⓡ Alliance-Wide Gathering on October 29 & 30. The assembled group took stock of their journey, accomplishments and alliance goals, showcased student work and looked to a future of scaling the program to more learners across the country. 

REP4Ⓡ, which stands for Rapid Education Prototyping for Change, is a national alliance founded by GVSU and other universities across the country that puts students at the center of their education.

“It’s a simple concept. It's listening to our students to learn from them, to see how they change and the changes they want from us, and to believe in them and their lived experiences without constraints that others may put on them based on their zip code, income or opportunity to take AP courses,” said Philomena V. Mantella, president of Grand Valley.

The Alliance-Wide Gathering was hosted by Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Raj Echambadi, president of the university, said, “We are moving away from just being an opportunity to enabling our students and learners to maximize their potential.”

Since its inception in 2021, REP4Ⓡ has engaged over 1,500 learners, and philanthropists have invested over $3 million to build out learner-inspired ideas for use across higher education.

Some of those prototypes have since been developed into fully-fledged programs, including REP4ⓇFinLit, which launched in Michigan earlier this year and will launch nationally in 2026, and REP4ⓇPromise Unlocked, both of which were showcased at the gathering. 

MORE: REP4ⓇFinLit Launch rethinks financial literacy for Gen Z

“REP4Ⓡ was created in response to a fundamental gap in our higher education service model,” said LuWanna Williams, executive director of REP4Ⓡ. “Over time, the systems that we built to serve students became the systems that spoke about them rather than working with them.”

Instead, Williams said, REP4Ⓡ looks to engage and include students, becoming an incubator for ideas that shape the possibility of education.

Charles Patterson, president of Shippensburg University, said, “In an era where higher education has to adapt to new markets, workforce realities and societal changes, REP4Ⓡ really does ensure that our students have the ideas of driving the future of higher education forward.”

Acceleration partners joined for the Gathering’s second day, including Bank of America, Steelcase Inc, Amazon, Deloitte, Northern Trust, Michigan Central and others. Representatives from those partners saw student-designed innovation at its best at the REP4Ⓡ Student Design Accelerator Showcase, where groups from Grand Valley, Fort Valley State University, Shippensburg University and Boise State University presented prototypes and received feedback from panelists.

“There are so many different stakeholders in the room that reflect the ecosystem in our cities and community members that are most in need,” said Taylor Griffin, second vice president of Northern Trust and panelist for the REP4Ⓡ Student Design Accelerator Showcase. “I was really impressed that this was student-led and student-run.”

Each group was given the same universal prompt to work from, Griffin said, and the variety of pitches that emerged highlighted the students' different priorities and location resources.

"The power of REP4Ⓡ really does come from a group of institutions that see ourselves as a living system that constantly learns,” said Jesse Bernal, president of Western Connecticut State University. “We're building universities that get smarter every single time we engage a student; every time a student engages with us or the program, we're testing changes for the better. Not just students learning from the experience, but the experience itself, learning from the students."

The students aren’t just the subjects of the work being done, said Bernal. They’re codesigners of the systems being created for higher education.

“Because of the ways we have engaged and collaborated, and the ways we’ve allowed our students to reach their full potential — as an educator, what more could you want?” said Paul Jones, president of Fort Valley State University. “When I reflect on my tenure, I’ll know we made a lasting impact because of this partnership.”

Mantella said, “Higher education frequently will work in isolation. So we're broadening that circle to a set of institutions, diverse by definition, diverse in their charter, diverse in their region, diverse in the levels we serve, diverse in their strategies. We want to understand how this change can situate and what we need to do to keep driving its relevance and impact.