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

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 Ⓡ PromiseUnlocked, 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.