What if students weren’t just showing up to learn, but helping lead the conversation?
Mark Allman has spent years watching his students challenge assumptions and make room for more honest, complicated conversations. Now, as managing director of university initiatives and innovations at Montclair State University and Campuswide Immersion lead,, he’s helping create opportunities for all students to build civic skills and shape a campus culture they want to be part of.
One moment has stuck with him. While teaching a religion class, Mark was using a textbook that said some religious identities couldn’t overlap. Then a student from Rwanda raised her hand and said that wasn’t true for her. She explained that she was Christian, Muslim, and practiced worship of her ancestors – these beliefs weren’t in conflict but part of who she was. For Mark, it was a reminder that students bring their lived experience with them and often challenge what’s on the page. And he knows what can happen when older adults make space for them to lead.
“My primary piece of advice would be, let the students be the driver of the initiative. Listen to them. They will tell you what they’re interested in. They will tell you their passions and they’ll tell you what they want to talk about. And when you listen to them and run a program that they designed, you will pack the house.”
By 2029, C&S will bring together 20 million young people to step up as civic problem-solvers. Campus leaders like Mark are key to making that possible.
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