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A Story of Bravery, Belonging, and Becoming
Some stories do more than tell us what happened.
They remind us who we are.
In my recent About Boulder article, I share the story of my grandmother, Margaret “Maggi” Markey, and her path into civic leadership in Boulder County during a time of deep change. It is a story rooted in place, family, and public life, but also in something larger: the courage to step forward when your voice is needed.
The kind of courage that does not always announce itself.
The kind that begins quietly.
A hand raised. A question asked. A room entered. A line crossed between watching and participating.
At Dream Tank, we think about this kind of bravery all the time.
Because youth leadership is not just about big stages or bold titles.
It is also about learning to trust your voice.
About speaking even when you are unsure.
About stepping into spaces that were not built with you in mind, and bringing your whole self anyway.
This story matters to us because it reflects something we know to be true: change moves through relationships, across generations, and through ordinary people willing to act with extraordinary care.
It matters because so many young people are standing at that threshold right now, feeling the call to lead, to build, to protect, to imagine differently, while also wondering: Am I ready? Do I belong in this room? Will my voice make a difference?
Our answer is yes.
And stories like this help us remember that bravery has a lineage.
We inherit it. We witness it. We practice it.
And then, together, we carry it forward.
If you care about youth voice, civic courage, intergenerational leadership, and the living history of Boulder, I hope you’ll read the full piece.
Read the full article on About Boulder:
https://aboutboulder.com/blog/the-boulder-before-boulder/
Learning from the Systems Change LAB: When Color Became the Point
During Dream Tank’s two-week Systems Change Lab in Boulder, Brown University students worked alongside mentors and city leaders to design practical tools for civic systems change. As the cohort prepared to present their ideas to mayors, an unexpected debate emerged: Should their slides be colorful and expressive, or toned down to match traditional expectations of professionalism?
What seemed like a small design choice revealed a deeper systems pattern – the pressure to “flatten” creativity and personality to be taken seriously. With guidance from mentor and Nobel prize winner Rebecca Irby, students recognized this moment as part of the work itself. Systems change isn’t only about new frameworks and policies; it also requires questioning the cultural norms that shape which ideas are seen as credible.
The experience became a powerful reminder that youth leadership expands what leadership can look like. Imagination, empathy, and courage are not distractions from serious work – they are essential to building futures that are more human, inclusive, and possible. Sometimes, the color is the point.
Read the full story behind this defining moment from Dream Tank’s Systems Change Lab by Adrienne Markey…
After Tragedy, We Chose to Listen: A Global Gathering on Healing, Dreaming, and Building What Comes Next
A global live gathering on January 17 emerging from the Systems Change Lab at Brown University and the Dream Tank ecosystem.
DREAMCAST is almost here.
On January 17, we’ll gather for a global live broadcast emerging from the work of the Systems Change Lab with Brown University cohorts and the broader Dream Tank ecosystem. It’s a rare kind of convergence—one that holds both tenderness and traction: intergenerational wisdom, real healing, and regenerative futures coming into form.
This isn’t a polished “final reveal.” It’s a live moment of becoming.
A place where young visionaries and trusted leaders come together to listen, witness, and engage with new ideas, early prototypes, and practical pathways for real-world, transformational systems change. A place where we don’t just talk about the future—we practice designing it differently.
Why this moment matters
In times like these, it’s easy for communities to rush to “business as usual.” DREAMCAST is the opposite of that impulse.
It’s a shared pause—an invitation to slow down, pay attention, and ask better questions:
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What does safety actually require—not just in policy, but in lived experience?
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How do we rebuild trust when systems fail?
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What becomes possible when youth voice is treated not as a gesture, but as leadership?
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What if the most powerful innovations are the ones that restore relationship—between people, institutions, and the places we call home?
DREAMCAST is a space to hold those questions together—and to see what young people are building in response.
What you’ll experience on January 17
DREAMCAST brings together:
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Youth-led storytelling and lived experience
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Early prototypes and tools shaped inside the Lab
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Systems change frameworks designed to be adapted beyond a single campus or city
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A field of intergenerational mentorship where students are not performing for adults—but co-creating with them
This is the beginning of a larger unfolding whose resonance we anticipate will travel far and wide. The conversations forming now hold the potential to ripple outward—planting seeds whose influence may be felt across communities, nations, and generations to come.
If you’ve been longing for evidence that something can change—this is a good place to show up.
Register to join us live
If you have not yet registered, we would be honored by your presence.
Please reserve your place here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Gpd1Fu2bQqCEl6ucUl-Z6A#/registration
Support the students GoFundMe here:
Fundraiser by Heidi Cuppari : Brown Students Building Systems of Care, Clarity, and Agency
Your participation helps create the field in which young voices are heard, supported, and empowered to translate imagination into meaningful, lived impact.
More about DREAMCAST
DREAMCAST is an evolving media and convening platform within the Dream Tank ecosystem, designed to illuminate, connect, and nurture youth-led ideas across sectors, cultures, and geographies.
What begins as a global broadcast will grow into:
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an ongoing youth-led video podcast series
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a constellation of developing programs, conversations, and collaborative pathways
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a place where young innovators, intergenerational mentors, and transformational systems change leaders can share emerging work, explore solutions, and build relationships that extend beyond any single event or theme
DREAMCAST functions as a living channel through which storytelling, prototyping, and future-shaping approaches can be witnessed, cultivated, and carried forward over time.
As new initiatives and priorities come into focus around the world, the DREAMCAST platform will continue to expand in alignment with:
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the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and
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the Inner Development Goals (IDGs)—a framework of inner capacities and skills needed to bring the 17 SDGs into lived reality.
Through media, technology, and culture, DREAMCAST weaves together narratives of ecological, social, and economic renewal and justice—while staying grounded in its core purpose:
amplifying youth voices, supporting entrepreneurial innovation, aligning with regenerative ways of living, and translating vision into meaningful, real-world impact.
Brown Students Building Systems of Care, Clarity, and Agency
Why the Systems Change Lab matters now — and how we’re standing with students
In November, we announced the launch of the Systems Change Lab at Brown University — a two-week, youth-led and mentor-guided process designed to help students map complex systems, identify what’s missing, and prototype pathways forward together.
The Lab was not designed in response to a single event. It was created because young people have been telling us for years that the systems they are inheriting — education, governance, media, health, economics — are no longer working as promised, and that they want tools, language, and support to redesign them.
What recent events on campus did was not create this work, but confirm its necessity.
They brought into sharp focus exactly why the Systems Change Lab was designed the way it was — and clarified where it needed to begin.
A Lab Designed for Moments Like This
The Systems Change Lab is built on a simple premise:
when systems fail, the people most affected should not be left alone — and they should not be treated as passive recipients of solutions.
Students are invited into a structured, facilitated process where they:
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name what isn’t working
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map the systems shaping their lives
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identify what’s missing
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and design responses together, supported by mentors and intergenerational partners
This work was always meant to be adaptable to place and moment. When students shared how recent events were impacting their sense of safety, agency, and ability to imagine the future, we listened — and allowed the Lab to begin there.
This wasn’t a pivot. It was the design doing its job.
Beginning with Safety, Care, and Agency
In systems work, sequencing matters.
You can’t meaningfully redesign systems if people don’t feel safe enough to think, connect, and imagine.
By allowing safety, care, and agency to become the first system addressed, the Lab creates the conditions for deeper work to follow — not only on crisis response, but on education, culture, governance, economics, and the many other systems students want to engage.
This approach reflects years of learning through Dream Tank: lasting systems change doesn’t come from imposing solutions, but from creating environments where people can think clearly, act collectively, and lead from lived experience.
Standing With Students — An Intergenerational Effort
Alongside the Lab, we’ve seen a natural call for intergenerational support — alumni, parents, educators, and community members asking how they can stand with students in ways that are grounded, respectful, and real.
In response, a student-supported GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help resource the work with care — supporting coordination, facilitation, documentation, and student stipends so participants can engage fully.
👉 Support the campaign here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/brown-students-building-systems-of-care-clarity-and-agency
This campaign is not about rescuing students or rushing to answers. It’s about ensuring that students have the time, space, and support to do the work they are already stepping into.
Looking Ahead
The Systems Change Lab runs January 6–17, 2026, culminating in a live Global Broadcast on January 17, where students will share what they’ve learned, designed, and proposed — just before returning to campus.
This Lab is both a complete experience in itself and the foundation for a model that can be adapted in other schools, communities, and bioregions — before systems break, during moments of disruption, and as futures are rebuilt.
What’s happening at Brown is not an exception. It’s a signal.
And the question before all of us is not whether young people are ready to lead — they already are — but whether we are willing to stand with them as they do.
With care,
Dream Tank
Systems Change Lab @ Brown University
