What if we trusted them? As institutions scramble to regulate AI, students are positioned as potential cheaters rather than intellectual partners. But Gen Z sentiment toward AI has shifted—many students arrive determined to protect learning, effort, and authentic thinking. This presentation shares what happened when we took that seriously. Over three semesters, we transformed our Language Center into The LAB—a student-led research hub where multilingual students investigate AI's impact on language and meaning-making. Students led every stage: interviewing and hiring peer researchers, organizing our Active Language Forum, shaping research agendas. The results exceeded expectations. LAB students presented research rivaling graduate work. In my Literature and Media Transformation course—which emerged from LAB conversations—students wrote media autobiographies of stunning honesty. When we opened new LAB applications, we received unprecedented, and ambitious proposals revealing how hungry this generation is for these conversations. This presentation offers a replicable model for institutions willing to trust students as co-creators of knowledge. When we give students agency, they lead.
