Dropping in the early days of January 2026, this “December 2025” edition intentionally looks backward before it looks ahead—using the turn of the year as a moment to reflect, reset, and reconnect. Instead of a single host monologue, the episode is built around community voice notes: real people sharing their biggest wins, challenges, and surprises from 2025.
You’ll hear how relationships, volunteering, and mentorship show up as through-lines across wildly different roles and regions—plus what it looks like to turn hard seasons into forward motion. The episode closes with an open invitation: if you’ve got a win, challenge, surprise, or “here’s what I learned” moment to share, send in a voice note and keep the conversation rolling into the new year.
Topics Discussed
- Year-end reflection as a professional practice (not just a calendar habit)
- Relationships as the real work that underpins everything else
- Getting involved in community: raising your hand and finding your lane
- Stretching outside your comfort zone as a growth strategy
- Manufacturer/campus partnerships as a two-way ecosystem
- Turning challenges into clarity and progress
- Building new systems and capabilities on campus (and what it takes)
- Recognition, awards, and what they represent beyond the trophy
- Mentorship, collaboration, and support as a professional “infrastructure”
- Road to 10K energy: growing the community by amplifying more voices
Join the conversation (and share your perspective) at community.hetma.org.
Want to be featured on a future episode? Send in a voice note via the widget on HigherEdAV.com.
Host: Ryan Gray
editor@higheredav.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanagray/
www.HigherEdAV.com
This show is a production of Higher Ed AV Media. Visit www.HigherEdAV.com for new content every day.
