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
[email protected]
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.