Mary Dana Hinton
So the lessons are understand mission. Be open to work, and don’t let your aspirations be defined by others, and what they may think of as a bad word. And listen, when other people say they see and hear something in you. And that’s the very short version of how I got to this point today,

Mamta Accapadi
Welcome to Student Affairs NOW the online learning community for Student Affairs educators. I’m your host Mamta Accapadi Student Affairs NOW is the premier podcast and learning community for 1000s of us who work in alongside or adjacent to the field of student to the field of higher education and student affairs. We release new episodes every week on Wednesdays, find us at studentaffairsnow.com on YouTube, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Today’s episode is sponsored by Symplicity. A true partner Symplicity supports all aspects of student life with technology platforms that empower institutions to make data driven decisions. Stay tuned to the end of the podcast for more information about our sponsor. So as I mentioned, I’m Mamta Accapadi my pronouns are she her hers and I am broadcasting from Austin, Texas. Austin, Texas is situated on the unseeded ancestral homeland of the hermanos. While we’ll take on Comanche leap on Apache and Tonkawa peoples. So friends in full confession, I have been a huge fan of President Hinton for quite some time. Her ability to lead with humility, care and a student centered approach has been a great input inspiration for me. Dr. Mary Dana Hinton became the 13th president of Hollins University on August 1 2020. Previously, she was the president of the College of St. Benedict from 2014 to 2020. President Hinton is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Association of Colleges and Universities, AAC and Interfaith Youth Core, St. Mary’s School and the Teagle Foundation. She’s currently serving a three year term as an out large board member with the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities Naiku. She chairs the AAC U presidents trust and is also a member of the Lumina Foundation’s quality credentials Task Force. President Hinton speaks frequently in the United States and abroad on topics related to the liberal arts and inclusion, and she founded the liberal arts illuminated conference. Hinton teaches in the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education doctoral program in higher education, management, and the Council of Independent Colleges presidents institute new president program, my friends, we would be talking about President Hinton’s accomplishments throughout the entirety of the podcast if I didn’t stop now. So there is no introduction that adequately honors President Hinton’s impact on her communities. And in higher education overall, you all are in for a treat.

Mary Dana Hinton
Oh, you are too generous. You lovely and overly generous and you bring good people to you, your light and your energy that you put out into the world draws, I think the best out of others. So I’m delighted with you today. It’s

Mamta Accapadi
such a treat. So it’s such a gift to get to be with you. And so just for the listeners who haven’t Googled you in the way that I have, you know, and of course there’s, you know, an infinity of spirit experiences and lived experience journeys that you have to offer. Can you just briefly share your journey into higher education leadership with us?

Mary Dana Hinton
Yeah, you know, I we are less than a week past commencement here at Hollins University, which is located in Roanoke, Virginia, where women’s college and it’s less than a week past commencement. It’s the day before reunion. So I’ve been thinking a lot about trajectories and pads and pathways. And some might say I had a fairly traditional higher ed pathway. But I don’t really view it that way. So the first half of my career was actually in K 12. I was a school developer for many years, I helped folks start businesses, I did philanthropic work on that side. And so when I got to higher ed, I was well into my career. And I think that that experience in K 12 really helped shape my leadership, my leadership agenda, if you will, in higher education. And what I mean by that is, I think it’s so important to not just think about one’s own institution and one’s On sphere of influence, but you have to realize that the work that we do in higher ed is inextricably linked to what happens in K 12. And I think it’s inextricably linked to what people go off into jobs and careers and lives and what they do there. So I try to view my higher ed work as a steward of a particular time and a particular place. And for me that time and place started at Cordia University. Yeah, in Dallas. Yeah, it is a lovely place founded by the religious Sisters of Mercy, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude that I can barely articulate. The religious Sisters of Mercy taught me about a charism and what it means to live mission. And again, I would say that was the first higher ed building block that really settled in my in my heart, that your mission determines what you do on a day to day basis, it guides your trajectory. And it is the place where you get to reflect your deep care for community. So my first contract in higher ed monthto was actually one year when I tried to negotiate your two year contract and they said, No, you get one year was one year, that time Multicultural Student Advisor, halftime faculty member. And I said to my board chair at the nonprofit I was leaving to go take this one year contract, I said, you know, I, I’ll be back, I promise I’ll be back. I only have a year, but I really want to flex this new PhD. And yes, like, and I fell in love. I mean, that’s, that’s it, I fell in love with higher education. I love the students. I love the work. I even love the challenges. I was saying to one of my board committees this morning, I love the challenges that we are confronting and higher ed right now, because it’s going to make us have to be better. And in order for higher ed to be better, all of us leaders are going to have to do better and be better ourselves. And I love that. So that’s how I got into higher ed, I think because I had had this career, this administrative career before higher ed. I think it came naturally for me to settle into some administrative roles. I didn’t know that was a bad word. I didn’t know I thought, Oh, that’s cool. I didnt know, silly me. And I just, it just went from there. And some people believed in me, and even when I didn’t believe in myself, and those people convinced me eventually to apply for presidencies. And here I am. So the lessons are understand mission. Be open to work, and don’t let your aspirations be defined by others, and what they may think of as a bad word. And listen, when other people say they see and hear something in you. And that’s the very short version of how I got to this point today.

Mamta Accapadi
oh, my gosh, what a gift. This was the the gift that I didn’t know that I was gonna need so deeply today, I hear you. And you know, I love this this concept of mission beyond position, right. And so it sounds like you’ve been on a journey, and you’ve been, you know, always discerning of mission along any kind of experience that you’ve had. And I really love that reminder. Because I think sometimes we can very specifically think about the positions we have, and maybe miss that greater perspective of what is my mission, you know, in a grander scheme. And so thank you so much for that invitation. I’m sorry, no, go ahead.

Mary Dana Hinton
I’m just gonna say I think there are two missions. And I didn’t realize that until I was a little into my first presidency. So I think for those of us who are faith faithful to the institutions we serve, I think we know our institutional missions by heart, and that is so important. And that is certainly what the religious Sisters of Mercy emphasize with me was you’ve got to embrace the mission. And I think they would say charism of the institution you’re serving, which is so important. But a little while into my leadership as the president of the College of Saint Ben’s, I began to really think about what is my personal mission? So what does it mean? What am I called to do? What is my purpose? What am I committed to? What are the lines that I have to draw that I won’t cross? And then at another level, it was why is that my mission? And how does understanding that why and form how I live my mission on a daily basis, and as a, as a leader, and as someone who likes to work with emerging leaders, I often say that mission of the institution you serve and the mission of your heart, mind and spirit, how Have to be aligned. And if you’re not aligned, it’s going to be really hard to find success. And we don’t all have the same mission or the same calling or vocation, the world needs a saw. And it needs us to live into our missions. And I’m just really grateful that I’ve been able to find institutions that I wherein there is alignment, and where our missions resonate with one another.

Mamta Accapadi
Oh, yeah, just so beautiful. And as I think about my next question for you, you know, having come from the world of Student Affairs, in my own career, something that I, you know, very much believe has been a core part of my mission uplifting the sacredness of students. As I was kind of sharing with you, before we began recording, I, you know, the Student Affairs student, the student experience work, we’re all doing student experience work is really hard right now. I mean, it’s always been hard, but it feels really hard right now. And I have to say, you know, of course, as I as I was learning about you, and my continued just appreciation for your leadership, I’ve always inspired when I see a college president really lift up the Student Affairs experience, and your Inside Higher Ed article on reimagining student affairs. It was such a hopeful piece for me. And I guess, you know, as we’re kind of reflecting today, what would you want listeners of this podcast to consider about the student experience today? Like for any of us who are listening? How might we elevate our work, adjust our energy, any kind of guidance that you would have?

Mary Dana Hinton
Well, I guess there are a few pieces. And I want to start with gratitude for those folks who have chosen Student Affairs work. So in that first position that I mentioned, was halftime, Multicultural Student Affairs and halftime faculty. And so I so I might say, I started in student affairs, multicultural piece was housed. And I didn’t realize I had gone to school, I had gotten a bachelor’s, a masters and a PhD. But what I hadn’t realized was the entrenched bifurcation that higher ed insisted upon between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. And I think that has never served us well. And I think it’s a particular hazard. And you might get me to argue malpractice for us to separate the two in the way we do, I think, what we know about students today, and what I think we’ve always known that haven’t wanted to verbalize students don’t have Student Affairs and Academic Affairs on campus, students come to campus, and they have a collegiate experience. And it’s made up of all these pieces, and out of 168 hour week, the majority of their time is not spent in the classroom. Now they spend a lot of time reflecting on the classroom, I hope, debating, reading, preparing, but an awful lot of their time is spent in those spaces that we’ve that we’ve set our Student Affairs spaces. And so I’ve been calling for a student experience as opposed to Student Affairs and Academic Affairs for a long time. And I’ll tell you a funny story. I remember the first time I was working on a redesign, my first administrative job was director of a core curriculum and as we always are, was going through a change. And I said, Well, we want to make sure we have Student Affairs and Academic Affairs on the committee. Because when you change the core, you’re changing students experience. So everyone needs to be at the table. And one of my colleagues said, in a very serious manner, why are you trying to higher education by forcing Student Affairs and Academic Affairs to be together? And I thought, I thought that just made sense, right? That we want to think about the student as a whole human being. What I didn’t know then and that I use often now is a quote from learning reconsidered two now learning reconsidered two is one of my favorite books, if we want to bifurcate affair side of things, but it is one of my favorite books. But there’s a quote from learning reconsidered, two, that says, the holistic process of learning, learning that places the student at the center of the learning experience, demands collaboration, and collaboration demands cultural change. So to some degree, I’m still on this crusade to say until we recognize that students are the center of our work, that learning is holistic, and that you can’t separate Student Affairs and Academic Affairs that that collaboration is essential. I will remain on that. crusade. And so I want folks to know, we’re in it together. I don’t know of an institution that can be successful without a great faculty and I don’t know of one that can be successful without a great student affairs or at Halas will be called Student Success team. It’s not possible. And I think we put up those walls. Yeah.

Mamta Accapadi
To maintain a status, caste system?

Mary Dana Hinton
I don’t know. But it’s not helpful. And it’s not based on what students need?

Mamta Accapadi
Well, I think, you know, as I hear you, reflecting, I have a funny story to when I worked at Rollins College, which is your school’s name. Yeah. And I remember when I was dipping into the world of our regional accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and it was interesting, if not for the partnership with with our colleague, the Associate Provost who coordinated all of that right, the work the preparation work for when our regional accrediting partners come to our campus. And we in student affairs, were exempt from submitting learning outcomes. And because it wasn’t asked of us, right, it kind of in the documentation, materials, I mean, you know, a lot of compliance based work, which of course, we need to submit. And I remember, I remember reaching out to my colleague, and I was like, I need us to submit learning outcomes. Yeah, this is important to me. And I realized that it’s extra work for everybody involved. But we are a learning organization. And it was interesting. And that really shifts the culture of how we identified and elevated our work because we could connect the learning. To your point, it’s how do we have a shared affection of the learning experience with one another? So your story rings

Mary Dana Hinton
100%. And it is harder now. You’re right. I think Student Affairs, I think some folks went into the business, because it was a really joyful place to do work. And it’s hard now. I mean, I’ve been a president for nine years now. And I’ve watched how the work has changed. There’s still joy. Yes. But I hope that as a sector, we are recognizing that the learning happens all over campus, and none of us get to abdicate responsibility for helping students learn. None of us have the right to say we own it. We are institutions are learning institutions, which means we must be learning in every venue.

Mamta Accapadi
Yes, absolutely. So of course reflecting on on your many pieces. Your other piece that really moved me well, it was the one that actually prompted me to reach out to you because it just it it, it hit my soul. It’s your piece for AAC and you the work of moral imagination. And so there are many quotes that I have from this piece, but the one that I want to reflect on, or there’s two actually but the first one is this idea that imagination allows one, to look at one circumstance and conceive something different, often something more than what the world presents as options, imagination beckons to your best self. And I just so so that was of the many quotes that stuck out to me. And so the question that I have for you is really like what inspired you to write this powerful piece like what was going on in your spirit and your mind and heart before you wrote this piece.

Mary Dana Hinton
So that piece actually came out of my inauguration as the 13th, president of Hollins University. And the theme of my inauguration was imagination. And there were a few things that prompted that there are words that sometimes get stuck in my heart, and I can’t get them out. And they, they just they rattle around and I have to figure out how do I express this word, and it’s not just being able to say the word imagination, but what does it mean to try to imagine a community and so I was thinking about imagination, really, from two or three key perspectives. One is, you know, I’ve been very public about having grown up in a low income family in rural North Carolina, and having encountered some real barriers in terms of access to education. Now, I want to be super clear, I eventually got a very lucky break. And my mission in life is to make sure other young women don’t have to hope for a lucky break, but instead that we build systems that allow them to to be successful. But anyway, when I was a kid, all I had was my imagination, right? Like I could have imagined college or I could imagine a different life that I could imagine now are wanting for some basic things in life. And I still imagine a lot I imagine what it will be like when you know, I see little kids playing ball, it’d be like for them to be able to go to any college they loved 10? And what’s my role in making that happen? I want to imagine for young women, what does it mean to own your voice? When the world tells you, you don’t own your voice? What is that like when you do and when you have that realization. So in many ways, my imagination saved me, I could imagine something different when reality was sending one set of messages, when reality is still sending a set of messages today, when people want to erase your humanity and your history and your choices. You’ve got to imagine something different, and then set about doing the work. And to me, that is what education does. Higher education should unleash the imagination of the students we serve. And say to them, if you can imagine this, let us build the structures and the systems and the supports and the opportunities so that you can then go for it. But you, I worry that we curtail imagination, now that we say oh, that’s a fanciful thing for kids. Yes. And it’s not it’s what, it’s what encourages you to change the world. It’s what says to you, Mamta, you have something special to offer the world. And I believe in that, and I want to create a pathway for you. So to me, there’s nothing more important than imagination and the liberal arts, in so many ways, uniquely prepares you to shape your imaginings in such a way that it’s not just about you as an individual. It’s about the common good, the greater good and dwelling and a community.

Mamta Accapadi
Yeah, I really feel, you know, when I hear you talk about imagination, I feel like it’s this experiencing of an untethering of hope from fear. That’s right. Right. And so I just, it really is so inspiring. And, and also, you know, coming from, you know, the work that you’ve done the work that I I have done in the past? How do we do that work, when our students come to our campuses? Hungry? And they’re coming with a different set of life circumstances, right. So we have, you know, as we see increasing students, you know, that are coming from, you know, systemic, and generational poverty experiences, or students, as we think about kind of the the foundations of anxiety that are embedded in our society. I mean, really, what we’re seeing on our campuses are really reflections of kind of what is happening in our society overall. But how do we steward that? And how do we then adjust our practices to what our students need now?

Mary Dana Hinton
Like, you know, those are such good questions, I actually think we have to start by acknowledging it. I think there’s some comfort in us, either pretending like that’s not students reality, or being surprised by it. And I think we just have to acknowledge that that is reality, and that there’s neither blame nor value judgment placed on it. So we are all seeing students struggling coming out of the pandemic. It’s not the kids fault. It’s not K12’s fault. It’s not their parents fault. It was the pandemic, right, but how do we say, I know you’re gonna come in with with different needs and needs that are all across the spectrum, right, like some kids were really able to thrive, and some kids couldn’t get out of bed. And so we have a responsibility to serve them all. And I think we have to say that and I think we have to stretch ourselves, to meet students where they are. So I think the first step is acknowledging it. I think the second step is when you learn that your students have food insecurity, which we learned at Hollins, you open a food pantry, you don’t debate whether or not you should have to, you don’t think about well, does that change how we’re viewed by the world? You feed the kid, right? I mean, that’s what you are the adult, that’s what you do, right? These are not complicated issues. At one level, if you know your students are having housing and security, you find a way to support them. Those are the things that you should do, because we’re human beings, and we’re in this together. there, then once you’ve met those basic needs, you encourage folks, you give them hope you talk about, oh, I mean that, to me that word is missing. And these days, and hope isn’t, you know, wishing hope is, well, we need something different. And here, here are the steps I’m going to take, I often talk about hope is a weapon. And I don’t generally use that sort of example or frame of reference, but it is a weapon, because if you take hope away from people, all they have left is fear. And you see just chaos and disruption. So but if you give people hope they can do nearly anything. And I believe that quite strongly so. So I think we have to give young people hope we, we have to let them know that they can do things and their path may not be the same as my path. But as long as we’re on the path together, we can, we can do anything. And I guess the final thing I’ll add about that is an AI students, faculty and staff at Hollins, hear me say this all the time. The issues are so complicated today, the barriers are many, and the challenges are numerous. So at the end of the day, the one thing I know I can do is love you. And so I hope to, and I’m working on a piece about this, to use love as a way of as a tool or as a type of leadership. Because it’s a really complicated moment right now. But if I can look at someone and say, I want to be in relationship with you, so that you are your very best version of yourself, and I’m the best version of myself, then we can solve problems. And I want to be in this relationship when we get along. And I want to be in it when we don’t get along. I want to be at it. When I agree with your choices. I want to be in it when I don’t agree with your choices. Because I want you to be your best self. And I believe you want me to be my best self. So I talk about love is that leadership tool these days, and they don’t tell you to do that. And new presidents school. So wrong. But that’s the that’s what I have left hope and love.

Mamta Accapadi
Yeah, I absolutely. I mean, I join you on that journey. You know, also in my prior experiences, we as organizations talked a lot about love, I was the beneficiary of having one of my favorite and one of my most meaningful mentors, Larry Roper, former Vice President or Vice Provost for Student Affairs at Oregon State, he always encouraged us to bring love into the equation. So it’s just really affirming to hear you also invoke that, and we need to bring that into all of our school, you know, every in graduate programs, I think we can and should be talking about this notion of love. And as an unconditional commitment. I think what you described right, in any context, what would that look like? Yeah, so yeah, I was gonna say, as we continue to talk about love. How do we situate love, love with again, the heaviness of the work. So as I look around, you know, and see my student affairs colleagues. And I think about, you know, just the things that are asked and that are asked of us, particularly, I mean, it was happening before the pandemic, but I think again, the pandemic accelerated a lot of reflections for many of us. How do we reconcile love of other and love of self? How do we reconcile the things, you know, just what we’re asked to do in service of our students? And how do we stay healthy? And doing that work? What advice would you give us around lifting up the heaviness of the work? And staying in that space of love?

Mary Dana Hinton
There’s a saying, and I’m gonna not entire I’m not gonna get it exactly right. But if something like grief shared is halved and joy shared is doubled. And so and I think of that with this question, because you have to find people around you with whom you can share the heaviness of the work. And you can share your heaviness with them and they can share your their heaviness with you. And it is about an intentional network of people not I’m not big on just venting and complain. That’s not my thing. There’s there’s definitely a place for it. It’s my particular thing, but whatever your thing is, find the people with whom you can share that, and share that so that they carry some of it with you because it is too much to carry. Now, I would say even nine or 10 years ago, you could carry most of that stuff. And you know, you hear about the lonely leader at the top, you be lonely. Few years ago, you can’t afford to be lonely leading now. It’s just too much. It’s not healthy. It’s not good for your own mental health and well being. So you have to find people who you can share the heaviness with, you have to hold space. So you know, one thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is, How do you hold space. So very often, I’ll start my Cabinet meeting with tell me what you’re bringing into this space, that’s going to the we’re going to have to acknowledge honor and deal with before we get to the work. So creating that space by intention and meetings, because we’re all human beings, we’re all bringing something with us, right? And so how do we acknowledge that and hold space for that to be present, which I think diffuses it a little bit or at the very minimum, it says to your colleague, I’m gonna hold some of your grief or difficulty or challenge with you. At the same time, I worry that it’s almost like we’re not allowed to feel joy these days, that it’s sort of an Olympics to see who’s having the worst time. And I don’t think that’s healthy either. We’ve all got something in our lives to be joyful about. And, you know, if nothing else, if you’ve got food on your table, and a roof over your head, celebrate that. But I think we’re fortunate to have so much more than that. We have students, we as I said, we just got through commencement, you can’t walk students walk across the stage and not feel joy. I mean, you just, you just can’t. And yeah, I know the troubles it took to get some of them to that stage, right, feel joy. And in the same way, I encourage people and I try myself to share my challenges, share your joy, invite someone into your office for that happy dance with you. And those may seem like Pollyanna things, but if you can find 15 minutes of joy to share with someone each day, it makes your day better. There’s a EE Cummings quote that I thought of when we were talking before the recording, we’re talking about students is sacred and E coming through, we do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to worthy of our trust, and sacred to our touch. And we deserve that we are all sacred and worth listening to and worthy of trust. And so we have to not only open ourselves to receive that from others, but we have to believe it about ourselves. And I think women in particular struggle with believing that about ourselves. And just as we are we are enough, there many days to Mamta, where I got to say that to myself, You are enough, I have bracelets that say you are enough. But I think real recuperation and rejuvenation comes from giving the compassion you give to others to yourself.

Mamta Accapadi
Yeah, you know, over this past year, as I’ve, you know, transitioned careers and roles, you know, I’ve in different spaces of reflection, one of the things that has actually lifted me up is this idea that whatever my journey is, is an ancestral experience that’s healing. So I might not know what what that healing was generations before me, but something from the past is healing by virtue of my existence and loss. And so I think sometimes that, you know, again, in my own cultural traditions, you know, this this notion of challenging time, right, we think of time from our existence, or even a person, right, you know, but if we transcend that to generation and even multiple generations now, what would that arc look like? And then how could we experience hope, kind of in the way that you’re talking about, which is just so deeply moving? So you’ve asked us to think about joy, and I would, I would love to hear and learn from you how you have found or claimed joy on your journey.

Mary Dana Hinton
Yeah. Well, I confess that commencements my favorite time of year, absolutely. So I do I just find joy in that I find joy in asking consent and when granted how Again, my students, but that’s important. I find great joy and that I find joy in meeting with faculty and staff to work on this strategic plan. And I know someone’s like, oh, something’s wrong with this. But I find joy in locking arms with folks and saying, we’re going to vision, a new way forward, that brings me joy. I also like, like, you find a lot of joy and thinking about how I got here. And so I there’s an article that I wrote, and I put it in the chat for you, mom. Today, it’s called the whisper of dangerous memory. And before about 18 months, I was really compelled with this notion. Why am I a hopeful human being? And I was just thinking about my ancestors who’s survived the Middle Passage? Yeah. What was their experience when they landed on the shore? So do they have any hope? And how does that you translate it through DNA? What does that mean? And I think about that every, every day, like, how can I literally be, as the poem says, the hope and the dream of the slaves. That is, that is me. And I carry that both heavily on my shoulders, because I owe that to the ancestors. But I also carry it gently in my hand, and in my work each and every day, people quite literally died. For us to be in these roles. And what a privilege and responsibility it is to honor their lives through our work today. And while that sounds very heavy, it also does give me joy, because it means that when I am long gone from this place, there will be young people who I hope will have an opportunity because of something. And that that brings me joy. So when I think about the work, what can I do to create that pathway for someone who will never know my name? And that that brings me joy as well.

Mamta Accapadi
I love that what can I do to create a pathway for somebody who will never know my name? That is just such a powerful?

Mary Dana Hinton
Thank you

Mamta Accapadi
reflection, and I’m so grateful for you have one last question for you. Yeah, I could talk to you for days.

Mary Dana Hinton
We could talk. We chit chatted for a long time before I kind of barreled on conversation. I’m sorry, Mamta.

Mamta Accapadi
You know, it just I mean to to feel this instant that it is such a testament to who you are that on an instant, somebody could feel like they have known you for a lifetime and shows you that as well. Thank you.

Mary Dana Hinton
We were finally lived into our destiny meeting one another? Oh, yes, I

Mamta Accapadi
will receive that for sure. So my last piece is what advice would you you know, you have a lot of student affairs colleagues listening? What advice would you offer? You know, and advice and meditation? What would you offer this group?

Mary Dana Hinton
Wow. So again, I want to start with offering gratitude. Because I don’t mean, people see the work with the deep respect with which it deserves to be seen. You quite literally keep our students alive. You get to articulate learning outcomes, because deep powerful learning happens in that space. And I know it’s hard, it’s harder today, I would argue than it’s ever been. So what I would say to my colleagues is, I see you and I’m just so grateful for you. I’m grateful for every hand you hold for every tear that you wipe, I am I am truly grateful. So that would be the first thing that I would say, and I would say be encouraged. Yeah. You know, sometimes it’s hard to see the power of your work when you’re in the middle of it. If when you’re on a discipline committee is hard to see the power of that work. But every one of those little encounters alters the trajectory of that person’s life. And even if you can’t see it today, when I look back on my life, what stands out are not any big moments, per se. What stands out are those little moments when someone quietly encouraged me when someone says I believe in you. When someone says I think there’s more there. Those are the moments that I draw on and they I have. And so I would encourage our colleagues and friends to just know, you are changing lives and powerful ways every day, every day. And people remember that I remember the people when I was a student, I tell folks, I arrived at Williams College with a curl and a southern accent, those were my two assets that I took to college. And I remember the people who made me feel like I had value. And that’s what our colleagues do every day. So be encouraged. And to each and every one of you, you are enough, just as you are. You are enough.

Mamta Accapadi
Oh, wow, thank you. Again, President Hinton, I can’t think of a better a better way to round out our conversation, I’m gonna have to find a way to have you on the podcast again, and, you know, additional conversations. So, again, your spirit and energy on Student Affairs NOW just you’ve really added to the joy in our space.

Mary Dana Hinton
you bring the joy, you were only as good as the people we surround ourselves with. And you draw light and good and energy, because that’s who you are. And I thank you for that. And I thank you for this opportunity.

Mamta Accapadi
I appreciate you. So as we as we close out, I want to be sure and thank our sponsor Symplicity, Symplicity, we appreciate your support, and a little bit more about Symplicity. Symplicity is a global leader in student services technology platforms with the state of the art technology that empowers students institutions to make data driven decisions specific to their goals. A true partner to the institutions Symplicity supports all aspects of student life, including but not limited to career services, and development, Student Conduct and wellbeing, students access and accessibility services. To learn more, visit symplicity.com or connect with Symplicity on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Much love and a huge shout out to my colleague, Nat Ambrosey, the producer for the podcast who does all of the behind the scenes work to make us look good and sound good. Thank you so much Nat. And friends. If you’re listening today and not already receiving our weekly newsletter, please visit our website at studentaffairsnow.com and scroll to the bottom of the homepage to add your email to our MailChimp list. While you’re there, please be sure to check out our archives. Once again, I’m Mamta Accapadi so much love and gratitude to everyone who is watching and listening. Please make it a beautiful week that honors your soul spirit and ancestral wisdom. Thank you all my friends.

https://www.hollins.edu/who-we-are/our-president-leadership/

https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/articles/the-work-of-moral-imagination

https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2022/08/04/one-university-reimagines-student-affairs-opinion

The Whisper of Dangerous Memory