Speaker: Ryan Barone (he/him), AVP Student Success, Colorado State University
One piece of advice I’d share with a first-time SSHE attendee…
Ryan Barone (he/him): I really encourage folks to follow up with presenters after sessions to ask questions and exchange contact info, and then actually do that follow up afterwards and send an email to folks to continue to expand your network and to deepen your learning.
What are you most looking forward to at SSHE 2025?
Ryan Barone (he/him): If you like big fancy hotels, then you're in for a treat. I do not. And so what I am most looking forward to is just really connecting with colleagues across the country, across the continent and world, hopefully, but also colleagues from my campus. If you're lucky enough to go to folks from the same college or the same university, I'd strongly encourage you to meet before, come up with a plan to meet at the conference, and then most importantly to meet after to explore and exchange your takeaways.
How has SSHE helped you establish a sense of belonging with other attendees?
Ryan Barone (he/him): As an introvert, I love the app and the ability to connect electronically with other attendees to help facilitate my sense of belonging.
Welcome to Denver, Colorado!
Ryan Barone (he/him): As somebody who is smart enough to move from New York to Colorado in 2002, I'm excited to welcome you to now my home state and the city of Denver where you will get a lot of sun. I hope you drink a lot of water and I think most importantly, I hope that you feel that when you travel to Denver and to Colorado, that your identities, that your body, that your gifts are seen are validated during these really complicated and uncertain times. I'm committed to working to help make that be the case. So we welcome you to Colorado.
