I love this time of year. A new academic year means the opportunity for a new beginning, or at minimum the chance to reflect and reset. When the calendar flips to August, I am reminded why our work matters and why finding and maintaining connections with each other across our industry is so important. It’s a season of new beginnings: new professionals entering the field in their first full-time role, students searching for purpose and meaning, and established practitioners and scholars recommitting themselves to a profession that continues to rapidly evolve.
This year, those feelings of new beginnings are especially meaningful for ACPA. On July 1, we officially began offering complimentary membership to undergraduate and Master’s students, and I couldn’t be more excited to welcome these new members into our community. Members of the Leadership Council and International Office have been overwhelmed by the interest and enthusiasm we have experienced from new members in the just the first few weeks of this offering, and we could not be more pleased with how the ACPA community is blossoming. If you know an undergraduate or Master’s students who have not joined yet under our complimentary membership offer, I hope you will share this website with them to learn more and sign-up: https://myacpa.org/join/free/
To those new undergraduate and Master’s students who are joining ACPA for the first time, welcome. We’re genuinely glad you’re here. Some of you are considering whether higher education is the career for you. Others are already deeply engaged in graduate preparation programs and are eager to learn, connect, and grow. Wherever you are in your journey, my hope is that ACPA becomes more than just an association you belong to. I hope it becomes a community that challenges you, supports you, introduces you to lifelong colleagues, and reminds you why this work matters – even on the days when higher education feels especially complicated.
And let’s be honest—it is a complicated time. That is exactly why professional community matters now more than ever. One of ACPA’s strategic priorities is ensuring that our association remains accessible, relevant, and responsive to the people who make higher education possible. Offering complimentary membership to undergraduate and Master’s students is one way we’re investing in the future of our profession by removing financial barriers to engagement and creating earlier opportunities for students to develop professionally, build networks, and discover the value of active participation in a professional community.
But investing in the future doesn’t mean focusing only on those entering the profession.
One of the conversations I’ve had most often over the past year is about how ACPA can better support members throughout their entire careers. What does meaningful membership look like for a first-year graduate student? For a new professional? For a faculty member? For someone leading a division of student affairs? For a vice president/provost or dean, seasoned scholar, or retired professional who still has so much wisdom to share? Those questions matter because our members’ needs change over time—and ACPA must continue evolving alongside them.
That’s why we are intentionally examining how we create value across every career stage. We’re expanding opportunities for professional learning, leadership development, mentoring, scholarly engagement, and meaningful connection. We are working to think differently about how we engage senior-level leaders and experienced professionals whose perspectives are essential to shaping both our association and the future of higher education. We are also well-aware that today’s new professionals are tomorrow’s senior-level leaders.
One of the things I’ve always appreciated most about ACPA is that our greatest resource has never been our programs or publications. It’s our people. It’s the faculty member who encourages a graduate student to attend their first convention. The mid-level professional who volunteers to mentor someone navigating their first job search. The senior student affairs officer who shares lessons learned after decades of leadership. The researcher whose scholarship helps practitioners think differently about their work. The colleague who simply checks in and reminds someone that they belong.
Those relationships are what make ACPA special.
As we continue implementing our strategic priorities, my hope is that ACPA becomes an even stronger professional home – one where people find community, develop as leaders, contribute new knowledge, and remain engaged throughout their careers. Whether someone joins us as an undergraduate student this month or has been a member for thirty-plus years, there should always be new opportunities to learn, lead, and make a difference.
ACPA has always been at its best when multiple generations of educators learn alongside one another. That is how we strengthen our profession. That is how we support student success. And that is how we ensure that our association continues to thrive for years to come. I’m excited about where we’re headed together, and I’m grateful that you’re part of the journey. I’ll close this message with a toast on the eve of the new academic year.
Cheers to our newest student members, whose curiosity, passion, and fresh perspectives will help shape the future of our profession.
And here’s to our longtime members, faculty colleagues, researchers, senior leaders, and retired professionals, whose mentorship, scholarship, leadership, and generosity continue to strengthen this community every day and year after year.
Together, you are the very best of ACPA: a community where every career stage has something to learn, something to teach, and something meaningful to contribute. Cheers to you, to us, to the year ahead, and to all we’ll accomplish together.