Meet the Difference Makers - ep000
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Ryan: right, uh, we're recording and here we go.
What's up, my friend? Hey. Welcome to the first episode. I. It's actually like episode 0, 0, 0, I think. Uh, but this is the first episode of Meet the Difference Makers. I am Ryan Koral, and I am so, so excited to have you here. This project has been years in the making, and I'll definitely share more about my own journey as you listen to these episodes.
But right now I just wanna share,
but right now I just want to say, Right now, I just wanna say that my life was changed in higher education in 1998. This was two years after I started my initial college journey, which ended up [00:01:00] being something like six years. And no, I'm not a doctor, but man, I was. Totally lost. I, I was this totally lost kid in 1996 when I graduated.
Um, and, and I felt like I, I was supposed to go to college 'cause that's what all, all of my friends were doing. So I went to this local university. I had very little financial supports, uh, for school from my parents who were divorced. And I was trying to figure life out on my own. And I failed miserably, uh, in, in school.
Uh, I don't, I hope not in life. Uh, my very first semester I walked away with a 1.2 G p a I wasted thousands of dollars. Um, so I needed. To save money. Um, I ended up deciding that going to the local community college would be a great option, and that's where I did even [00:02:00] worse. Yes, I got a point g p a again, uh, I, I was alone and I, I didn't have strong direction.
I didn't have strong direction for my life. Uh, but. After some life-changing events, including a month long mission trip to Peru where my eyes were open to a world that I didn't know existed. Uh, the poverty and the struggle, uh, but the joy that these people, uh, were experiencing, it changed my heart and I also had a lot of time on that trip to reflect and to start seeing a new vision for my own life.
And anyway, I ended up back at that same community college for a semester, and I got a 4.0. Because I had focus and had a vision, and then through a series of crazy events, I ended up meeting the presidents of a little Christian college in metro Detroit called Rochester College. It's Rochester University now.[00:03:00]
Um, I ended up meeting with the presidents and they offered me a full ride scholarship room board, the whole deal. That experience changed the trajectory of my life. It changed everything, and it's how I ended up today as a documentary filmmaker own my own video production business. My first job out of college was working for the enrollment services department at that university, and I really believed that we needed to be sharing our stories with other students.
Parents so that they could understand how lives were being changed there. Uh, how, how my life, uh, was changed. And somehow I convinced my boss to buy me a video camera and a laptop to start filming these stories. This is before YouTube existed, so we had to like, create these videos and put 'em on DVDs and send them to people and eventually storytelling.
Making these [00:04:00] videos, it's all I could think about. So I eventually left that job after a couple years and I started my own video production business, which I've been doing since nine, no, not 19, since 2004. Long time. My team and I have told hundreds of powerful life transforming stories, and it has been such a gift to be working.
Uh, Telling stories, uh, to be doing work that I love so much. We've been working in the education space since the beginning, but it wasn't until somewhat recently where Rochester University, my alma mater, came to me and said, Hey, we've got this donor that wants to do a documentary on Garth Pleasant. Would you be interested in telling this story in this moment?
I had to step back and just think like, oh my gosh. This is all, this is [00:05:00] all full circle because Garth was the basketball coach at Rochester University for almost 40 years. The second most winningest college basketball coach in the state of Michigan, four national titles. The guy had done everything impacted so many young men's lives, impacted the community, was a foundational figure at this university, and I was friends with his son in high school.
I didn't really, I didn't know his dad in high school, but eventually I met his dad. His dad wanted to meet me because he had heard some things about, I was leading a couple of different things and he said, I, I need to meet this young man. So I met Garth, and Garth was impressed with whatever he saw in me, and he said, I need to introduce you to my boss, the president of Rochester College.
So I meet President Ken Johnson. The dude is Epic. Uh, I, I, I had that conversation with, with Dr. Johnson and ended up, At this school where I met my wife and I met my community of friends, and I learned so much about myself and I ended up doing the job [00:06:00] that I'm doing today because this one guy, Garth Pleasant, coach, Garth Pleasant, saw something in me and.
Took a risk, made an introduction and said, we should get this young man here at this school. And so here I am all these years later having built this video business and, and the college says, Hey, would you like to tell the story of Garth? I'm like, are you? Kidding me, this is the guy who changed my life.
And so we tell this story, we create this 35 minute documentary that highlights Garth's legacy. And as we're doing this project, I'm realizing that there's something stirring inside of me. I eventually look at my team and I, I just say like this. What we're doing right here, this is my mission. This feels like a calling to focus on the stories inside of higher education.
And so as a result, we created this startup [00:07:00] called Enroll Films, and my heartbeat with this new brand is to be the storytellers for the difference makers. A guy like Garth Pleasant who has impacted hundreds and probably thousands and thousands of lives to be able to tell those kinds of stories, to create engaging video content that helps schools partner with the right kind of people who align with their heartbeats.
Sign me up all day long. So as an excuse to better understand who is making an impact in this space of higher education and what stories are the ones that need to be told. It just made sense for us to create this show, meet the difference makers. This is the show where we encourage and inspire the people that are working in higher ed, that are pouring everything they've got into students and [00:08:00] their communities.
Uh, I think about my own story and I'm like, man, if the people that were Rochester College weren't there, I, I wouldn't be in this space today where I feel like we're telling some powerful stories and we're helping businesses and schools do things that they couldn't do if they weren't telling their stories.
On this show, I'll be interviewing presidents and campus influencers and really trying to get to the heart of why they do what they do. That is the stuff that changes lives. It's the stuff that creates empathy. So the people that are in this space, that are in the higher ed space, that are making a difference, those are the stories.
Those are the interviews that I'm hoping to have on this show. Thank you for being here. Uh, thanks for listening to my story. If you know a difference maker, In higher ed that we should highlight on this show. Please make an introduction. My email [00:09:00] [email protected], and if you're interested in hearing these epic stories, then hit the subscribe button and we will send the stories right to your inbox.
That's it. I'm grateful for you and here is to being a difference maker.
