The idea for this special issue came from editor Tom Abeles, when he became aware of the Student Needs 2025 study. Hines has submitted a piece to the journal that referenced the study, and Abeles suggested putting together a special issue. The special issue briefly highlights the scenarios in the six areas of student life explored in the report: living, learning, working, playing, connecting, and participating. These pieces are each authored by a student involved in the original research. Each piece follows a standard format to ease navigation and enable comparison. The baseline and an alternative future of each of the six topics are briefly highlighted, along with drivers, connections to other topics, and implications. The "connections to other topics" was included to show the inter-connections of student needs and lives, which was a key finding of the project.