Reach University

10/02/2026

10/01/2026

👏 Learn. Practice. Do.👏

At the Apprenticeship College of Health (ACH), those three words describe what it looks like when college learning and the workplace come together. Candidates take what they learn in seminars and put it into practice through structured workplace learning. Through the Apprenticeship Degree, they build skills while their work becomes part of their college experience.

Hear Healthcare Training Fund's Director of Behavioral Health Strategy, Melody McKee, explain how “Learn. Practice. Do.” comes to life at ACH.

09/30/2026

🎙️ Two years ago, Dr. Mallory Dwinal-Palisch joined Apprenticeship 2.0 to challenge some of higher ed’s most persistent assumptions about working adults and work-embedded learning. Now, she’s back.

Mallory and President Joe Edelheit Ross have been asking these questions together for much longer. As co-founders of Reach University and the U.S. Apprenticeship Degree, they helped put a different idea into practice: What if earning a degree didn’t require working adults to step away from work?

This time, they take stock of how far the field has come — and where it still needs to go. What have we learned about building education around work? Which long-held assumptions are ready to be challenged? And is higher education willing and able to build pathways that truly work for working adults?

There’s something else new, too: Apprenticeship 2.0 has a fresh look and feel.

New look. New cohost. New episodes. More big questions to explore.

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple and Spotify, and follow along on Substack.

https://reach.edu/podcast

09/24/2026

The Apprenticeship College of Health (ACH) welcomed nearly 25 candidates to the fall semester, including returning candidates from our first cohort and new candidates beginning with our second.

Dr. Metoka Welch, Executive Dean of ACH, greeted candidates as they started the semester. For these working adults, each new semester is another hard-earned step toward obtaining a college degree while continuing to gain on-the-job experience.

Thank you to all of our employer partners with active candidates this fall:

ACTS Behavioral Health and Recovery Center
Alliance Recovery Center, LLC (ARC)
Assessment & Treatment Associates
For the Culture Counseling Services
Lakeside-Milam Recovery Centers
Merit Resource Services
Metropolitan Development Council(MDC)
Northwest Integrated Health
Reach Beyond Counseling & Coaching Services PLLC
Royal Life Centers
Sea Mar Community Health Center (Seattle)
Serenity Atlas Counseling
Skamania County Community Health
The Center for Alcohol & Drug Treatment
Washington Monitoring Behavioral Health
WCHS Inc. - Western Clinical Health Services

09/23/2026

We want to take a moment to recognize our California partner, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, for continuing to find new ways to support the educators already serving their students.

Education Resource Strategies (ERS) recently highlighted Alliance’s work to rebuild school schedules, giving teachers more time for planning, professional development, and collaboration. Across the pilot schools, Alliance has seen stronger teacher retention and improved student outcomes in math and English Language Arts (ELA).

We’re excited to continue growing our relationship with Alliance. After a year of partnering with the Intern Teacher Credential and Master of Arts in Teaching program, credentialed through Alternatives in Action, we’re expanding our partnership to include Reach’s undergraduate program as well.

This next step will give more Alliance employees a pathway to earn a bachelor’s degree while continuing to work and learn in their schools every day.

Thank you to Ani Meymarian and the whole Alliance team for their continued partnership and for all the ways they are investing in the educators who support their students every day.



Reach University is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission. Alternatives in Action is accredited by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Alternatives in Action provides the teacher credentialing programs for Reach candidates in California.

09/22/2026

A warm welcome to one of Reach University’s newest partners, Exalt Academy of Southwest Little Rock, in Arkansas! 👋

Exalt Academy has hit the ground running with six Reachers. Employer Success Lead Venus Torrence recently stopped by to spend time with several of the candidates and hear about their experience so far.

💡First-year Reacher Mario Smith even shared a tip for staying on track with assignments: after evening class, challenge yourself to finish your homework right away, so the material is still fresh!

We’re grateful to Exalt Academy for their partnership, and we are excited to follow these candidates along their Reach journey.

📷 Pictured, left to right: Venus, Keri Whimper, Sarahy Sandoval, Mario Smith, and Lizbeth Fletes.
Not pictured: Cerda Carina and David Cearns.

09/18/2026

With Fall ‘26 in full swing, Reach University seminars are bringing Reachers together to learn, connect, and grow. 🌱

Candidates are settling into new routines, meeting fellow Reachers nationwide, and continuing the work to turn their current jobs into degrees. These virtual classrooms remind us that while candidates may be joining from different workplaces and communities, they’re part of a much larger Reach community.

As the semester continues, candidates have support from faculty, advisors, and fellow Reachers throughout their journey.
Reachers, how are you feeling three weeks into classes? What’s one thing you’ve learned that you’ve already been able to apply at work?

09/17/2026

Community care starts with connection.

Last week, Dr. Metoka Welch, Executive Dean of the Apprenticeship College of Health (ACH), and Mary Ramolete, Manager of Community Partnerships for the Healthcare Training Fund, attended the 10th Annual Wellness Together Conference in San Diego to explore how connection, resilience, and mental health shape the way people learn, work, and care for others.

Integrating wellness into our work deepens the connection to learning and strengthens the support working adults need to balance education, work, and service to their communities.

https://healthapprenticeship.org/

09/15/2026

📣 Reach University is proud to announce the largest private philanthropic investment in its history from Ascendium's Education Philanthropy, expanding Apprenticeship Degrees across Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas.

Ascendium’s investment focuses on five states where education deserts are prevalent. Together, we’ll build one of the first multi-state evidence bases for Apprenticeship Degrees — examining how the model performs across different policy, employer, and labor market environments, and what it takes to scale where barriers to earning a degree are greatest.

Together with recent generous support from Andrew Carnegie Foundation and Schusterman Family Philanthropies, these investments reflect growing confidence in Apprenticeship Degrees as a powerful pathway to upward mobility for working adults.

We’re deeply grateful to our philanthropic partners for investing in greater opportunity for working adults and ushering in a new era of higher education.

If you're interested in advancing Apprenticeship Degrees, join us.