Delgado enters partnerships with SUNO and Reach University
26th February 2024 · 0 Comments
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
Delgado Community College recently announced articulation agreements with both Reach University and Southern University of New Orleans (SUNO) to allow Delgado students to more quickly attain their bachelor’s degrees after earning their associate’s degrees.
In Delgado’s partnership with Reach, 25 of the community college’s degrees can transfer credits into Reach’s job-embedded liberal studies program with the goal of graduates becoming teachers.
“Right now in Louisiana, we have a desperate shortage for K-12 teachers, so this is an ideal opportunity for our graduates to pursue rewarding careers,” said Dr. Cheryl Myers, vice chancellor for academic and student affairs at Delgado.
Reach University – a California-based non-profit institution – operates differently than a traditional university. Reach employs a job-embedded practice as part of its learning experience, the goal of which is for jobs to lead to degrees instead of vice versa.
“The workplace is our campus,” said Joe Ross, president of Reach University.
Degree seekers will work at a local school while earning a bachelor’s degree in two years or less. They do not have to have a teaching job. They can be working in any job on a school campus. Ross said people in the program work a variety of jobs at schools, ranging from office work to janitorial work to cafeteria work to English language aides to paras. Students will be paid for this work and also participate in online seminars held after work hours and on weekends. Graduates will earn a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies with a concentration in education science.
Education degrees are not required to enroll in the Reach program. “A lot of our students have degrees in fields outside of education,” Ross said.
The other cornerstone of Reach’s approach is making the degree affordable. Ross said a major hurdle for getting people to enter teaching is they are afraid of racking up debt earning the necessary credentials. Reach students applying for financial aid will pay no more than $900 out-of-pocket in a school year. The rest is covered from Pell Grants and philanthropic aid.
“We set it up so it could be affordable for everyone,” he said.
Ross said the program currently focuses on teaching, but Reach may eventually expand its efforts to address the need in schools for mental health and behavioral health professionals.
Local secondary education leaders voiced their approval of the new partnership.
“A challenge in attracting top talent to Jefferson Parish Schools is overcoming the perception of what it’s like to be a teacher,” said Donna Joseph, chief human resources officer at Jefferson Parish Schools, in a press release. “This on-the-job program will provide majors across arts and sciences an up-close understanding of the privilege and reward of being an educator. We are confident that not only will this program create a new talent pipeline for our schools, but will also support more adults in becoming degree-holding leaders in the community.”
“To deliver on the promise of excellent public schools for every child, we must have excellent educators in our classrooms,” said Dana Peterson, chief executive officer at New Schools for New Orleans, in a press release. “As we look to expand new means of recruiting and training educator talent, this job-embedded transfer program offers local schools yet another strategy in filling critical vacancies. I encourage every community college and K-12 school to replicate this model in growing their own specialized and representative teaching talent.”
Reach is currently accepting applications for its job-embedded bachelor’s degree program for the fall 2024 semester.
Delgado’s partnership with SUNO will create the Cybersecurity Degree Pathway. Graduates who earn an associate of applied science in computer information technology or the information security/assurance career and technical certificate may transfer required credits and enroll in SUNO’s bachelor of science in cybersecurity degree program.
“Through this partnership, we are proud to offer a seamless pathway for Delgado’s information technology graduates to pursue further studies and careers in cybersecurity,” SUNO Chancellor James H. Ammons Jr. said in a press release. “We are excited to expand our partnership with Delgado and contribute to the workforce demands in the field of information technology by training future cybersecurity practitioners.”
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states the median salary for information technology professionals is $112,000 and careers in this field are expected to grow 32 percent faster than average careers between now and 2032.
Delgado Chancellor Larrisa Littleton-Steib emphasized lucrative pay offered by cybersecurity careers in her praise of the new partnership.
“Cybersecurity is a rapidly evolving field that provides competitive job opportunities and earnings, and this agreement with SUNO provides a seamless transition for Delgado’s information technology graduates to further their studies and careers,” Littleton-Steib said in a press release.
Myers said the agreements between Delgado and its partners each took about three months to come together. She said Delgado does have plans to pursue additional articulation agreements with SUNO and Loyola University of New Orleans in the near future, but that she was not able to disclose on what fields the future agreements would focus.
This article originally published in the February 26, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
