Photo Illustrations by Moses S. Achoka ’07, '26 M.A.
Through the University’s Collegiate Academy program, Nevada high school students are earning college credit, building confidence and discovering what’s possible — all before they ever step on campus.
Fifteen-year-old Delaney Rosenbloom is at a point in her life where there is rarely a let-up, with school and extracurricular activities — happily, she notes — filling her days.
Academically, Delaney is moving at an accelerated pace: a little more than a year and a half into high school, she’s already classified as a junior and will graduate from Reed High School in Sparks in June 2027.
In addition to being an honors student, Delaney plays the symphonic alto saxophone, is a member of Reed’s air rifle team, participates in JROTC and, this spring, nabbed the plum role of Regina George in the school’s theater production of the musical “Mean Girls.”
“It is a lot, I know, but I’m enjoying everything about my high school experience,” Delaney said.
Inside the Collegiate Academy experience
That includes her participation in the University’s Collegiate Academy, a concurrent enrollment program that brings university-level coursework into Nevada high schools through partnerships between high school teachers and University faculty.
For Delaney, the program has already shaped how she thinks about her future. She hopes to one day double-major in political science and Spanish and has completed the University’s Spanish 211-212 courses through Collegiate Academy. This year, she’s taking History 102c in a Reed High School classroom, taught by Reed High faculty in partnership with University instructors, alongside other Collegiate Academy students. She receives both college credit and high school credit for the course, while experiencing all of the demands, expectations and standards that are typical of a course taught at the University.
Collegiate Academy courses are taught like regular classes, but there is more curriculum, and they move faster,” Delaney said. “Right now, in History 102c, everything we are working on is building toward one project, a National History Day project. There are about 20 other students in the class. It’s been a great experience to see all of us growing and maturing as we’ve been working together in class.”
Collegiate Academy courses are offered at a reduced cost, and are transferable to all Nevada System of Higher Education institutions and many other colleges and universities nationwide.
From pilot program to statewide impact
The Collegiate Academy program began as part of a broader effort to expand higher education opportunities for Nevada youth. University President Brian Sandoval ’86 (English) has long championed increased access to higher education and signed dual-enrollment legislation during his second term as Nevada governor. The Collegiate Academy initiative took the effort a step further in 2021-22 when two Southern Nevada high schools, Centennial and Cheyenne, began offering college-level courses through the University, taught in their classrooms in collaboration between their faculty and University instructors.
Since then, the Collegiate Academy has grown to 38 Nevada high schools in four school districts — Clark, Washoe, Elko and Lyon — with the participation of more than 7,700 students.
Sandoval likens that beginning to opening a door and says that today, something far greater is occurring: A sense of collaboration and community that has lifted the program’s participation and impact while providing the pathway for higher education that Nevada’s students need.
“Once the students open this door through their participation in the Collegiate Academy, they are learning what it takes to become a college student — even before they ever enroll full time in college,” Sandoval said. “We’ve had tremendous success in offering students at many high schools throughout Nevada the opportunity to complete college credits with reduced tuition.
“But what has really made the program grow so much is how much it has brought our students, our participating high schools and school districts, and our University, together. It is an effort that has united faculties and students at the participating high schools with our advisors, financial counselors and professors as we find these students a low-cost path to a higher education. “It’s not only filling a need; it’s reaffirming a dream for these students. You can and should go to college in Nevada, and this is a path for you to do it.”
Confidence that changes futures
Joe Nannini ’00 (human development and family studies), ’10 Ed.S. (educational leadership), the University’s assistant vice provost for dual credit initiatives, has both a macro- and micro-level perspective on the program. As the program’s director, Nannini has helped University faculty connect with high school teachers as true colleagues, partnering to deliver University courses that carry the same academic standards students encounter on campus.
A former Washoe County teacher and administrator, Nannini also brings an educator’s perspective to the Collegiate Academy. In his current role, he sees the program’s transformational impact on students.
“There was a student from Cheyenne High School who I’m always going to remember,” Nannini said. “She came up to me and said, ‘I have to say thank you. We don’t go to college in my family. This opportunity has allowed me to think differently about going to college and about myself. In my family, no one has ever attended college but now, I know I can do this.’
“Here’s this incredible student, who’s extremely smart, hardworking, who didn’t know if college was going to be something she would be able to do. Now, after taking several Collegiate Academy courses, she’s attending the College of Southern Nevada, studying to be a nurse. This is what it’s all about. The confidence this student gained by taking these courses is an example of one of the most important things we can help students to realize — that they have what it takes to be successful in higher education.”
Nannini says the Collegiate Academy’s greatest strength is in its relationships. “Our incredibly talented teachers, University faculty, school counselors and the school and district administrators are all deeply committed to not just bringing this opportunity to schools, but to supporting and ensuring students have everything they need along the way in order to have a positive and formative first experience in higher education.
“This is a true partnership in education, where the vast content knowledge from University faculty meets the pedagogical expertise from high school teachers. The result is an absolutely fantastic opportunity for Nevada high school students.”
A partnership that works
Michael Flores, the University’s vice president for government and community engagement, views the Collegiate Academy as one of the University’s most important vehicles for building student bodies on the state’s college and university campuses that are better prepared for the challenges of higher education.
“Every week, our faculty is working with the teachers at our Collegiate Academy schools, and there’s this great give and take between them about what’s the best way to teach our curriculum,” said Flores, a Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) veteran who has held posts at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas as well as the NSHE Chancellor’s Office.”
That’s the thing about curriculum. The best practitioners will tell you that it should always be growing and that it should always be innovative. The Collegiate Academy has done that, in a very organic way, through this sort of seamless partnership that our faculty have with the teachers in the classrooms. We’re seeing our professors and our teachers trade ideas, and work together, to better prepare the Collegiate Academy students for what comes next for them.”
Laura (Gault) Willis ’97 (English), principal of Northwest Career and Technical Academy of Las Vegas, which is a Collegiate Academy school, agrees.
“It’s happening because of what the University of Nevada is fostering through this program,” Willis said. “The spirit of working together, collaboratively, is something the University has always done very, very well. Our teachers are in love with their University professors. It’s the University’s curriculum that they’re teaching, but our teachers have a huge say in how it’s being taught. Our teachers give their suggestions, and they’re the type of great suggestions that the professors say they end up using in their own classrooms on campus. You couldn’t ask for better relationships between our school and the University.”
Willis, a University of Nevada alumna, says that in her mind, the Collegiate Academy is a continuation of something she has known for a long time about the University.
“NSHE is making this choice now, and I really need to applaud NSHE for making it, and this is something that the University of Nevada has always done: put the student first,” she said. “I graduated almost 30 years ago, and I can still remember feeling that the student was always first at the University. The faculty was always available to us. This is a very similar thing, and a very similar experience, for our Collegiate Academy students.”
Removing barriers to college access
Willis says her only demand from the program, which more than 500 of her students participate in, is a simple one: more. More 100-level courses. More of the kinds of topics that are already making her school’s students feel more confident in anything they aspire to do.
“We have really high-flying kids, and I want students one day from our school to be my doctors, to be the architects, the engineers, of our cities and our communities,” Willis said. “We had the deans of the School of Medicine and the College of Engineering visit us, and they asked me what we wanted. I told them, we want engineering courses. We want biomedical and kinesiology courses. We want more courses for all of the eight majors we have at our school. We want our kids to be workforce and career ready, and we want them to be college ready.”
For Reed High School principal Josh Rosenbloom ’99 (Spanish) — a University alumnus who also happens to be Delaney’s dad — the Collegiate Academy removes many of the obstacles prospective college students face. Reduced tuition while acquiring college credit, ready access to advisors and faculty, and the confidence students gain as they successfully master college-level course-work add up to what Rosenbloom calls an outcome that feels “almost too good to be true.”
“And here’s the thing,” Rosenbloom said. “It’s true. It’s been a huge success for us.”
Rosenbloom estimates that 20 to 25% of Reed’s student population is participating in the Collegiate Academy, with some students on track to graduate high school having already earned an associate’s degree — without missing out on the full high school experience.
“We’re having great success, and our kids are meeting the challenges and expectations of taking college-level courses,” Rosenbloom said. “The students who are going on to college through the Collegiate Academy are going to college with more college credits.”
Looking ahead: A student’s perspective
For Delaney, her Collegiate Academy experience has furthered her understanding of who she is and what she is capable of achieving. Her interactions with teachers have made her realize she’s in the middle of something that goes far beyond learning.
She points to educators such as Meredith Oda, the Grace A. Griffen Endowed Chair in American History and an award-winning expert on United States 20th-century history, and Jessica Eichstedt ’14 (secondary education) ’19 M.Ed., her History 102 teacher at Reed and the 2023 Nevada History Teacher of the Year.“
We have such a really good atmosphere for communication in the class,” Delaney said. “All of the professors and teachers involved with the classes I’ve taken through the Collegiate Academy are so inspiring and work with the students so well. So of course, you’re going to be enthralled, too, with what they’re teaching. Professor Oda, Mrs. Eichstedt, they’re just amazing. It’s been an incredible experience to be learning in that kind of environment.“
Everything about the Collegiate Academy has been amazing — the classes, the professors, working to get all of these college credits. And for families that are financially challenged, what a great opportunity to take these classes without paying a lot of money. It gives them so many more opportunities and options. I really believe being part of the University is the best part of the Collegiate Academy because this is giving me a leg up for college. I’m taking a lot of the prerequisites for my degree, and I can move into whatever I am interested in as soon as I start college.
“Whatever I want to do, I’ll have the opportunity to do it.”