Life After Reach: Donishia Dorsey - What it Means to be Seen
When Donishia Dorsey thinks about her first college experience, she doesn’t hesitate. She was, in her own words, the “unseen and the unadvised”. A proud New Orleans native, Donishia graduated from McDonogh 35 Senior High School and enrolled in Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Like any other eighteen-year-old, she showed up every day and took her classes, but without clear guidance on what she wanted or how to navigate college, she eventually left.
Donishia didn’t return to a classroom until years later, when she was a full-time working mom working in the front office at Audubon Charter School. Initially, the thought of dedicating four years and countless nights and weekends to pursuing her degree wasn’t something she was sure she wanted to commit to. Then her advisor gave her advice that changed her perspective. At the end of their call, her advisor simply said, “Four years will pass either way, Ms. Dorsey. Would you like to have a degree or not?” That was all she needed. She enrolled that night.
Compared to her previous experience, Donishia proudly says that at Reach University she felt “always seen, and always advised.”
Donishia completed the Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies (BA-LS) pathway, a rigorous, work-embedded Apprenticeship Degree designed for front-line employees. The program takes a broad liberal studies approach, with coursework spanning areas like math, computer science, and the science of reading, while giving candidates the opportunity to apply that learning directly in their schools. For Donishia, that meant what she learned in class could immediately inform the work she was already doing at Audubon Charter School - Gentilly. Lessons from her evening seminars helped inform conversations with teachers the next day, and her position also helped her connect classroom practice with school-wide decisions and data.
“What I thought was going to be a hiccup became the very thing that made me a school leader,” she said.
Dorsey finished her final class at Reach University in December 2024, serving as a commencement speaker for the Class of 2025. Today, she is a Network Data Manager at FirstLine Schools, where she supports a network of four New Orleans schools. She’s also a graduate student at Louisiana State University pursuing a Master of Arts with a concentration in Higher Education Administration. Her former Reach professor, now Provost & Chief Academic Officer Dr. Anastasia Wickham, continues to mentor her. Donishia now hopes to build a career in educational leadership, helping others avoid what she once experienced in college.
“I want to find the unseen and the unadvised,” she said, “so that they can be seen and advised.”
For Donishia, life after Reach isn't simply about earning a degree. It is about knowing she belongs in the room, and helping someone else believe the same.