Always a Teacher, Finally Certified: Kasey Dvorak’s Reach Journey

Kasey Dvorak earned her Bachelor of Arts in Global Education through Reach University. She currently teaches first grade at Crawford Elementary, the same school where she worked as a paraprofessional for six years.

Kasey Dvorak doesn't have a single moment she can point to when she knew she wanted to teach. She just always has. She still laughs when she thinks back to her first experiences as a kid. She loved teaching basketball to anyone and anything that would listen; no other kids required. When her stepsister came in from outside, she would regularly ask if Kasey was okay. Kasey's answer was simple: "I was just teaching” she would chuckle. She still laughs about it.

Her natural instinct to teach others has followed her throughout her life.

She spent years working in schools, getting as close to her dream of teaching as she could, which for a while looked like working in the local special education preschool. When a parent of one of her students turned out to run the district's special education department, a paraprofessional job followed. The job was exactly what she needed at the time. Her new work schedule matched her daughter's school schedule, and the work matched who she was: an educator. She landed at Crawford Elementary, where she spent six years as a paraprofessional before someone in Human Resources told her about Reach University's Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies (BAGE) program. Her reaction was immediate: "I'm doing it (educating students) all the time anyway, so let's finish what I've always wanted to do."

Kasey tried the traditional college route twice before. The first time, right out of high school, life got in the way, and she didn't finish the semester. The second time, she was a single mom and couldn't balance campus schedules, a full-time job, and parenting. Reach's Apprenticeship Degree worked differently, with evening seminars via Zoom, and the classroom experience required for graduation was built into the job she was already doing. "My daughter’s four years of high school were my four years in Reach," she said of her daughter. "I could sit on a Zoom call and still watch her game. I couldn't do that at other colleges."

Zoom seminars. Affordable tuition on a para's salary. A program built for people already working in schools, where the job itself counts toward credit. "I thought it sounded too good to be true," she said with a shy smile. "But it wasn't. It was just awesome."

The year Kasey graduated from Reach, her daughter graduated from high school. Her daughter is now in her first year of college. Kasey thinks that watching her push through the program's hard nights had something to do with it. "Seeing that her mom could do it showed her that she can push through, too," Kasey said.

What she describes about Reach’s model isn't just about convenience; it's about taking the ideas shared in an evening seminar one day and implementing them the next day in the classroom. She'd hear about a math game in her evening class and bring it into the classroom the next morning to apply it, learn from it, and assess the students' reactions. Her mentor teacher let her run with ideas. That direct feedback loop shaped how she understands not just what she's teaching but why. "As a para, you go in with what your teacher gives you," she said. "As the teacher, you get to dive into the curriculum and the standards. You understand the ‘why’."

Her cohort reflected that same approach. She connected with candidates and professors from across the country, people with perspectives that were different from those in her local community, and found the dynamic more genuine than anything she'd experienced before. Professor Audrey Baker still stands out to her. "She was just real and honest," Kasey said. "She gave the most professional criticism to help you grow in the right ways." There are a number of professors she still keeps in close touch with.

Kasey has just completed her first year as a lead teacher at Crawford Elementary, the same school where she spent six years as a paraprofessional. She didn’t have to start over. She already knew the building, the staff, and in some cases, the students.  Several of the kids she taught this past year had been in her mentor class the year before, so some of the relationships were already in place. "I really do feel like that relationship between students and teachers is what sets the foundation for so much more growth," she said. Her credential was new, but the trust she had already formed with the school staff and students wasn’t. The transition still catches her sometimes. "Whenever you're sitting in that room with all the students, and it's like, 'Wow, I really did do all these things to be sitting here, and I really am the teacher,'" she said.

She's in her late 30s and works alongside first-year teachers in their early 20s. Even now, Kasey tells everyone she can about Reach University. "It doesn't matter where you're at in life," she said. "Reach University really does meet you where you are, which is what we try to do as teachers all the time with our students."