How Oklahoma adults can go back to college and finish a degree through Reach Higher

Adults in Oklahoma who started college but didn’t finish now have a second chance to earn their degree. The Reach Higher program, managed by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, offers flexible classes, scholarships, and personal support for working adults ready to return to school.

Tisha Bradford, manager of the Reach Higher program, explains how the program works and how to get started.

What is the Reach Higher program?

“Reach Higher is a statewide degree completion program. So that's the best part about it. You can go anywhere in the state. And it's for adults who've gone to college, but for some reason you had to stop out, and now you want to go back and complete that degree.”

“So this program is dedicated to those individuals. It helps those individuals who we know now have additional responsibilities now. So it's those individuals who have work. They now have to deal with family obligations. So now they're needing to go back, and they're needing a little bit more support to do so. So the Reach Higher program helps them with that.”

What kind of support does the program offer?

“Each one of our institutions that have the program, we have a dedicated navigator for this program. So we have someone who is your initial point of contact. When you walk in the door, they are the first person that you speak to, and they kind of guide you from A to Z.”

“So they guide you from where to park on day one and where do I park when I pick up my diploma.”

“They really help them with finding scholarships, which we have a dedicated scholarship for our program called the Finish Line Scholarship.”

“But we also assist them with any type of community resource that they may need. We also assist them with getting access to the courses of course, but they also have options for flexible courses that can occur evenings, weekends, online, things of that nature that will fit around that busy work schedule.”

Who qualifies for Reach Higher?

“So it is just an associate's or a bachelor's, and they would have to attend one of the 27 participating schools across the state, which are on our website.”

“And on our website, you can see all of the institutions that participate, as well as the degree programs that they like to highlight, and the contact person for that amazing navigator I was talking about. Their information is right on the website, so they can reach out to them directly.”

How can someone apply or learn more?

“ReachHigherOK.org is our direct website. They can reach out there. Actually, once they go onto the website, you can fill out an application on the website.”

“But also, if you go and hover over the Direct Complete banner, there's a nice little button at the bottom that says free student interest form.”

“And when they fill out that form, what I love about it, it goes directly to myself and to the navigator at whichever institution they choose. And I reach out to them almost instantly and say, congratulations, I saw you, you're going back to school, let's do this, and here are the next steps.”