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President Brian Sandoval: Welcome back, Wolf Pack Family. I'm your host Brian Sandoval, a proud graduate and the president of the University of Nevada. More than 7,000 high school students across Nevada are now part of our Wolf Pack Family thanks to the growing Collegiate Academy program. From Japanese language to chemistry to environmental science and beyond, students are taking the same college courses taught on our campus in their high school classrooms. Our Collegiate Academy scholars are realizing their potential for success in college and discovering that higher education is within their reach.   

Our guest today is Joe Nannini, the director of dual credit initiatives at the University. He's responsible for providing leadership and support to all stakeholders in The University's dual-credit efforts, including the University of Nevada Collegiate Academy. His experience in K-12 education as a teacher and a school administrator, combined with his work teaching and leading clinical experiences for the College of Education and Human Development, gives him a unique perspective on both the K-12 and higher education sides of the dual-credit equation.  

Today's podcast is being recorded in the @One Studios recording studio of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center. Joe – and I can call you Joe because we've known each other for a long time. I'm so thrilled about the path that our university is providing for students, and I cannot wait to dive into our conversation. So welcome. 

Joe Nannini: Well, thanks for having me. It's great to be here. 

Sandoval: Yeah. So let's dive right in. To kick off, can you tell our listeners just what is the Collegiate Academy program? 

Nannini: Sure. So, the Collegiate Academy program is a dual-credit program, which means that students in the program take university classes in their high school classrooms, taught by high school teachers who partner with university faculty. The credits that they earn at the University are also matched by graduation credits that they earn for high school in the same course.  

Sandoval: So to teach one of those classes in the high school, you have to meet certain requirements, correct? 

Nannini: Sure, absolutely. 

Sandoval: And what could those be? I mean, essentially those faculty members in the high schools are vetted by the University.  

Nannini: Sure. The teachers in the high schools generally are going to be recommended by their principal, and we put a lot of weight into that. Nobody knows their teachers better than their principal. We also have them send us their resumes, and our faculty then approve the teachers that are going to be working in our courses.  

Sandoval: And not only are they well qualified, but obviously, they know how best to teach our classes to high school students. 

Nannini: Oh my gosh, yes. And that's the beauty of this whole situation – our professors and our course coordinators bring a fantastic amount of course content knowledge and knowledge from the fields, where our high school teachers match that with pedagogical expertise. They are absolutely experts in teaching students in that sort of developmental age range. 

Sandoval: So I see it as just a three for, I'll just say that it's just so positive because you get the expertise and knowledge of the University faculty, as you mentioned, you get the pedagogy of the high school faculty and then you put those together and suddenly students get an amazing experience.  

Nannini: Absolutely. It's a really beautiful relationship that's been developing, and one of the things, as an educator, that makes me really proud is that we're starting to actually see some of these teaching techniques that our faculty at the University are learning from their colleagues in the high schools. They're starting to implement some of those techniques in our courses on campus, actually.  

Sandoval: So let’s jump into the mission of the Collegiate Academy. We are creating access for students and working to increase the college-going rate for all students across Nevada. What does this mean for the future of education in our state and beyond? 

Nannini: Sure. So I believe that programs and the success of programs like the Collegiate Academy demonstrate the value of collaboration between our PreK-12 school districts and higher education institutions across the state. I think working together with our school district partners to make college more accessible for Nevada students and families is perhaps the most impactful thing that we can do to make serious progress on the college-going rate in Nevada.  

I think that we can look at this challenge, and it's a complex challenge. We can look at it, at accessibility from a lot of different angles. We could talk about financial accessibility, and across Nevada and some communities, that could be geographical accessibility. The idea of going to college may be a stretch for a lot of Nevada students because maybe nobody in their family or their greater circle has a lot of college experience, and it can seem intimidating and expensive and sort of far-fetched. But one of the things that I love about this work is that we get to help address this issue directly. We bring Nevada educators together across the state. We have so much we can learn from each other related to building these connections with students that help them to perhaps flip that paradigm and consider that college isn't out of reach. But in a lot of cases, it's right around the corner.  

Sandoval: Let's talk about this, and maybe I should have asked this sooner, but it's affordable. For many of these students, the local school districts cover the cost of the class, and I believe it's $120. 

Nannini: $100. 

Sandoval: A hundred dollars for the class overall to take a three-credit class, for example. And some of our school districts, like Clark County School District, and I'm not sure about Washoe County, but they cover that cost. So, the students are taking the classes for free.  

Nannini: Yes. In Washoe County School District specifically, this is at zero cost to students. And I think that that's an incredible opportunity because these students are taking 100- and 200-level classes and a lot of those classes, that they take when they get to the University, they're just getting used to college. They're getting used to living on their own in a lot of cases. They're getting used to all the things that happen when you're a freshman in college. I believe that these students, when they do get to a higher education institution because of the experiences they've had – having high school teachers teach these classes, they're going to be extremely well prepared once they get here. 

Sandoval: No, and you anticipated my question. The other benefit of these Collegiate Academy classes is – and I say it over and over again when I visit the schools – you are a University of Nevada student. You are taking a course that is no different than if you were sitting in a seat in Reno. But the question I'm about to ask –  and you touched on that – is after they've taken those classes, and if they choose to come to our University or any university, they're better prepared and ready to go, correct? 

Nannini: Oh my gosh, yes. Absolutely. One of the things that we see – and you hear it all the time – is that we want students to be better writers, and specifically writing goes across all of the disciplines. One of our biggest classes that we offer in the program are composition classes – English 101 and English 102. And what I've heard from students in the program is that, and teachers as well, is that they had no idea that they could write to the levels that they're writing by the time that they're done with these classes. So having a student with that sort of a skillset coming to our University or anywhere is such an advantage for those students. 

Sandoval: And another thing that you mentioned is that confidence that a lot of them come into those classes, and they're a little scared. It's a college class, and then they realize they can do the work, and then the level of work that they're doing just, is really a benefit for them. Correct? 

Nannini: Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely. I am always talking about how confidence is really the core of what we're doing and what we're teaching. For a lot of students when we talk about accessibility, that's one of the biggest hurdles to sort of overcome is can I do this? Is college for me? There's a student that I met with at one of our high schools down in Las Vegas, Cheyenne High School. We were down there visiting teachers and talking with students, and she came up to us and she said, “Thank you for bringing this opportunity and letting me be a part of the program.” And then what she said next is, to your point, I don't know that I'll ever forget, she said, “Before UNR came to my school, I thought that college was for somebody else. We don't go to college in my family.” And then she goes but, and she cracked a huge proud smile and she goes, “I've already earned 15 credits and now I know I can do this.” That's what it's all about, right there. 

Sandoval: And in terms of some of these high schools, these students didn’t have access to college courses. So, I call it Land-Grant 2.0. Our mission is to go where the students are and provide them opportunities and access. And many of the schools didn't even have a dual-credit program. 

Nannini: Absolutely. We are in, I believe, 10 or 11 Title I high schools down in Las Vegas. Nine of which didn't have any dual-credit opportunities at all for their students. And you kind of touched on something that's very important to me as an educator as well. As we meet and partner with these K-12 school districts, one of the things that I’m proud that we do here at the University, and something that has been a hallmark of PreK-12 education for years and years, is meeting the student where they are. It's looking at the whole student as an individual and recognizing their specific needs and potential barriers in order to better connect with them. Because it is the connections that we make with students that make the biggest difference. Whether it's making it through high school or taking any of our classes in the program or once they come to the University, it's the relationships with people that help students persist through their degrees. 

Sandoval: So some skeptics have said, “Oh, come on, that's not the same class. It's got to be easier in high school than it is at the University.” That’s flatly untrue. 

Nannini: Absolutely. We offer 38 different classes in the Collegiate Academy, and they're the same courses as are taught [at] the University. It's the same curriculum; it's the same material; it's the same assessments. And then we assess these courses in student progress using the same student learning objectives and the same kind of metrics that we do on campus. And one of the things that I'm really proud about is that we also compare how students do generally in our courses in the Collegiate Academy program with what students do on campus in those same courses. And sort of a pride point of mine is that our students in the Collegiate Academy program for the most part, match just about where our students perform on campus. And in a couple areas, they actually outperform some of our students on campus. So I think that's a big deal. 

Sandoval: That is a big deal. That’s incredible. So one of the amazing aspects of this program is the relationships created between the University faculty and high school teachers. So how do they work together and how has that strengthened our courses? I know you talked a little bit about that. 

Nannini: Sure. Our courses are strengthened because we are learning from each other. Our UNR faculty and the teachers within the discipline that they work in meet weekly. In education, we call them Professional Learning Communities or PLCs. It’s that relationship to where when they meet in these meetings, they're talking about the curriculum that happened last week, the instruction that happened last week, and what went well and what were the challenges. They talk about what's coming up in the next couple weeks. They talk about the current research in the field and trends that are occurring right now in the field. And that's what's so cool about having our faculty work with teachers is that they are extremely up to date to the minute about what's going on in the field and all the cool things that are happening in research. So it's the things that we learn from each other that really sort of make this program work. 

Sandoval: And typically our faculty meet with the high school faculty every week and they meet via Zoom. And so you could have, for example, in the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, a teacher from Foothill, a teacher from Coronado, a teacher from another high school and then all of them are comparing notes with each other as well as the faculty on our campus. 

Nannini: Absolutely. Like I was saying earlier, I believe that if we look to the future and what's going to really make a difference in our state, it is that collaboration. And so in this program, it's pretty cool to see teachers who are in Elko County working together with teachers that are in Clark County and Lyon County and Washoe County. That doesn't happen very often. And I believe that if we're looking at the goals of increasing the college-going rate across the state and engaging with students, all of us have sort of niche expertise. And the people who are teaching up in Elko County may do things a little bit differently than those in Vegas. And it's those differences, and it's those opportunities that we have to connect that are really going to help us together to come together to address all of the issues. 

Sandoval: This model is new. Correct? And I think we have gone from a few hundred students three years ago to over 7,000 students. I think we started in two schools and now we're in 36 schools statewide. But I think we have really struck on something unique and successful that really is benefiting our students in the future of Nevada. Is there anything similar nationally that you're aware of? 

Nannini: Sure. I mean, dual-credit programs have been around for a while. This sort of model of concurrent enrollment, which is what we do in the program where high school teachers teach the University courses is fairly new to Nevada. It's programs like this – that are a little bit outside the box that are a little bit different, then sort of what we've done in education that I believe are really going to change things across our state. It's the willingness of school districts and higher education institutions to work together to address the issues that we face. It's no secret that the college going rate in Nevada needs some work, and it's not going to be one university. It's not going to be one college; it's not going to be one school district that does this on their own. It's that we have to work together as an educational system in Nevada. 

Sandoval: And you mentioned that young lady who had accomplished 15 credits, but many of those students – some of them, I should say – are finishing high school with a year of college completed, correct? 

Nannini: Yeah, absolutely.  

Sandoval: Yeah. 

Nannini: Absolutely. 

Sandoval: So we're going to shift gears here and pivot a little bit. I could talk for hours about the dual-credit program, and I'm really proud of it. It wouldn't be the success that it is without you. 

Nannini: Thank you.  

Sandoval: And your personal commitment and your passion to help students just is overwhelming. And again, for me, it's the essence of what I call The Wolf Pack Way and serving others. But just on a personal note, I know you have a great fondness for this University. In fact, you even served as the alumni council president. What does the University mean to you? 

Nannini: Oh my gosh, it means a great deal. This University has given me a strong platform upon which I've been able to build a really rewarding career in education. I met my wife, Katie, here, and to this day, I have friendships all over the world – and I speak with them often. That I met these people as an undergraduate living in the dorms in White Pine Hall – may it rest in peace. So it's like anybody who goes to school here or went to school here in the past, we all have a visceral and personal connection to this campus. All the formative experiences that we've had here have helped us, sort of shaped us into the people that we are today. This University is home to me, and I just love it here. 

Sandoval: I couldn't have said it better. So unfortunately, that is all the time we have for this episode of Sagebrushers. Thank you for joining us today, Joe.  

Nannini: Thank you very much.  

Sandoval: Join us next time for another episode of Sagebrushers as we continue to tell the stories that make our university special and unique. Until then, I'm University President Brian Sandoval – and go Pack.