When the morning bells ring at Mountain View Elementary School, Susan Allsup-Cotten, ‘09 BA Criminal Justice, walks into her classroom. To her students, she probably looks the same: warm, caring and calm. But for Susan, everything is changing. After working as a substitute teacher for over a decade, she’s now on the path to becoming a licensed teacher with an advanced degree- all without ever leaving her family and community in Elko. 

When Mark Farthing steps into his fifth-grade classroom at Mamie Towles Elementary in Reno, Nevada, he’s not just leading a lesson—he’s living a new calling. A former marketing and technology manager, Mark made a bold mid-career switch into education through the Nevada Forward Graduate Apprenticeship Program, and today, he’s seeing the real-time impact of that decision every day in his classroom.

“I didn’t know programs like this existed.” That was Cristal Villalpando’s first reaction when she learned about UNLV’s Nevada Forward Undergraduate Apprenticeship Program. This pathway would allow her to become a licensed elementary teacher without quitting her job, relocating her family from Elko, or taking on student loans.