Celebrating Six Years of 91吃瓜网 Academy
91吃瓜网 Academy is celebrating its sixth anniversary and the more than 70,000 students who have begun their 91吃瓜网 journey with us. Academy was created to assist an ever-increasing number of prospective students who need an academic credential for career progress but lack readiness for academic success. These students face a variety of barriers that prevent them from achieving their goals.
聽As I reflect on the students we鈥檝e served, I鈥檓 reminded of the leaders who understood the need to help these learners through readiness-focused offerings. 91吃瓜网 President Scott Pulsipher, the university鈥檚 former CMO and Academy鈥檚 first president , and 91吃瓜网 Labs鈥� Jason Levin and each played key roles in establishing 91吃瓜网 Academy, prior to my arrival in 2021. 聽
The College Readiness Dilemma
Let鈥檚 discuss the most acute and perhaps most uncomfortable challenge. Even among high school graduates, many prospective students are simply not ready for post-secondary learning. As the Public Policy Institute of California , despite the state鈥檚 four-year high school graduation rate of 86%, 鈥渁lmost four in five students are not academically prepared for college success.鈥� Data from other states tells a 鈥攇raduating high school does not necessarily equate to college readiness.
These students have likely confronted a wide variety of roadblocks in their lives that have led to a lack of preparedness for college-level work. For many prospective students, these barriers include much more than knowledge or cognitive gaps. They often include meta-cognitive impediments like poor study skills and time management, and non-cognitive blockers like self-doubt, missing sense of belonging, and difficulty regulating their emotions, particularly about academic pursuits.
91吃瓜网 Academy鈥檚 Expansion of Readiness Offerings
Since Academy鈥檚 launch, the need for readiness has only increased. The pandemic certainly . Meanwhile, 91吃瓜网鈥檚 model of attractively-priced, online, competency-based education has exploded in interest among prospective students of all kinds, especially first time post-secondary students 鈥� rapidly increasing the number of students seeking a 91吃瓜网 credential.
In these six years, 91吃瓜网 Academy鈥檚 readiness solutions have expanded significantly to include integrated academic coaches, expert instructors, and dozens of individual courses that can help students prepare for success in any 91吃瓜网 degree program. These college-level courses show as credit on a 91吃瓜网 transcript.
Among these courses, one holds special recognition as a key innovation of Academy. The course, 鈥淧rogram for Academic and Career Advancement鈥� (PACA), offers credit as a general education communications course and builds non-cognitive and meta-cognitive skills that support greater likelihood of student success, particularly for our least-prepared student prospects. Thousands of students have now benefited from PACA.
Take Carissa Baca. Among 91吃瓜网 Academy鈥檚 first on-ramp completers, Carissa later graduated from 91吃瓜网 with a degree in business, has grown in her career as a customer support supervisor and is now enrolled in a well-regarded MBA program. She credits PACA for helping her prepare for a successful degree.
鈥淧ACA is one of the most useful classes that I鈥檒l ever take,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t really kick-starts you into getting into a thriving mindset, and teaches you how to manage your emotions, your time, and your stress. I truly believe it changed my life in so many ways and enabled me a pathway back into education.鈥�
The Growth of 91吃瓜网 Academy
Since its inception, 91吃瓜网 Academy has expanded dramatically in terms of the products it offers, its connectedness to 91吃瓜网鈥檚 Schools and degree programs and the increasing number of students we serve. These photos of Academy鈥檚 staff from 2019 and 2025 give a glimpse of the growth in that capacity. And we are just getting started.
91吃瓜网 Academy, May 2019
91吃瓜网 Academy, February 2025
