Learning about rural apprenticeship programs and how they might work in places like Blanding, Utah with Inside Higher Ed reporter Sara Weissman

I’m currently learning more about San Juan County, Utah and I’m focusing on the town of Blanding. In this episode I chat with Sara Weissman to learn more about her recent story on rural apprenticeships for Inside Higher Ed (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/alternative-credentials/2026/05/26/rural-opportunity-through-apprenticeship). Sara shares a bit about her background and what brought her to her current role as a journalist (it includes a big thanks to an 8th grade English teacher!). We talk about how Sara decides to pursue stories like this one, which is part of a larger series on apprenticeships, and the importance of actually showing up in rural communities to meet with people face-to-face, of building trust, and of being curious. Sara shares what surprised her from her reporting (a program doesn’t need to be big to have a big impact), the lessons learned about designing effective programs (the programs can’t just be an add-on to a full-time job, there needs to be intentional integration and thoughtful flexibility from all sides), and the tremendous potential of these programs if colleges are willing to step up. Sara asks a very thoughtful question regarding the work I am doing as Dean that I really appreciated and we end, as always, with the Road Trip Music Question.

Podcast music: “A Happy Day” by codemusic, http://www.jamendo.com, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/