top of page

Another Degree

Going higher in higher education

Supporting the next generation of scholars through
Mentorship • Community • Innovation • Opportunity

Another Degree exists to transform how learners discover, prepare for, and thrive in advanced degree pathways and beyond. We envision a world where every student - regardless of background, institution, or geography - has access to the mentorship, structured support, and experiential learning opportunities that shape confident, capable, career‑ready scholars across all fields.

Gemini_Generated_Image_9nn93n9nn93n9nn9_edited.jpg

What is Another Degree?

​We operate as:

  • A mission‑driven organization supporting learners across the full spectrum of graduate and professional school journeys

  • A curated collective of mentors, educational technologists, and curriculum designers providing accessible, scalable support for learners and institutions
  • A community of practice and inquiry evaluating emerging tools, trends, and best practices in post‑graduate education and preparation
fb54498e-78b4-4a9d-b0cd-ad4980748729.png

Another Degree is a hybrid model - part platform, part consortium, part community - designed to support learners and institutions through a shared‑services approach.

 

This structure allows us to support individual learners with personalized guidance, collaborate with higher education institutions on programs, and provide accessible content and curriculum for broad communities of learners.

How does it work?

Another Degree offers an alternative to fragmented consulting markets and expensive in‑house academic program development. Our model functions somewhat like a record label or talent agency for higher education - pairing academic program developers with a curated collective of exceptional mentors, curriculum designers, and educational technologists to deliver scalable, accessible online programming and student support.

​

This structure allows us to adaptively serve individuals and institutions through a modular suite of program offerings and the co‑creation of custom programs, specialist teams, and learning experiences tailored to your needs. Through iterative deployment and assessment, the model continually learns, adapts, and develops best‑practices.

​

Here are some examples of the kinds of programs we can offer your students - or customize for your institution:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Early Exposure Programs for Undergraduates

  • Entry to Inquiry one‑week bootcamp

  • Research Revealed quarter‑ or semester‑long program

  • Saturday academies and speaker series

Graduate & Professional School Pipeline and

Preparation

  • Thesis and capstone support programs

  • Honors seminars

  • Advanced degree exploration and application development

Support for Current Graduate Students & Advanced Undergraduates

  • Workshops on emerging research and productivity technologies

  • Careers for researchers proseminar and speaker series

Small‑Group Mentoring: support for learners with shared interests or identities, including: first‑generation, low‑income, transfer, non‑traditional, parenting, international, minoritized racial or ethnic groups, and neurodivergent learners

Experiential Learning & Course Modules

  • Blending research and mentorship with industry, community‑based learning, or study‑abroad 

  • Curriculum design integrating agile methodologies, real‑world workflows, and collaborative structures for research and project-based learning

Supplement your existing programs and student support with

  • Discount packages for mentorship, online communities, flash classes and workshops

  • Guest speakers and panelists 
     

Our model is a response to challenges we have witnessed and experienced first hand across the higher education landscape.

Undergraduates face:

  • Limited or inequitable preparation for post‑graduate pathways

  • Courses disconnected from real‑world experience and research practice

  • Increasingly competitive access to mentored learning and research opportunities

  • Difficult choices - and inequitable access - across high‑impact experiences (research, internships, community engagement, study abroad, entrepreneurship)

  • Limited scaffolding and curricular integration for experiential learning

  • Personal guidance that isn’t always available when they are and when they need it most

​​​

Graduate and professional school aspirants face:

  • Unclear pathways to and through advanced degrees

  • A rapidly expanding array of post‑graduate program options

  • Vast differences between programs across countries and fields

  • Difficulty assessing financial cost, benefits, and funding options

  • Few opportunities for experiential learning or guidance after graduation

  • Poor or misleading advice from social media, “study influencers,” and sales‑driven consultants

Current post-graduate students face:

  • Insufficient scaffolding as they progress through programs, especially doctoral programs

  • Uneven mentorship and inconsistent departmental support

  • A rapidly evolving landscape of technological and AI tools

  • Limited exposure to and preparation for diverse career options

​​​

Higher education institutions and faculty face:

  • Pressure to prepare students for careers without sacrificing academic training and rigor

  • Logistical barriers to curriculum innovation and hands‑on learning

  • Competition between experiential learning units for students and resources

  • Fragmented co‑curricular and career readiness efforts that duplicate work and dilute impact

  • Resource‑ and personnel‑intensive programs that serve few students and are difficult to scale or sustain long term

  • Few incentives or training structures for high‑quality mentorship - and an underrecognized burden on those who provide it

  • Pressure to improve time to degree in academic graduate programs

  • A growing need to prepare doctoral graduates for careers beyond academia

What motivates Another Degree ?

What challenges can Another Degree address?

We hope our work can positively transform higher education for individuals and institutions in the following ways:

For individuals: 

  • Access to resources, insider knowledge, and programs not available in all schools or countries

  • Early exposure to broad post-graduate pathways and career possibilities

  • Accessible inquiry-based experiential learning 

  • Clearer connections between research skills and work skills

  • Scaled support for learners with special challenges

  • Personalized guidance available online around their busy schedules

  • Support and opportunities for graduates who missed out on the resources that prepare learners for graduate and professional school pathways

illustrated student on zoom - no background.png

For institutions: 

  • Under-resourced or budget-strapped departments and schools can support students with cost-effective programming and mentorship packages

  • Pipelines to graduate education that foster access for diverse scholars

  • Serve more students and attain program grants without adding to personnel headcount or facilities expenses

  • Through programs, experiential learning, and mentorship, students gain more satisfaction, confidence, career clarity and readiness, which supports retention and career placement outcomes

  • Career preparation that complements and elevates the university’s role in knowledge production

  • Less program duplication and internal competition for resources

  • Improved time to degree for graduate students - which translates to higher program rankings and the ability to admit more students

Who's behind Another Degree?

Founder and Director Kelly Kistner, Ph.D. brings over two decades of experience in academia and higher education along with a professional background spanning work in federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, research and policy, technology, and talent acquisition.​

  • Ph.D. in Sociology (University of Washington) with an undergraduate background in Business Administration

  • Over 9 years as a faculty member, academic administrator, and program director at UCLA

  • Experience in curriculum re-design and innovation for course based research experiences (CURE)

  • Experience leading project-based learning (PBL) integrating project management tools and agile methodologies in the classroom 

  • Research publications in the history and sociology of knowledge production, as well as student personal development and career readiness outcomes from undergraduate research experiences​

Who else is on board?

  • Our inaugural collective of mentors and instructors includes 30 accomplished professionals in their fields

  • It includes professors from the likes of Stanford and Northwestern, CEOs, entrepreneurs, college leadership, best-selling authors, even a crime writer and a rocket scientist

  • Most are from top-tier universities, many have scored prestigious fellowships and grants (Fulbright, McNair, NSF, NIH), all believe in the value of mentorship

  • Many others are ready to come on board and we're currently working on an AI facilitated mentor-matching quiz

How do I get started?

Institutions
We're currently seeking early-stage partners for program development and fiscal sponsorship.

  • Commission Another Degree to create an original and non-exclusive program offering for your students and receive revenue share for every additional institution or student who signs up

  • Schedule a virtual partnership exploration meeting with Kelly to discuss possibilities

​​​​​

Available online

Partnership Exploration Meeting

1 hr • Free

Individuals

A number of offerings are already available through direct booking, including:​

​

Join our mailing list for ongoing updates on our future offerings - including flash classes, workshops, group mentoring, and research opportunities​​​​

bottom of page