Reaching Higher 4 Life

Reaching Higher launched as a Personal Leadership Development (PLD) program for adults in 1997, with these participants experiencing transformational breakthroughs both personally and professionally. However, Founder Susie Dahlmann, a teacher of 20 years, was passionate and determined about filling the gap she saw in the educational system. As a result, Reaching Higher focused on preparing the next generation through its transformative Personal Leadership Development course.

From this strategy, Reaching Higher has successfully developed more than 10,000 graduates who are now adults with careers, families, and leaders in our communities. Reaching Higher 4 Life represents Reaching Higher’s vision of impacting the world through PLD & Coaching by again serving adults through the RH4Life Leadership Community.

The RH4Life Cause

RH4Life represents a threefold commitment:

To help adults experience breakthroughs both personally and professionally.
For RH4Life to propel Reaching Higher by impacting even more youth through RH4Life’s scholarship pricing model.
To continue to journey with and strengthen our more than 10,000 RH4Youth graduates as leaders for life through our RH4Life Leadership Community, coaching and PLD offerings.

Join us for Mission Monday

For this week’s #missionmonday, Reaching Higher 4 Youth Director Steve Livingway discusses how helping our youth today will create a powerful future for everyone! View more episodes >

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Our Latest Blog Posts

Support a life at our 2023 Fall Gala

By Sarah Pettengill / October 4, 2023

Personal leadership development is needed for EVERYONE – that is Reaching Higher’s cause.

The skills taught in our personal leadership development courses – public speaking, overcoming limiting beliefs and self-confidence – are skills everyone needs, and yet these are skills that aren’t taught in a traditional classroom.

That is where Reaching Higher comes in – and, our 2023 Fall Gala.

As a non-profit, the majority of our general funding is a result of our annual events, with the gala being the largest contributor. We depend on the funds raised at our gala to support the ongoing efforts to bring a transformative curriculum to everyone.

We are pleased to

What is personal leadership development?

By Steve Livingway / September 6, 2023

What is “personal leadership development”? That is what Reaching Higher is all about, but what does it really mean?

Personal leadership development means taking stock of your own life and asking yourself what is working well and what isn’t. It is realizing that within each of us is the potential to do and be anything we set our minds to, and to achieve anything for which we are willing to work relentlessly. Personal leadership means you stop waiting for other people to change, you stop waiting for your circumstances to change, and YOU make the changes you need to make for your life to be happy and successful — you even define what success personally means to you.

As a teacher, a principal, and a Reaching Higher instructor I have seen over and over again

Why your student should take Reaching Higher

By Sarah Pettengill / August 2, 2023

Reaching Higher’s curriculum of personal leadership development should be in every school in the state – and I have seen firsthand the reasons why.

Reaching Higher teaches the necessary soft skills that are not taught in a traditional classroom setting, yet these are the skills that are going to help your student go farther in the classroom and their chosen career. These skills will set them apart to teachers and employers long after Reaching Higher graduation day.

My son started middle school last year and my daughter will be starting middle school this year. The stories my son has told me, and the struggles I have seen his peers face, make me see how vitally important Reaching Higher is to the next generation.

They struggle with confidence, they strugg

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