The educational focus in Software Engineering and Computer Science has traditionally been on the theoretical aspects of computation, problem-solving algorithms, and coding skills. Accreditation standards and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) curriculum are designed to prepare students for careers and graduate school. Nevertheless, the majority of graduates engage in technical occupations where they become integral members of teams developing software products or services, requiring a diverse skillset including software de-sign, human-computer interaction, problem-solving methodolo-gies, and software testing, to deliver customer-oriented solutions within specified time and budget constraints. The gap between the skills acquired in academia and those demanded by the industry has given rise to a need for a different software engineering education. To address this need, in 2020, the Computer Science (CS) de-partment at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) launched the Applied Software Engineering (ASE) program, curated to meet industry demands and diversify the appeal of computer science to traditionally underrepresented demographics. The program was designed by faculty members with industry backgrounds and co-designed with the help of alumni and local industry leaders. Since 2020, the program has attracted an array of new and returning students with degrees in disciplines beyond software engineering, leading to a significant increase in enrollment from 6 to 53 students. In this work-in-progress paper, we detail the structure of the program and the elements that incorporate novel and high-impact practices in computing education and, specifically, software engineering to share our approach and invite feedback and comments that can help us measure and improve its success.