I was able to sort of solve this using this code. Modified from this comment. That said, it works by using a relationship established by the course. It would be much better if I could set the relationship at the program and query from that. If anyone can help with this it would be appreciated!
return [
'post_type' => 'course',
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'meta_query' => array(
array(
'key' => 'highlight_for_program',
'value' => get_the_id(),
'compare' => 'LIKE'
)
),
'order' => 'ASC',
'orderby'=> 'title',
];