Today I had the honor of attending the ribbon cutting - opening ceremonies of Santa Clarita Valley's newest college campus.  

The College of the Canyons -- Canyon Country campus.  

The project first started in 1991 when the Chancellors office commisioned a long range study to determine the educational needs of the community and recommended that a 2nd campus would be required to accomodate the rapid growth of College of the Canyons main campus in Valencia.   Just as projected, the enrollment has steadily increased over the years from 6,500 students in 1990 to over 19,000 students today.  The College of the Canyons main campus has been named the fastest growing college nationwide for 3 years in a row and future growth is expected to continue at a rate of 9-10% through 2012.   It was clear that the commisions report was accurate and the school would have to expand to accomodate the needs of the Eastern most parts of Santa Clarita Valley.

After passing two State bond measures totaling $242 million dollars to acquire the 70 acres of land, complete the construction of 6 buildings totalling 240,000 square feet, and funding the initial daily school operations, the community welcomed the new campus today with open arms and the college will rapidly become a signigicant part of the local economy. 

In a heartfelt speech at todays ceremonies, Superintendent-President Dr. Diane Van Hook told the stories of how her and her team managed to navigate all of the legalislative, legal and construction requirements of building a new college from ground breaking to opening day in only 13 months.  Dr Van Hook walked us through the painstaking process of many obstacles and challenges that had to be overcome so as to keep the project on track while addressing the many unexpected surprises that often come with a large construction process.  She concluded the ceremonies by thanking the many key people and representives of the construction companies and organizations that worked together on this project to see it through to success.  

So what can we expect from this new college campus?

In this first year the school will accomodate 3000 students and will increase enrollment to a projected 10,000 students by the year 2015 or sooner.  A multitude of classes will be offered at the college to include Health Occupations, Techonology, Arts and humanities, Engineering, Math, Science, Social Science, Library media tech, and many other scholastic programs will be added as enrollment increases each year.

Intercollegiate sports will be held at the main valencia campus however the campus has a state of the art athletic facilities to accomodate weight lifting and gymanasium sports.

The new campus is located at 17200 Sierra Highway in Canyon Country, CA.  For more information on the college class schedule and program enrollment visit the schools website at http://www.canyons.edu/offices/CCEC/FAQs.htm

Personally, as mortgage broker and real estate professional living near the school, I am thrilled to see that our community is pulling together to continue building our infrastructure, our schools, and we are laying the foundation for success for many years to come.

Martin Rodriguez
SCV Loan Solutions