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 The student population at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif. is reflective of the area’s deep agricultural roots. Nearly half the community college’s 13,500 students are Hispanic, and many of the students come from financially challenging backgrounds.
“Tulare and Kings counties are in the heart of California’s central valley, so our economy is dominated by agriculture and industries associated with agriculture, such as packing, transportation, and financing of the industry,” said Dr. William Scroggins, superintendent and president of the college. “We have a wide range of people in our community who work in agriculture, from the migrant workers who follow the crops throughout the state to the owners of the businesses.”
Because of the makeup of the student body—nearly 40% speak Spanish as their native language—there are many programs in place to help the students succeed academically and with everyday life skills. “Many of the students are new to this country, so the adjustment to life in the US is a big part of what we provide,” Scroggins said. “A lot of these students are the first ones in their families to go to college.”
Because so many of the students are the first ones in their families to go to college, they don’t have the support networks in place to provide the advice and support they need. With these students, Scroggins said it is important to provide not just the tools to succeed in the subject matter they are trying to master, but also counseling and advice on what it’s like to be a successful college student.
The overall mission of the college is to provide all its students with the preparation they need to transfer to a four-year university or enter the working world. Of those who take advantage of the college’s extensive curriculum, about 30% of Sequoias’ students complete the first two years of a baccalaureate program and are eligible to enter a four-year university, and about 40% earn a vocational certificate or an associate’s degree in a vocational area.
 Community roots
The college has close ties to the community in Tulare and Kings counties. “The community is both a customer and a partner of ours,” said Scroggins. “With our vocational programs, our philosophy is to work closely with the business community to make sure that the training we are providing is as close to the workplace needs of employers as possible. At the same time, we also work with the businesses to get their financial support and their support in hiring our graduates.”
Many of the programs offered at Sequoias are closely tied to the economy of the community. The school offers degrees in agricultural business and mechanics, and it has animal and plant science programs.
“We have a unique program where we own a 500-acre farm in Southern Tulare County where students in the agricultural program work as a team to manage a portion of the land,” said Scroggins. “The students develop a business plan and time out their plantings and harvesting under the supervision of an instructor.”
When the crops are harvested, the college puts the products on the commodities market and a portion of the net income from the crops is shared with the students. Additionally, the college works closely with high school agricultural programs in the region so it can recruit students interested in studying agriculture to College of the Sequoias.
The college has also strengthened its nursing program in recent years. There are 300 students in the program, double what the school had six years ago, and a new nursing building is scheduled to open in January. “We’ve made a lot of new faculty hires, and the new building is really the capstone of the program’s growth,” Scroggins said.
Building for the future
The new nursing building is just one of the construction projects the college has either recently completed or has underway. Many of the projects have been paid for with a combination of state and local funds.
“Two years ago, we opened a new science building, and a new gymnasium is under construction and should be open in about a year,” Scroggins said. The college is also building campus centers in two of the larger cities it serves outside of the main campus in Visalia.
“Our major initiative over the next three to five years is to complete and occupy those campus centers in Hanford and Tulare and to stretch our resources to provide support services at those sites,” he said. “We want to be able to recruit more students in those areas, particularly those who are financially challenged. If we can bring the educational resources closer to them, especially if they are working, the students don’t have to give up as much of their time and resources.”
As the college continues to grow, Scroggins said its most important goal is to help get jobs for as many people as possible within the community. “In an area like ours, where unemployment hovers between 15% and 17%, jobs
are really important for the economic recovery,” he said. “The first and foremost thing on our minds is to help our population get back to work.”
The college is continually looking at new programs in areas where there is potential job growth. “We’ve extensively partnered with the business community, workforce investment boards, and economic development corporations to access federal job training funds,” Scroggins said.
Some of those new training programs are in solar panel installation and biofuel technology. “We hope that being in a strong agricultural area, and taking advantage of the California sunshine, that we’ll be able to take advantage of the emerging technologies and federal training programs that are targeted to the industries that fit our economy,” he said. “I think one of our challenges over the next several years is to partner with the state and federal government to make sure the economic recovery reaches down into our job market.”
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