Santa Ana College is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

community college A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana (Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census. As ...

History

In 1915, Santa Ana Junior College opened its doors to 25 students as a department of Santa Ana High School. It was the second community college founded in Orange County, behind Fullerton College, and the fourth oldest in all of California. In 1932, a charter of Gamma Sigma Fraternity International was granted. Beta Alpha Chapter was at the school from 1932 to 1938 but anti-fraternity agitation and lack of communication with the organization in the east made the chapter dormant by 1938. The

1933 Long Beach earthquake The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and ...

damaged the Santa Ana High School building, prompting the campus move to North Main Street where it remained until 1947. A bond issue passed in 1945, paving the way for development of a 48-acre (194,000 m²) campus at its current location. Santa Ana College plays host to Middle College High School, a small alternative high school in the Santa Ana Unified School District in which students can earn their Associate of Arts degree at the same time as their high school diploma. In the late 1970s the college purchased the properties on Martha Lane south of the original campus and that land is now part of the parking lot. Recent years have witnessed the further development of and annexation of adjacent property to the original location. For a short time, the college was known as Rancho Santiago College, but the name changed back to Santa Ana College in the late 1990s. In 1985, a satellite campus, what is now called Santiago Canyon College, was established in

Orange, California Orange is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana, California, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District ...

. Santiago Canyon has since grown in size to become a separate college from Santa Ana College, although both colleges are part of the Rancho Santiago Community College District.

Academics

The college has various programs lead to the awarding of associate degrees in Arts and Sciences, as well as vocational certificates. Santa Ana College is also home to the Tessmann Planetarium which was renovated and now has a state-of-the art planetarium system. It is the largest, both in diameter (30 ft) and seating capacity planetarium in the County of Orange CA. It was completed and became operational in 1967. Santa Ana College is also home to ''Around and About Orange County News'' and ''Noticiero Latino del Condado de Orange'' (NLCO), student-produced weekly news shows. NLCO became the first Spanish language college newscast produced by a community college. The TV Department uses the college's Digital Media Center to produce, shoot, and edit the college's newscast. The Journalism & Media Studies Department writes, edits, and publishes the college's nationally recognized online and printed news called ''el Don.''

Athletics

Santa Ana College sponsors 18 sports programs. The 9 men's sports programs are baseball, basketball, cross country, football, soccer, swimming, track and field, water polo and wrestling. The 9 women's programs are basketball, beach volleyball, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming, track and field, volleyball and water polo.

Notable alumni

* Duane Allen, NFL player * Barry Asher, Hall of Fame bowler * Heath Bell, retired MLB All-Star

Pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

* Bob Boyd, Basketball coach * Lem Burnham, NFL player * George Brancato, NFL player and CFL All-star * Al Carmichael, NFL player * Ed Caruthers, high jump olympian * Nancy Fuller, host of Food Network's ''Farmhouse Rules'' * Robert David Hall, Actor on the television series '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''. * Bob Hamelin, MLB player *

Diane Keaton Diane Keaton (née Hall; born January 5, 1946) is an American actress. She has received List of awards and nominations received by Diane Keaton, various accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, including an Academy Award, a Bri ...

, Academy Award-winning actress * Khan Malaythong, Olympic Badminton player * Cathy Marino, Team USA Kayak in the 1988 and

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Olympics. * Yael Markovich, Israeli/American model and beauty queen/pageant titleholder (Miss Israel) * Steve Martin, Emmy and Grammy winning actorjournal
Orange Coast Magazine December 2001 * Kris Medlen, former MLB pitcher for the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team ...

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

, and Arizona Diamondbacks. * Dan Meyer, MLB player * Louie Olivos Jr., Actor, promoter, producer, director and playwright * Rick Ownbey, MLB player * Kasey Peters, American football player * John Pitts, NFL player * Jim Steffen, NFL player * Larry Stuart World record setting javelin thrower * Joe Taufeteʻe, rugby player * Bill Thomas, Member of the United States House of Representatives * Bob Webster, Diving champion who won gold medals at both the 1960 and 1964 Olympic games * Ray Willsey football coach * CJ Wilson – Class of 1998 – Baseball player: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim starting pitcher * Jose Vasquez, Professional soccer player * Gaddi Vasquez, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and Director of the Peace Corps * Tony Zendejas, former NFL kicker

References

External links

* {{authority control California Community Colleges Education in Santa Ana, California Universities and colleges in Orange County, California Universities and colleges established in 1915 1915 establishments in California Two-year colleges in the United States