Year in Review
Mission College ended another successful year with over 900 students graduating. Assemblyman Kansen Chu was our keynote speaker.
In February we saw our Main Building fall to make room for the new Central Plaza, STEM Center and Business/Technology Building made possible by the support of our community and recent bond measures. This past year also saw us settle into our new Student Engagement Center, opened January 2018
We welcomed to campus writers, poets, and speakers who spoke to us on leadership; reaching young children through art; comic books on popular culture and the experiences of women in leadership, Native Americans, Filipinos, and African-Americans.
Our Symphony welcomed back Emmy Award-winning alumnae Vanessa Vo and we had a choral concert celebrating the music of James Bond. For the third-straight year, the Symphony chose a young local musician to be featured in its orchestra as a part of the Young Artists Competition.
Our third annual prep Culinary Competition awarded a team from Wilcox High.
Winning concepts from our third annual Hackathon included apps promoting healthy living and sustainability.
Mission College in the Community
In a collaboration with the Santa Clara Unified School District, we hosted over 3,000 K-12 students at our first ever STEAM Expo on a Saturday in May.
Our monthly 2nd Harvest food pantry serviced over 2500 people since September, providing free food for our community.
2nd Harvest also sponsored our Food for Textbook program giving free textbooks in exchange for canned food. In Fall 2017, the first semester of the program, 128 books were checked out. In Spring of 2019, 327 were checked out, netting students a savings of nearly $40,000. By Fall of 2018 we collected over 2200 pounds of food for 2nd Harvest per semester as well.
We continued to provide free tax preparation from our accounting students and VITA, generating $58,000 in refunds.
Recognition
Our VTA apprenticeship program received a Bay Area Metro Award for trying to solve the Bay's transit problems.
Our LVN program was recognized amongst the top-five nursing programs in the State by Nursing Process and our VN program was among the top-15 in the State.
Our FireTech video won a Gold Medallion award for top video amongst NCMPR marketing professionals. The redesigned website won a regional award.
Athletics
We had a successful year in Athletics as our women's basketball team won the Coast Conference and Corey Cafferata was named Coast Conference Coach of Year for leading the Saints to their seventh postseason appearance in nine seasons. In baseball, Bobby Hill's squad reached its third regional in four years and featured Conference MVP Blake Diggle and gold glove catcher Tyler Rando. Diggle ranked third in the State in homers. All told Athletics had 20 all-conference performers, two all-region, and three all-state athletes. In addition, 14 student-athletes are transferring to four-year universities.
And make sure to tune in on June 26 when Dean Brian Miller competes on Press Your Luck. No whammies Brian!