College of the Canyons Canyon Country Campus held its 10 year anniversary celebration with an open house along with food trucks, children’s activities, student exhibits and live entertainment.

Along with being allowed to tour the campus and witness first-hand some of the general programs students receive through the College of the Canyons Canyon Country campus, event organizers showcased the various technical and specialized programs only offered through the satellite campus.

“What this campus represents to me is not the buildings, but rather the expanded access and opportunity our technical education programs give,” said Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook, College of the Canyons Chancellor. “So we worked very hard over the years to add other facilities and permanent applied tech building that offer very unique technical education programs.”

Related: College Of The Canyons Canyon Country Campus To Celebrate 10-Year Anniversary With Open House

College of the Canyons Canyon Country campus opened ten years ago on August 27, but had been in the works since the early 90’s.

“When we first began to think of this campus it was 1990, and there were many hurdles that we needed to go through, and we worked a very long time to be able to get to where we could acquire the land, get the state approvals, and do everything we needed to get it up open.”

And although the plans had been thoroughly vetted and carried out, the success of the campus took many by surprise.

“Our five-year enrollment plan was to have 3,500 students by the end of that period, but on the first day we had 3,552,” said Dr. Van Hook. “So the good news was we were full; the bad news was that we were full.”

Since the campus door’s opened in 2007, it has continued to add facilities, buildings and programs in order to fully meet the needs of the faculty and students of the Canyon Country extension.

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“This campus is vital to the northern Los Angeles County area because many of our students are first generation college students,” said State Senator Scott Wilk. “That’s important because if you receive an Associate’s you’re statistically more likely to make $500,000 more over your lifetime than someone with only a high school diploma. So that means higher quality of life for those students and their families and more tax revenue into the state.”

Those in attendance celebrated the successes and future goals of the campus by not only visiting with members of the faculty, witnessing the projects and exhibits of current students, but the public was also treated to a portable planetarium, a Makerspace exhibit and a live performance by Savannah Burrows, the 2016 winner of Santa Clarita’s local round for the Country Showdown contest.

“I was on the board of trustees when we dedicated this campus 10 years ago, and to see this campus go from Dr. Dianne Van Hook’s vision to what it is today is truly inspiring,” said Wilk. “Being here today and seeing all of this shows that the campus has gone beyond expectations.”

For more information about the College of the Canyons Canyon Country Campus 10 Year Anniversary celebration or the school’s programs in general, visit their website here.

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