Cañada College: Celebrating 40 Years of Academic Excellence

Since it opened its doors in the fall of 1968, Cañada College has been recognized as a place for academic excellence. For the next year, Cañada College will be celebrating its history with a series of events and programs designed to highlight student success.

The centerpiece of this celebration is the creation of a new Honors Transfer Program. The Honors Transfer Program at Cañada is designed to support highly motivated students as they pursue their educational goals for graduation and transfer. Honors students benefit from studying in a research rich environment with other students who are dedicated to a rigorous exploration of academic, intellectual, cultural and social issues. Students from all backgrounds and in all majors are encouraged to participate in honors classes.

Students can take courses in chemistry, economics, English and math. The program’s goal is to help students transfer to the college or university of their choice and to succeed in their academic careers and beyond. Honors courses are taught by outstanding instructors who create a highly stimulating, creative, and challenging environment in their classes where learning is both fun and intellectually rewarding.

“Given our rich history as a transfer institution it makes sense to honor 40 years of academic excellence at the college with the creation of the new Honors Transfer Program,” said President Tom Mohr. “When you look at the list of colleges and universities our graduates attend – Harvard, Cornell, Stanford, UC Berkeley – it’s really quite amazing.”

From the first shovel of dirt turned at the Start of Construction Ceremony held on June 17, 1967, it was always planned that Cañada College would be a center for academic excellence in San Mateo County. When it opened its doors on September 10, 1968, Cañada College had 2,006 daytime students and another 1,984 attending evening classes. The average age for that first class was 29 for daytime students and 34 for evening. The first graduating class at Cañada was 1970.

Today, nearly 6,900 students attend the college in both day and evening classes and the student body has grown significantly younger. “High school graduates see the value of attending Cañada because of our small class sizes and low tuition costs,” Mohr said.

Events on campus to celebrate 40 years of academic excellence include the presentation of a new academic mace at this year’s graduation ceremony to be held Friday, May 29 and the introduction of “Spirit Mondays” where staff, faculty and students will be encouraged to show their Colt colors.

The “40 years of academic excellence” theme will also run through many of the end-of-year celebrations held on campus.

“The logo will be available for everyone to use, we’ll have t-shirts printed, and more events will be announced later this year and into next year as we approach the 40th anniversary of the first graduating class,” said Patty Dilko, coordinator for the new Honors Transfer Program and a member of the committee organizing events for the celebration.