CLEARLAKE— This year marked the golden anniversary for the Woodland Community College Lake County Campus, offering classes since 1972 and continuing on today. This Thursday the campus held a ceremony on their grounds commemorating their 50th anniversary with live music, local food trucks and the campus’ own culinary program, Aroma’s Cafe and the Culinary Club, providing a variety of tasty bites. Guest speakers including alumni shared their success stories and discussed college’s bright future.
Multiple food vendors including Terped Out Kitchen and The Underdog Grill set up to serve tacos, barbecue and drinks alongside the campus culinary program’s restaurant Aroma’s Cafe, serving appetizers and dessert while the club served shaved ice, frozen lemonade and an Asian fusion menu. All of their proceeds from food sales went to the club’s mission of purchasing chef jackets and knife kits for new culinary students.
“The club fundraises throughout the year to make purchases for future students who may not be able to afford what they need,” said club member Santos Modesto.
Entertainment was provided by musical guest Good Measure, comprised of current and former educators and board members.
According to the Woodland Community College website wcc.yccd.edu “The Lake County Campus has offered courses to Lake County citizens since 1972. The campus center began with the humble offering of a few courses at Konocti Harbor Inn. The campus now serves 1,000 students in modern facilities in a lovely oak woodland campus in Clearlake, California.” Although this statement is true, listening to the alumni afforded the audience an in-depth look at the “humble beginnings” and it’s rippling effects felt across generations.
Interim Dean Annette Lee introduced alumni guest speaker Dr. Mark Cooper who attended classes in the 1970s where he met his two best friends, returning later on to teach for 10 years. Cooper shared, “Don’t forget that we have to teach people civic responsibility, where else is it taught? So what do I want this campus to do? I want this campus to teach people to be lifelong learners.”
Woodland Community College President Art Pimentel said, “Many of you are educators, students, community members that support and believe fervently in our mission to educate our population and know just how important this center is to the community, and that’s what we’re celebrating today.
He added that the college’s mission is transforming lives and making sure that Lake County residents have an opportunity to educate themselves and to meet any educational goal they have set for themselves. Pimentel said he was grateful for the campus staff who all work tirelessly and have made these past 50 years possible.
Guest speaker and alumnus District Two Supervisor Bruno Sabatier also spoke sharing his experience at the Campus in 2010 noting, “This place impacts people, this place changes people.” Sabatier further shared, “This place allows you to become the big fish in a small pond. While I’m going to give you some numbers… I’m not using them to speak in a negative way about our area, but I think it’s about opportunity we always need to look at the silver lining. When you look at the State of California 31 percent of the adult population has a bachelor’s degree. In Lake County it’s eight. We can do better than eight and this place is helping us do better.”
Lee concluded the ceremony in song singing, “Happy Anniversary” to the tune of Happy Birthday as the culinary students presented their in-house desserts and cakes. Lee’s final notes were deeply thankful to the entire campus. “Thank you so much everybody who is here,” he said. “I wish we could acknowledge everyone, individually, because you all mean so much to this campus, and how exciting is it that we did this? That we did this together in the last 50 years and we’re going to do it again in the next 50 years how amazing is that? So thank you, we appreciate you.”
