Rio Hondo 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 sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior sec ...
in
Whittier, California
Whittier () is a city in Southern California in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, part of the Gateway Cities. The city had 87,306 residents as of the 2020 United States census, an increase of 1,975 from the 2010 United States ...
. The college is named after the
Rio Hondo. Founded in 1960, it mainly serves the cities of
Whittier,
Pico Rivera
Pico Rivera is a city located in southeastern Los Angeles County, California. The city is situated approximately southeast of downtown Los Angeles, on the eastern edge of the Los Angeles basin, and on the southern edge of the area known as th ...
,
Santa Fe Springs
Santa Fe Springs (''Santa Fe'', Spanish for "Holy Faith") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. The population was 16,223 at the 2010 census, down from 17,43 ...
,
El Monte, and
South El Monte
South El Monte is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,116, down from 21,144 at the 2000 census.
Geography
According to the United States C ...
. Rio Hondo College offers 30 associate degrees for transfer that guarantee transfer to
California State Universities, 60 associate degrees and 127 certificates. Rio Hondo offers on-campus, online, and off-campus courses to all of its students. It is the first community college in California offering a
bachelor's
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...
degree in
Automotive Technology. Rio Hondo also offers a Pathway to Law School program to one of six top California law schools.
It is accredited by
Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) is an accrediting organization in the United States. It accredits private and public colleges that provide students two-year education programs and confer the associate deg ...
. Aside from its academic programs, the college is also home to Rio Hondo Fire Academy, Rio Hondo Wildland Fire Academy, EMT Program, and Rio Hondo Police Academy.
History
Rio Hondo College District was established in October 1960, encompassing the boundaries of
Whittier Union High School District
Whittier Union High School District is a California high school district serving most of the city of Whittier, the unincorporated communities of East Whittier, South Whittier, West Whittier-Los Nietos and Rose Hills, and parts of Norwalk, La ...
.
As it expanded to include the
El Rancho Unified and
El Monte Union High School District
The El Monte Union High School District (EMUHSD) is a public high school district headquartered in El Monte, California. The district employs 623 certificated employees and 625 classified employees. The professional staff provides educational pr ...
s, it established a board of trustees in April 1962. In May 1963, the board named the proposed community college Rio Hondo, named after the neighbouring
Rio Hondo River.
While voters in the district approved a US$12 million to build Rio Hondo College in October 1963, classes were temporarily conducted at
Sierra and
El Rancho High School
El Rancho High School is a public high school located in the city of Pico Rivera, California, United States. It is a part of the El Rancho Unified School District.
History
El Rancho High School opened its doors in September 1952. Whittier High ...
s.
The present campus, off Workman Mill Road, was opened for classes in Fall 1966.
Demographics
In 2017-2018, Rio Hondo College had a 4,406 full-time and part-time 15,542 enrollment of students with a total of 19,948. The student-faculty ratio is 32-to-1.
The largest group of students consists of 20- to 24-year-olds (30%).
The second largest group (20%) were 19 or younger.
The average age of students at Rio Hondo is 26.
51% of students intended to transfer.
The top feeder
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
s (2005-2009) are as follows:
Whittier High School
Whittier High School (WHS) is a high school located in Whittier, California. It belongs to the Whittier Union High School District.
It is the alma mater of President Richard Nixon (class of 1930) and John Lasseter (class of 1975), founder of Pixa ...
,
El Rancho High School
El Rancho High School is a public high school located in the city of Pico Rivera, California, United States. It is a part of the El Rancho Unified School District.
History
El Rancho High School opened its doors in September 1952. Whittier High ...
,
Montebello High School
Founded in 1909, Montebello High School is a public high school which is part of the Montebello Unified School District, and has an enrollment of approximately 2,600 students in grades 9-12. Its campus is located in Montebello, California, a subur ...
,
California High School,
Schurr High School
Schurr High School is a public high school in Montebello, California, United States, a suburb in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Part of the Montebello Unified School District, it has an enrollment of approximately 3,500 students in grades 9- ...
,
Santa Fe High School and
Pioneer High School.
The in-state tuition and fees for 2017-2018 were $1,360, and out-of-state tuition and fees were $6,960. There is no application fee.
Student life
All full-time students (students enrolled in 12 or more units in a semester) are eligible for a free
bus pass
A transit pass (North American English) or travel card (British English), often referred to as a bus pass or train pass etc. (in all English dialects), is a ticket that allows a passenger of the service to take either a certain number of pre-purc ...
for transport with the
Norwalk Transit,
Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
,
Foothill Transit
Foothill Transit is a public transit agency that is government funded by 22 member cities in the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys. It operates a fixed-route bus public transit service in the San Gabriel Valley region of eastern Los Angeles Cou ...
, Sunshine Shuttle and
Montebello Bus Lines
Montebello Bus Lines is a municipal bus operator in Montebello, California, USA, mainly serving East Los Angeles, Commerce, and Montebello.
History
Montebello Bus Lines began on 28 July 1931, with a small lot on the corner of Greenwood Avenue ...
. Negotiations between the Rio Hondo College Board of Trustees created this programme as early as 2006, which was proposed by Gary Mendes, Governing Board Member and followed by staff member Dr. Andy Howard.
The programm was named the Rio Hondo College Bus Pass Subsidy Programm, and has since been dubbed "GO RIO" and officially began during the 2006–2007 school year.
In 2012, the school also received a $500,000 federal grant to run a shuttle bus around campus.
The official student newspaper of the college is titled ''El Paisano''.
[''El Paisano'' newspaper](_blank)
Retrieved on March 6, 2008.
Academics
It is the first community college in California offering a bachelor's degree in
Automotive Technology
Automotive engineering, along with aerospace engineering and naval architecture, is a branch of vehicle engineering, incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software, and safety engineering as applied to the design, manufac ...
. Rio Hondo also offers a Pathway to Law School program to one of six top California law schools.
Popular programs include:
Liberal Arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
and
Sciences
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
, General Studies and
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
,
Business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
,
Management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
,
Marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
, and Related Support Services, and
Homeland Security
Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" t ...
,
Law Enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...
,
Firefighting
Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter.
Firefighters typically ...
and Related Protective Services.
National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium
Rio Hondo College is a NAFTC Training Center.
Facilities
In 2004, voters in the Rio Hondo College Community School District approved Measure A, which gave the school US$245 million to renovate the campus, including the construction of new buildings on campus, such as the Learning Resource Centre and Library, Student Services and Student Union and Administration of Justice Buildings (completed 2011).
Construction began in 2006 and is expected to continue until 2018, as part of the master plan. Rio Hondo College has also expanded off-site, at the 297 square metres South Whittier Educational Centre and plans to construct a 404 square metres facility in El Monte.
Notable alumni
*
Art Acevedo
Hubert Arturo Acevedo (born July 31, 1964) is an American police officer who is the interim chief of police of the Aurora Police Department as of December 2022. Previously, he was the chief of police of the Houston Police Department, Austin Pol ...
– former chief of the Houston Police Department
*
Luis Aguilar – soccer player
*
Troy Archer – American football player
*
William John Cox
William John "Billy Jack" Cox (born February 15, 1941) is an American public interest lawyer and author.
Biography Early career
Employed in 1962 by the El Cajon Police Department, he attended the nearby San Diego Police Department Academy. In ...
– public interest attorney, author and political activist.
*
Evan Longoria
Evan Michael Longoria (born October 7, 1985), nicknamed "Longo", is an American professional baseball third baseman who is a free agent. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays from 2008 through 2017, and the S ...
–
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
player for the
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...
*
Gloria Molina
Jesus Gloria Molina (born May 31, 1948) is an American politician and a former member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Molina broke into politics in 1982 by going agai ...
– politician, former member of the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States.
History
On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their first ...
1991–2014
*
Lorna Patterson
Lorna Patterson (born October 1, 1956) is an American film, stage and television actress and, more recently, a Jewish cantor. As an actress, her best-known roles were as Randy, the singing stewardess, in ''Airplane!'', and as the lead in the tel ...
– film actress
*
Lauren Tewes
Cynthia Lauren Tewes () is an American actress. She played Julie McCoy on the television drama anthology series ''The Love Boat'', which originally aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986.
Early years
Tewes was born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, of Germ ...
– film actress
*
Norma Torres
Norma Judith Torres (née Barillas ; born April 4, 1965) is an American politician. She is a member of the United States House of Representatives for California's 35th congressional district. Previously, she was a member of the California State S ...
– member of the United States House of Representatives
Notes
References
External links
*
{{authority control
California Community Colleges
Whittier, California
Universities and colleges in Los Angeles County, California
Educational institutions established in 1960
Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
1960 establishments in California
Two-year colleges in the United States