Santa Ana College is a public community college in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...

History

In 1915, Santa Ana Junior College opened its doors to 25 students as a department of Santa Ana High School. It was the second community college founded in Orange County, behind Fullerton College, and the fourth oldest in all of California. In 1932, a charter of Gamma Sigma Fraternity International was granted. Beta Alpha Chapter was at the school from 1932 to 1938 but anti-fraternity agitation and lack of communication with the organization in the east made the chapter dormant by 1938. The

1933 Long Beach earthquake The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and a m ...

damaged the Santa Ana High School building, prompting the campus move to North Main Street where it remained until 1947. A bond issue passed in 1945, paving the way for development of a 48-acre (194,000 m²) campus at its current location. Santa Ana College plays host to Middle College High School, a small alternative high school in the Santa Ana Unified School District in which students can earn their Associate of Arts degree at the same time as their high school diploma. In the late 1970s the college purchased the properties on Martha Lane south of the original campus and that land is now part of the parking lot. Recent years have witnessed the further development of and annexation of adjacent property to the original location. For a short time, the college was known as Rancho Santiago College, but the name changed back to Santa Ana College in the late 1990s. In 1985, a satellite campus, what is now called Santiago Canyon College was established in Orange, California. Santiago Canyon has since grown in size to become a separate college from Santa Ana College (although both colleges are part of the Rancho Santiago Community College District).

Academics

The college has various programs lead to the awarding of associate degrees in Arts and Sciences, as well as vocational certificates. Santa Ana College is also home to the

Tessmann Planetarium Tessmann is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Bernhard Tessmann (1912–1998), German scientist *Brad Tessmann (born 1960), Australian rugby league player *Heath Tessmann Heath Tessmann (born 3 March 1984 in Ayr, Australia) is ...

which was renovated and now has a state-of-the art planetarium system. It is the largest, both in diameter (30 ft) and seating capacity planetarium in the County of Orange CA. It was completed and became operational in 1967. Santa Ana College is also home to ''Around and About Orange County News'' and ''Noticiero Latino del Condado de Orange'' (NLCO), student-produced weekly news shows. NLCO became the first Spanish language college newscast produced by a community college. The TV Department uses the college's Digital Media Center to produce, shoot, and edit the college's newscast.

Athletics

Santa Ana College sponsors 18 sports programs. The 9 men's sports programs are baseball, basketball, cross country, football, soccer, swimming, track and field, water polo and wrestling. The 9 women's programs are basketball, beach volleyball, cross country, soccer, softball, swimming, track and field, volleyball and water polo.

Notable alumni

* Duane Allen,

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

player * Barry Asher, Hall of Fame bowler * Heath Bell, retired MLB All-Star Pitcher *

Bob Boyd Bob, Bobby, Robbie, Rob, or Robert Boyd may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Robert Boyd (journalist) (1928–2019), American journalist, writer, and winner of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting * Dice (rapper) (Robert Boyd, born 19 ...

, Basketball coach * Lem Burnham,

player *

George Brancato George Brancato (May 27, 1931 – October 22, 2019) was an American/Canadian gridiron football player and coach. Both an offensive and defensive player in college, he played five games for the Chicago Cardinals during the 1954 NFL season. He rus ...

player and CFL All-star *

Al Carmichael Albert Reinhold Carmichael (November 10, 1928 – September 7, 2019) was an American football player. Carmichael holds the distinction of scoring the first touchdown in American Football League history, a 59-yard pass reception from Frank Tripu ...

player * Ed Caruthers, high jump olympian *

Nancy Fuller Nancy Fuller (also known as Nancy Fuller Ginsberg or Nancy Ginsberg; born March 27, 1949) is an American chef and businesswoman from Claverack, New York. She is the co-owner of Ginsberg's Foods, and the host of the Food Network television series ...

, host of Food Network's ''Farmhouse Rules'' *

Robert David Hall Robert David Hall (born November 9, 1947) is an American actor, best known for his role as coroner Dr. Albert Robbins, M.D. on the television show ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''. Early life Born in East Orange, New Jersey, Hall attended ...

, Actor on the television series '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''. *

Bob Hamelin Robert James Hamelin (; born November 29, 1967) is a former first baseman and designated hitter in Major League Baseball. From 1993 through 1998, Hamelin played for the Kansas City Royals (1993–96), Detroit Tigers (1997) and Milwaukee Brewers (1 ...

, MLB player * Diane Keaton, Academy Award-winning actress *

Khan Malaythong Khan "Bob" Malaythong (born 10 April 1981 in Vientiane, Laos) is an American badminton player. He qualified for the U.S. badminton team as a doubles competitor at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Malaythong moved to the United States at age 8. Malaytho ...

, Olympic Badminton player *

Cathy Marino Cathy Marino (born July 13, 1957) is a two-time American Olympic sprint canoer and 8 time USA National Champion. She competed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Competing in two Summer Olympics, she earned her best finish of seventh (1988: K-2 500 ...

, Team USA Kayak in the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

and

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

Olympics. * Yael Markovich, Israeli/American model and beauty queen/pageant titleholder (Miss Israel) * Steve Martin, Emmy and Grammy winning actorjournal
Orange Coast Magazine December 2001 *

Kris Medlen Kristopher Allen Medlen (born October 7, 1985) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Royals and Arizona Diamondbacks. College Medlen graduated from Gahr ...

, former MLB pitcher for the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

, Atlanta Braves, and Arizona Diamondbacks. * Dan Meyer, MLB player *

Louie Olivos Jr. Louie Olivos, Jr., eldest son tDona Phoebe Gamez Cisneros Olivos is an actor, promoter, producer, director and playwright from Santa Ana, California. He studied film at Santa Ana College the University of Southern California and under Stella Adl ...

, Actor, promoter, producer, director and playwright *

Rick Ownbey Richard Wayne Ownbey (born October 20, 1957 in Corona, California) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played in parts of four seasons in the majors, between and , for the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals. Amateur career Ownbey a ...

, MLB player * Kasey Peters, American football player * John Pitts,

player * Jim Steffen,

player * Larry Stuart World record setting javelin thrower * Joe Taufeteʻe, rugby player * Bill Thomas, Member of the United States House of Representatives * Bob Webster, Diving champion who won gold medals at both the 1960 and 1964 Olympic games *

Ray Willsey Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

football coach *

CJ Wilson Christopher John Wilson (born November 18, 1980) is an American auto racing team owner and former professional baseball pitcher. Wilson pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers from 2005 to 2011 and the Los Angeles Angels of ...

– Class of 1998 – Baseball player: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim starting pitcher * Jose Vasquez, Professional soccer player *

Gaddi Vasquez Gaddi Holguin Vasquez (born January 22, 1955) was the 8th United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, in Rome, Italy. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States ...

, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and Director of the Peace Corps * Tony Zendejas, former NFL kicker

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control California Community Colleges Education in Santa Ana, California Universities and colleges in Orange County, California Sports in Santa Ana, California Educational institutions established in 1915 1915 establishments in California Two-year colleges in the United States