Breaking Barriers: The Rise of Three California Community Colleges

Jing Luan Provost Emeritus, San Mateo Colleges of Silicon Valley, United States

Abstract

This chapter presents strategies and examples from 3 lesser-known community colleges in California. Their examples illustrate how, despite lacking initial prestige and reputation, the 3 colleges succeeded in securing a spot in the Top 20 rankings by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and culminated in recognition from the White House in the form of the Excellence in Exports award for U.S. higher education. The approaches employed were often contrarian and outside the box. For instance, they recruited universities before recruiting students, hosted parental seminars rather than student-only ones, paired with transfer staff from universities at fairs, established horizontal and vertical pipelines, built possibly the largest university transfer network in the U.S. while removing any barriers within their control, leveraged third-party promotions rather than paying directly for search engines, readied their global online courses before the global pandemic, and stayed ahead of geopolitical shifts. These and other innovative strategies played a crucial role in their success and could serve as a roadmap for other institutions facing similar challenges.

Keywords: transfer network, vertical integration, universal academic credits, in-country orientation, in-country staff, value-added marketing, 80/20 rule, operational efficiency, scaling, entry points

How to cite this chapter: Luan, J. (2024). Breaking barriers: The rise of three California community colleges.  In J. Luan, L. Habte, D. L. Di Maria, & K. Bista (Eds.), Entry points to US education: Accessing the next wave of growth (pp. 92-105). Star Scholars Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32674/4r0sfm57