Shasta College

In the Centennial year of California and Shasta County (1950), Shasta College opened its first campus. As part of the state’s Centennial celebration, President Harry S. Truman spoke at the college’s Thompson Field. There were 26 original faculty members. Shasta College extends its educational, cultural, and recreational facilities and services to all people in Shasta, Tehama, and Trinity Counties, including parts of Lassen, Modoc, and Humboldt Counties, an area that is more than 10,000 square miles, which is larger than the State of Massachusetts. An eight-member Board of Trustees, which includes a non-voting Student Trustee, represents the Shasta-Tehama-Trinity Joint Community College District.

Shasta College was founded in 1948 as part of the Shasta Union High School District. The Shasta College campus was originally a fur and trading center of the Wintu Indians, later owned by a soldier and his family after the Mexican-American War. After opening its doors on Eureka Way in the fall of 1950, with 256 day students, Shasta College grew so rapidly that, in 1964, voters approved a bond issue for construction of a 337-acre campus at the main campus location.

A state-of-the-art $1.5 million Early Childhood Education child care center and instructional facility opened in the fall of 2005. A new 44,000 square foot Health Sciences and University Center opened in the fall of 2007, which houses the college’s Dental Hygiene and Nursing Programs. It also serves as host to baccalaureate degree programs offered by both public and private universities.

Shasta College is part of the California Community College system, which is the largest system of higher education in the world, with 109 colleges organized into 72 districts and research has shown that students who have an A.A. or A.S. degree will make an average yearly salary which is 50% higher than a person with less than a high school diploma. Also according to that Census, students who have an A.A. or A.S. degree will make an average yearly salary which is 24% higher than a person with only a high school diploma. The college has articulation agreements to facilitate transfer to the University of California and California State University systems, and many private college campuses.