A student walks past a “You Belong Here” sign at Fresno City College’s newest campus, West Fresno Center. Photo by Betty Marquez Rosales/EdSource
Brianna Knight can walk from her college campus down the street to her family’s home to check on her children when they need her, an option only recently available with the opening of Fresno City College’s newest campus in West Fresno.
Her family, a longtime resident of West Fresno, often takes care of her children while she is in class or working as a teacher on campus. Knight, who is completing her undergraduate degree in human biology, said working toward her degree was even more stressful before the new campus opened.
She said she planned to leave her hometown before the new West Fresno center was built, because she didn’t see a future for her children there. But her plans have changed now that the campus is open.
“I’m interested in: Where can I plant my seeds for my kids to grow? And if my kids can’t grow somewhere, why am I here? To be able to bring that to the community I grew up in… “If my kids don’t want to leave, they don’t have to.”
For the West Fresno community that fought for this new campus, the college has come to symbolize hope for future generations like the Knight children.
“West Fresno is a phoenix rising from the ashes because we can essentially eliminate a lot of the systemic issues we face if we center the voices of youth in our community,” said Eric Payne, executive director of the nonprofit. Central Valley Urban Institute. “And what better place than a college campus?”
West Fresno is home to more than 25,000 people in a historically marginalized section of the Central Valley’s largest city. It is an area with one of Highest levels of concentrated poverty In the nation, High rates of incarceration, and Decreased life expectancy About 20 years behind their neighbors in more affluent sections of Fresno.
These statistics have been reinforced over decades thanks to strategic redlining practices. It has been documented in detail, since at least the 1930s, and has led to limited opportunities and resources for those who grew up in the area.
“Before that, it was… just about surviving. There was no room to really grow,” said Knight, 33. “You don’t see a future, you don’t see yourself as a nurse.” “You hear about it, but you can’t see it in reality.”
It is an area that locals deeply understand as underserved High school graduate She made local news this year because she was valedictorian, despite growing up in 93706, a West Fresno zip code.
“I can graduate with the highest honors despite the lack of resources and the violence we have on the West Side,” Oswith “Uzi” Ramirez Gallegos said during her speech, as reported by the Fresno Bee.
This history is why Fresno City College’s newest site was carefully chosen to be built within a one- to two-mile radius of more than 10 K-12 schools.
“We operated from a place of intent,” said Payne, who grew up in West Fresno and was elected trustee of the State Center Community College District board in 2012. “How can we attract the most students to this community college?”
The answer to that question was twofold: building the new campus within walking distance of K-12 schools, as well as reaching out to students and staff at those schools to attract them to campus and eventually enroll in courses.
Payne and campus leaders stressed that the college’s long-term vision is to create a space that not only disrupts the area’s school-to-prison pipeline, but also connects West Fresno more deeply to the rest of the city.
“I think the location is probably the best decision that the community members and the administration have made to make sure that 93706 is no longer left behind,” said one of the campus leaders, Gurminder Sangha, dean of educational services at West Fresno Center.
The 39 acres on which the school stands today was empty before it was built.
Financial support was secured to purchase the land and build the facility A range of ways: Partial funding from a $485 million facility bond approved by voters in 2016, a $16.5 million grant awarded by the city of Fresno through the Transformative Community Climate Program, and an additional $11 million directly from the city.
Included in the mix was Donate an area of 6 acres From TFS Investments, a real estate investment firm that owns part of the land where the campus now stands.
The land has since been converted into an open campus, with an automotive technology center opening in the new year, where students will train for degrees in electric vehicle mechanics and in alternative fuels such as diesel technology.
Degrees and programs The campus includes access to medical assistant certifications, chemistry and biology labs, business courses, elementary education training, and more.
There is also a newly constructed city bus stop at the school’s front entrance over the previously existing entrance Route 38, with service every 15 minutes between 6am and 6pm on weekdays.
Community members have long expressed their frustration Unreliable public transportation system. The new station and accompanying free bus passes for students are intended to increase accessibility to and from campus.
Perhaps the most visible thing connecting the new campus to the local West Fresno community is the one-mile walking trail with exercise equipment that surrounds the campus, which will be open to all once construction is completed.
The amenities and services offered at the new campus contrast with the larger West Fresno community, where basics like grocery stores, banks, and even trees are uncommon. In light of this contradiction, school has become a refuge for many. For example, Knight noticed that her children enjoyed walking from their house down the street to campus.
Those entering the main campus lobby are greeted by staff and colleagues assigned to work in the Student Services Department located on the first floor of the same building where many of the College’s academic courses are offered.
From counseling, basic needs resources, financial aid and records, students can easily find the right person to talk to because these desks are some of the first things they see when they walk into the lobby. Perhaps the clearest welcome is the large letters above those desks, which say: “You belong here.”
Except for the parts of the campus that will remain under construction until the beginning of next year — the auto center and the walking trail — it’s hard to believe the school only opened this fall; The facility has the typical buzz of a college campus. Some students take their middle-class breaks in the main lobby, which can also be used as a student lounge area, with snacks available for purchase and soft classical music playing in the background.
Others teach in the Academic Support Centers on the second floor, where they also have a clear view of the greater West Fresno community.
Sangha expects the resources available to expand as the school community grows.
Talks about building the campus began nearly two decades ago, and the actual construction took about two years, Sangha said.
Payne noted that he remembers hearing about a college in West Fresno when he was in high school more than two decades ago, but “it never materialized,” so he left Fresno at that time to attend Alabama A&M University.
When he returned to his hometown years later, he began organizing with his former neighbors and joined a movement to lobby for what eventually became West Fresno Center. If he had been around when he was in high school, he said, he might have chosen to stay in the city he grew up in, and more of his peers might have had better life outcomes and opportunities.
“A lot of people I graduated with are dead, incarcerated, a lot of people who are barely making a living financially,” he said. “There was a hunger for this facility; “There was a hunger to achieve better results.”
This thirst is slowly being reflected in the number of students enrolling from the West Fresno community. Of the 800 students enrolled during the first fall semester since its grand opening, 130 students are taking courses exclusively at this campus, about 125 of whom live in the 93706 ZIP code, and about 160 live in 93722, the ZIP code just north of campus.
With its doors now open, plans are in place to offer college credit to local high school students. At three nearby high schools — Edison, Washington Union and Kerman — students are already enrolled in dual enrollment courses held on their high school campuses. Sometime next year, according to Sangha, the West Fresno center plans to offer courses to high school students on the college campus so they can earn additional credits.
“It’s really an academic village in a way, where students can imagine themselves walking from school to school, and then they come to us and go to Fresno State or wherever they want to go,” Sangha said.
Knight graduated from high school about 15 years ago and moved to Los Angeles to attend Santa Monica College, but her move coincided with the 2008 economic recession and she could not afford to stay in Los Angeles, so she returned to Fresno and enrolled at Fresno City College, but left shortly after Pregnancy.
“My journey to school was…completely different,” she said. “I’ve tried to come back over the years, and I don’t think I was ready.”
During the pandemic, she enrolled in school again. She said that the support she received at the center made a big difference for her.
“My teachers really care about my attendance, whether I’m late or have to leave and take care of my kids or come back — which doesn’t happen very often, but the fact that I have that support is important.” She said.
Knight, a graduate of the Fresno Unified School District whose mother and grandmother worked in Fresno Unified schools, now plans to continue raising her children in West Fresno. She will complete her studies in Human Biology, Public Health and Pre-Auxiliary Health this month and will begin graduate school in May.
“Living across the street and seeing the building from the ground up was everything to me,” said Knight, a mother of two who is pregnant with twins. “It changed my whole mindset about Fresno, to be honest with you.”
Betty Marquez Rosales is based in the Bay Area and covers juvenile justice, youth homelessness and other educational topics for EdSource.org.
The residents of West Fresno have long been seeking hope and opportunities for improvement in their community. Now, that hope comes in the form of a new campus that is set to bring much-needed resources and support to the area. With this development, there is renewed optimism for a brighter future for the residents of West Fresno, as they look forward to the positive changes that this campus will bring to their neighborhood.