Can’t Keep Gandhy Down

SBCC’s School of Extended Learning
Helps High-School Rebel Find Her Path

By Tyler Hayden | November 16, 2023

Read all of the stories in our “Schools of Thought 2023” cover here.

Gandhy Jimenez, born in Guerrero, Mexico, and raised in Santa Barbara, was “somewhat of a rebel child” in high school, she said. From San Marcos she was sent to La Cuesta, and then to another alternative school, before dropping out. But she didn’t stay down for long.

Inspired by her little sister who had parlayed an SBCC associate’s degree into a master’s from Cal Poly — “I wanted to be proud of myself, like she was,” Jimenez said — Jimenez soon made her way to SBCC’s School of Extended Learning (SEL). There she found her footing and fewer distractions. “It just was a better fit,” she explained, appreciating the more “adult setting” of the Schott Center and a schedule that worked with hers.

When she was eight months pregnant, Jimenez received her high school diploma. Fast-forward a few years, and she’d completed her associate’s degree as well as a medical certificate program that set her up for jobs at local nonprofit clinics, including Sansum and the Neighborhood Clinics. She enjoyed the work and helping others, which had always been her passion, but she felt like she wasn’t growing.

At this point, Jimenez and her husband had three girls at home. Still, she found time to take SEL evening courses in business and administration, as well as Chicano Studies. She and her husband agreed she’d quit her job and devote all her time to school. He’d support them. Then COVID hit. Jimenez’s grandmother died. Her husband was deported. But again, she wasted little time feeling sorry for herself.

In a serendipitously full-circle moment, Jimenez landed a job this summer as the SBCC Foundation’s Promise Coordinator, where she helps other Santa Barbara grads navigate their options for college. Her day-to-day includes conducting outreach at high schools, answering questions about requirements, coordinating with academic counselors, and generally acting as a liaison between young people and an institution they may not be familiar with and are perhaps intimidated by.

“That’s my favorite part,” Jimenez said. “Helping make connections and facilitating the transfer process.” In another full-circle twist, her oldest daughter is also now a Promise student. “I want to be an example for my daughters,” she said. “I want them to know that whatever life throws at us, we can overcome it. We’re strong.”

Carola Smith, assistant superintendent/vice president of SBCC’s School of Extended Learning, said the 70-year-old program offers a variety of credit and non-credit courses that can bridge to any number of academic pursuits, from GED diplomas to ESL certificates to short-term credential programs “that help students get right into the job market,” she said.

“Higher education has become much less chronological,” Smith said, with more emphasis now being placed on actual ability rather than degrees. “A lot more students, especially adult learners, are coming back to re-skill or up-skill in order to advance in their career or get another job. It’s a lot more circular.” And the numbers don’t lie. SEL’s enrollment figures went up 16 percent this year, she said.