Seven Years of Kept Promises

Thousands of Santa Barbara High School
Grads Have Now Participated in
SBCC’s Free Tuition Program

By Tyler Hayden | November 16, 2023

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

It was 2016 when the SBCC Foundation made an announcement that seemed too good to be true — all recent, local high school graduates would have the opportunity to attend the community college full-time at no cost. Relying entirely on private support, the SBCC Promise would cover all required fees, books, and supplies for up to two years.

Since then, more than 7,000 students have taken up SBCC on its generous offer. Though enrollment dipped during the pandemic, more than 1,800 are enrolled for the fall 2023 semester, a new high-water mark for the Promise program.

Many of the participants are first-generation college students who previously didn’t see a path to higher education for themselves. One such student is Adrian Flores Mejia, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees after graduating from SBCC in 2018 and now works at Yardi, a regional software company.

“The Promise really laid the foundation for me,” said Mejia, who, in addition to his tech ambitions, is also a budding Chicano Studies scholar. Mejia’s degrees were in that subject, and next spring, he’ll teach a 101 course at SBCC. “I got the best of both worlds,” he said.

Like many college freshmen, Mejia had a hard time settling on a major during his first year in the Promise program. He took classes in business, math, and hospitality, but it wasn’t until his initial Chicano Studies course that he knew where his interest truly lay. “Everything just made so much sense,” he said. “Being a first-generation student, I felt represented and like I belonged in that space. … I want to advocate for students who look like me and are in the same position as I was.”

Mejia said his mom made sure he didn’t squander the opportunity SBCC was providing him. “She told me, ‘You have no excuse now,’ ” he remembered. “ ‘You don’t have to worry about working or paying for anything. All you need to worry about is getting good grades.’ ” His family is incredibly proud, Mejia said, though his cousins now rib him that he set the bar too high for the rest of them.

Mejia hopes people realize just how fortunate Santa Barbara is to have the Promise, and he feels like it’s his responsibility to help spread the word. “Not only are you offered two years of college,” he said, “you’re offered it at one of the best community colleges in the country. People sometimes don’t understand the depth and quality of the program. It doesn’t get the credit it deserves.” Mejia recently spoke at a Promise event and met some of the donors, whom he made a point to thank individually. “Because it wouldn’t have been possible without them,” he said.

Geoff Green, CEO of the SBCC Foundation, said he couldn’t be happier with the results of the program after seven years. “It’s proven to be just as successful as I imagined it would be,” he said. While other communities may offer similar assistance to their high school grads, most don’t possess the same high level of community support and buy-in that the Promise does. “We’re very lucky to have the local resources that we do,” he said.