Since most prospective graduate students must balance career, family, and civic commitments with academic responsibilities, course convenience and program flexibility are key drivers in their decision-making process. In Santa Barbara — where climate resilience, affordable housing, education equity, and community connectedness are top of mind — flexibility alone is not enough. Graduate students here want programs with purpose.
That is precisely what Antioch University at large, and Antioch Santa Barbara (AUSB), in particular, have provided not just for years, but for decades. Rooted in social justice and civic engagement, Antioch’s five campus-system helps adult learners advance their careers while addressing the region’s most urgent challenges.
Paving Degree Completion Pathways at SBCC
Antioch’s Santa Barbara campus was founded in 1977. Since 2023, Antioch has been located on the stunning campus of Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), enjoying a strategic public–private alliance with this invaluable regional asset. The AU-SBCC partnership helps community college students pave a transfer path to a four-year degree and a meaningful, productive career. Together, AUSB and SBCC help students chart direct pathways to bachelor’s-degree completion and graduate-level credentials.
If we telescope the AUSB/SBCC connection, we see that it allows hometown students to finish their bachelor’s degrees at AUSB in high-demand areas such as business and entrepreneurship or environmental studies. For a community that faces droughts, fires, and coastal erosion, local expertise in environmental studies is critical.Similarly, in a California city where business leaders often prefer to “grow their own,” AUSB’s program in business and entrepreneurship is a natural fit.
SBCC students in these two fields, as well as those in other academic areas, can move directly into Antioch’s graduate programs (online or at the SBCC campus) without leaving Santa Barbara or sacrificing work and family commitments.
Graduate Programs with Local Impact
Just like the bachelor degree completion program, Antioch’s graduate offerings are designed for students who see education as a tool for social change. The Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology, long a flagship at AUSB, ensures that students develop trauma-informed skills, multicultural awareness, and LGBTQ+ affirmative approaches. To meet the Central Coast’s demographic needs for bilingual and Latinx-informed therapists, the AUSB’s Clinical Psychology program also proudly offers a specialized concentration in Latinx mental health. A majority of our psychology students complete their clinical training with one of 75+ local partner agencies, creating a pipeline of skilled professionals who continue serving the Central Coast.
In psychology, education, leadership, and more, Antioch Santa Barbara graduates don’t just leave with a degree. They leave prepared to serve in nonprofit clinics, schools, and private practices across the region and beyond. Today, more than four decades after Antioch put down roots in Santa Barbara, our local alumni include counselors strengthening the region’s mental health network, educators reshaping classrooms, and sustainability leaders protecting the coastline.
Why It Matters Now
We live in a country where democracy is eroding and authoritarian voices are growing louder. Now more than ever, education’s role in strengthening civic life is essential. Antioch has a 175-year legacy of helping students practice democracy, not merely study it. For nearly two centuries, Antioch has connected learners to mission-driven organizations through community-based projects in the very places where they live and work.
As a longtime California resident, I see Santa Barbara as uniquely suited for this kind of engagement. With its tightly connected network of businesses, nonprofits, and civic leaders, Santa Barbara offers an ideal setting for Antioch and its students to test and refine the skills of ethical, community-minded leadership in real time. Here, where personal relationships matter and decisions ripple quickly across sectors, our students can see firsthand how collaboration keeps democracy vibrant and strong.
Looking Ahead
As Antioch University’s new president, I have spent my much of first couple months on the job meeting with Central Coast leaders who want the next generation of Santa Barbara leaders to be not only well educated but also deeply committed to making a positive impact.
Antioch University, Santa Barbara stands ready to work with you to develop such leaders. We want to be your partner in shaping a future for Santa Barbara that is as intentional as it is dynamic, as forward-looking as it is rooted in community. Together, we can prepare the next generation not only to succeed, but to serve — strengthening a city whose influence reaches well beyond the Central Coast.
Lori Varlotta, PhD, serves as the 23rd president of Antioch University and as executive vice president of the Coalition for the Common Good, a network of affiliated private, nonprofit colleges and universities that provides transformative education and lifelong learning.
