What do Princeton, Duke, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Cal (Berkeley), Yale, and Radcliffe (Harvard) have to do with Bakersfield College? Not much, besides occupying the names of the streets that line BC’s Southern and Western perimeter, and seemingly pointing out what BC is not.

However, the true beauty lies within its differences. So much so, that I’ve come to the conclusion that BC is just as significant as the institutions that name the surrounding streets.

For one, our beloved community college is a diamond in the rough, with its greatness coming from within rather than being bolstered throughout its historical exterior.

Furthermore, its diverse student makeup includes 30% of students from the age of 20-29, and 22% who are 30 years of age or older, which shows exactly how BC is offering second chances to all those in need of one. Whether it’s previous dropouts, single mothers, or all those who life has chewed up and spit out, BC is here for everyone.

BC continues to act as a glowing beacon of hope. It affords dreamers the ability to chase their most ambitious of dreams, nurtures a key sense of community, attracts first-generation students, and grants asylum to undocumented students.

Our beloved community college opens its doors to all. It catches the ones who have fallen in between the cracks, and never does it close its doors to the community in which it was built to serve.

All who attend BC share the common goal of bettering their lives through education. This beautiful quality is what unites everyone in a diverse campus. It’s a school of second chances and fearless dream chasing, one that would be nothing without its inhabitants, nothing without you.

BC reverberates across an entire community and the lives of many, of an otherwise forgotten people, and this is why it has earned its rightful place amongst the greatest of higher learning institutions.

So, to the house of misfits and those who are just trying to make it, to the forgotten ones and the ill-fated, to the dreamers and believers, BC was here for you yesterday, is here for you today, and will be here for you tomorrow. Faithfully reflecting its students, staff, and faculty, who are not fond of following suit, the renegade school is in a league of its own.