After 24 years of leadership, Santiago Canyon College Vice President of Continuing Education Jose Vargas is set to retire at the end of this month. Vargas served in a number of crucial roles for the college, including stepping in as interim president during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as his current role in which he has overseen the exponential growth of SCC’s Division of Continuing Education.
Born in Mexico, Vargas migrated with his family to the U.S. when he was 6 years old. The oldest of six children, he grew up in the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles, and when he graduated from high school, he intended on entering the workforce with no plans of continuing with his education.
While pursuing a short-term technical trade program, Vargas reconsidered his chosen path and decided to enroll in East Los Angeles College.
“Somewhere in that period, I figured this can’t be it for me,” Vargas said. “I needed to do more.”
Vargas put his studies at ELAC on pause when he joined the U.S. Army, and while finishing his commitment through inactive duty, he returned to ELAC to complete his associate degree in general education as a first-generation graduate. His love for math combined with his technical background in electronics led him to the adult education arm of Los Angeles Unified School District as a vocational math instructor. His new role as an educator inspired him to pursue administration, and he shifted his focus to becoming a principal.
“I charted out exactly everything I had to do to become a principal, and I started going after it,” Vargas said.
After earning a bachelor of science degree in business administration, with an emphasis in computer information systems, and a master of arts degree in educational administration from Cal State Dominguez Hills, Vargas served as a principal in Los Angeles Unified Adult Education until joining SCC as the dean of Instruction and Student Services.
Within a year, Vargas was named vice president of Continuing Education, and he helped to guide the department through significant growth. He will leave his position having achieved record-breaking numbers for the college in this area, but it wasn’t without its challenges.
After several years of increasing enrollment, the U.S. faced a recession in 2008, resulting in severe budget cuts in education. As Vargas and his team worked to rebuild the school’s continuing education enrollment numbers, the department was hit with another setback.
In 2012, the state-of-the-art building that SCC Continuing Education called its home since 2005 was deemed unsafe, forcing the department to vacate the space. Classes were moved to various locations, including SCC’s main campus in Orange, a model that is still in place to this day.
“We were somewhat in survival mode … and I did my part to find places in the city where we could move into and continue our education,” Vargas said. “Shutting down the program was not an option.”
Despite not having a centralized campus building, the growth of SCC Continuing Education remained strong until another curveball arrived – a worldwide pandemic. During that same period, Vargas stepped in as SCC’s interim president and helped guide the college through a new way of delivering education.
“COVID forced us to experiment and transition to an online education format,” Vargas said. “The beauty of distance education is that now it allows us to reach students that are outside of our service area. So if you’re in California, we can service you.”
After serving as interim president for 14 months, Vargas was named interim vice president of Academic Affairs and interim vice president of Student Services before moving back to his current position. His accomplishments in his roles include advancing state legislation to provide adult education course funding that is equal to standard credit courses.
“It says that all Californians are equal, all Californians are valued and all Californians have a right to pursue education, regardless of where they begin,” Vargas said.
The 2023-2024 academic year saw SCC’s highest Continuing Education enrollment ever, exceeding 3,000 full-time equivalent students, which translated into approximately 13,000 students served. Ranked fifth in the state in terms of size for adult education at community colleges, the numbers reflect how SCC is filling a need for Californians, both local and statewide.
“Without the service that we provide, there would be millions of Californians who would be greatly underserved and would not have the ability or opportunity to benefit from this great country and this great state,” Vargas said.
Once he officially retires on Aug. 28, Vargas and his wife, Maribel, will spend time with their family and grandchildren, travel and explore what his next steps might be. As he reflects on his time at SCC, it was serving the adult student community that has been the most impactful.
“The most important part for me is serving the adult students that are in need of the services that adult education offers,” Vargas said. “I hope that whatever work I’ve done, that there’ve been many who have been able to benefit from it.”
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