Santa Rosa Junior College Culinary Arts alumnus Robert Nieto is representing the US this week at a major international competition in France. The USA Pastry Team will compete in the Mondial des Arts Sucres (MDAS) in Paris. The team is composed of three pastry chefs: Oscar Ortega (coach, left, Wyoming), Rhonda Ashton (chef, center, Wyoming), and Robert Nieto (chef, right, California). They have intensively prepared for the grueling 2-day (19 hours) "sugar race" on Feb 5th and 6th.

Five international students enrolled in a Santa Rosa Junior College advertising class took top honors in the 2017 winner-take-all $25,000 Big Ad Challenge with a unique campaign designed to support and promote the Community Child Care Council (4Cs) of Sonoma County. SRJC has won this competition for three years in a row now. The full article was published in the North Bay Business Journal.

Education has the power to raise students’ earning potential and increase their employability. In a study conducted by Economic Modeling Specialists International, Santa Rosa Junior College students were expected to receive higher wages that will continue to grow throughout their working lives. On average, SRJC students were projected to receive a cumulative $2.50 in higher future earnings for every $1 they invested in their education.

On a campus featuring a beautifully restored historic mission, the SRJC debate team resumed its season by winning the parliamentary debate tournament championships at Santa Clara University. Santa Rosa continued to amass national season sweepstakes points while debating national and international issues. 

SRJC participants in the open division went undefeated, surpassing teams from UC Berkeley and other universities. SRJCs students won awards for individual speaking excellence and top tournament speaker. 

SRJC student Percy Dlamini applied online for over 200 jobs before he finally got an interview at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, followed by a job offer as a Pathology Lab Assistant. His determination to overcome his disability (Percy is deaf), as well as his innovative work skills, recently won him the Individual Initiative Award from The Sonoma County Mayors’ Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

On January 8th and 9th, Santa Rosa Junior College welcomed 25 new international students at the Spring 2018 International Student Program Welcome Days.