West Valley College is working on new initiatives to support its growing student base of older adults in collaboration with Successful Aging Solutions and Community Consulting.
Related Articles
UC Berkeley professor killed in Greece: Suspect claims he ‘did it all for’ victim’s ex-wife, leaked police confession reveals
Cuts to science grants force San Jose researchers, student to scramble
Stanford protesters facing felony vandalism charges defer pleas
Who hires the most UC alumni? New data shows the top employers of graduates
Silicon Valley Pain Index finds poverty, inequality continue to plague South Bay
The organization, abbreviated as SASCC, provides direct services for older adults and consulting for nonprofits, said CEO Tylor Taylor. On July 15, the West Valley-Mission Community College District Board of Trustees voted to continue its partnership with the SASCC for Senior Guided Pathways, the nation’s first community college program designed to make education more accessible and meaningful for adults ages 50 and older.
The program creates pipelines for student over age 50 who are looking for job training and lifelong learning opportunities, or want to upscale or rescale their job skills to remain in the workforce.
“I think oftentimes we have assumption around aging and what the needs might be, but there are some individuals who are coming back for a second career,” said West Valley College President Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza. “They’re rescaling or upscaling or they have certain financial needs or barriers that make them getting a certificate or degree not only appropriate but beneficial to them to have longevity and a livelihood.”
Brad Davis, chancellor of the West-Valley Mission Community College District, said older adult students are interested in everything from building their own small businesses to technology and engineering to art and design courses like architecture, interior design and fashion.
The district formed a partnership with SASCC in response to declining enrollment. Davis said the district was hit by the same decrease in enrollment that affected higher education institutions throughout the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of students at West Valley College dropped sharply during the pandemic, from about 7,600 students in fall 2020 to around 6,900 the following year. However, that number has been rebounding: As of fall 2024, the student headcount was around 7,700. Between fall 2021 and spring 2023, the proportion of students over the age of 50 has stayed above 6%.
Falling birth rates and competitive educational opportunities added to the district’s declining enrollment, SASCC CEO Tylor Taylor said. At the same time, surveys by the nonprofit revealed that older adults were planning to work well into their mid to late 70s, both for financial reasons and reasons related to purpose. Factoring in its location in an area with a lot of older adults, West Valley College pivoted to bring more older adults into an institution thought to traditionally serve a younger demographic.
“As a society generally, we are living longer, we need more money and we need to keep ourselves going,” Taylor said.
SASCC’s involvement with the district began in 2018, when Davis was president of West Valley College. They worked together with the World Health Organization and the AARP to get the college designated as the nation’s first age-friendly community campus. Eventually, they launched a pilot version of the Senior Guided Pathways program with the goal of enrolling 200 students. Taylor said they enrolled over 900 students over age 50 in the program’s first term and more than 1,100 students the following semester.
“We are so excited about Senior Guided Pathways, and not only have we embraced it, but we are pioneers,” Taylor-Mendoza said. “We hope the model at West Valley-Mission Community College District will be an exemplar, a model for other colleges.”
The program also aims to support industries that work with aging people. Starting this fall, Taylor said SASCC is helping develop a Community Caregiver Certificate Program to help meet the demand for trained and skilled workers in the aging services industry, which includes caregivers, community health workers, wellness coaches and lead care managers. An advisory board at the college was formed to develop the program, including representatives from the AARP, Alzheimer’s Association, El Camino Health and The Terraces of Los Gatos.
SASCC manages the Saratoga Senior Center and Saratoga Adult Day License Facility and operates the senior transportation program RYDE. They also provide consulting for smaller nonprofits for grant writing, sustainability, networking and community organizing.
Taylor said that later this year, SASCC and West Valley College will start planning to a establish a Center for Aging on campus. Taylor-Mendoza said that plans are still in the works but has proposed incorporating it into the college’s new wellness center that’s due to open in a few years.
The center would serve multiple purposes for older adults and people with mobility needs, like providing a gathering space and allowing them to meet with affinity groups. It would also serve as a hub for research on the impact of education in later years.
“Research, if well done, can lead to a lot of fundamental policy changes,” Taylor said.