The Carrington College California Stockton campus, located in California’s Central Valley, is the educational home of 380 students and 35 faculty and staff. I spoke with David Kaye, Campus Executive Director, and Anna Meli- Sandoval, Director of Enrollment Services, to learn more about life on campus in Stockton, California.
“We opened our doors in April of 2005 and we occupy 20,404 square feet in two buildings. The first building was remodeled to our specifications when we moved in. Then a couple of years ago we added a second building, sharing the same parking lot, with some additional classrooms for three of our programs. We actually just recently went through a campus makeover. We’re walking distance from a couple of malls. There are lots of places around for students to grab some lunch and do some shopping. They’re all busy people so it’s good that we have stores and lots of fast food places close by.”
The Stockton campus offers students seven programs to choose from; Criminal Justice, Dental Assisting, Health Care Administration, Massage Therapy, Medical Assisting, Pharmacy Technology and Veterinary Technology. While the majority of students are local, some do travel quite a distance as Anna explains.
“We do have students that travel up to an hour for our Veterinary Technology program in particular; from as far south as Merced, as far north as Galt, and from the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas to our east – places like Calaveras. Veterinary Technology and Medical Assisting are our most popular programs right now.”
The campus has a number of excellent facilities that combine to create a truly motivational learning environment. Modern classrooms and high-tech labs enable students to work with the tools and technology used by real-world professionals. But as David explains, one of their most recent additions is not a traditional classroom or lab.
“Our Student Success Center – we’re pretty proud of it. It’s a very busy place now. The room used to be a library in a very small room; it housed our books and a librarian who nobody ever visited – she was very lonely! So we moved it into a full size classroom; all the books are on one wall and there are lots of computer workstations and workgroup study tables in there. We have a full-time Student Success Manager and a part-time Student Success Coach on hand to help our students anyway they can. Students come and research papers, they prep for tests, enjoy some tutoring, access the online databases, they study together in workgroups. It’s a pretty active room.”
As well as formal classroom lectures, Carrington students also get the chance to work ‘hands on’ in regular laboratory sessions. Take our Vet Tech students for example, they get to work side-by-side with faculty members in veterinary settings, working with live animals and animal simulators. Much of this priceless clinical experience is gained on campus, as Anna explains.
“We have a very well equipped Veterinary Technology Surgery Suite; it’s one of the highlights of our program. With industry-standard equipment from anesthesia to x-rays and an on-ground veterinarian, it’s definitely a facility that we’re proud to showcase. It’s a great advantage for our students to be able to get such real-world practice on campus.”
According to Anna, it’s not just prospective Veterinary Technicians who have facilities to boast about in Stockton. We don’t have time to go into every lab, but David & Anna expanded a little on the facilities available to Dental Assisting and Pharmacy Technology students.
“Our Dental Assisting lab is just amazing; it’s designed just like a real-world dental office. It’s a large space with four well-equipped operatories, which is plenty to cycle everybody through. Students can work off current equipment like digital x-rays, but they learn how to do traditional x-rays too. Pharmacy Technology students have both retail and hospital settings in their lab that simulate where they may find themselves working in the real world. They have a sterile environment and a flow hood to practice in; they even have a cash register in the retail setting. Most of us sit down at a computer, but not in a pharmacy. So they have a bank of computers where they stand to work, just like they would in a pharmacy setting.”
The Stockton campus faculty and staff work hard every day to help students achieve professional success through education, providing hands-on training that can prepare them to enter one of today’s fast growing careers. But it can’t all be work, work, work as Anna explains.
“One of the key things that we do at the campus is try to have fun. We dedicate one week every quarter to student appreciation. Every department, in fact the whole campus, gets involved in organizing some fun events. The last one was just a couple of weeks ago in October.”
After eight years in the area, the campus does its best to be active participants in the community. This enables the school to give back, and can provide valuable real-world experience for students in a number of programs.
“Our students are pretty involved in the community; this month, in fact every November around Thanksgiving, many of our students help out at St Mary’s Food Bank. And our Veterinary Technology students also regularly help at local animal shelters; the shelters’ events are geared to caring for the pets of the homeless. They can bring their animals in to be spayed or neutered, to have their teeth cleaned, or have vaccinations, or just for an animal health check.”
As well as offering chair massages at a variety of off-campus events, Massage Therapy students give back to local high school teachers in a very popular way.
“They go into the high schools and offer massages to the staff. The teachers really enjoy that; we’ve actually had a lot of additional high schools reach out to us to participate. Unsurprisingly it’s been a very positive response.”
To close our conversation I asked David what, in his opinion, makes the Stockton campus stand out.
“It might sound clichéd to say, but I honestly believe it’s our people. When you step back and look at the big picture and the culture of Carrington, it’s based on real people not just numbers. Our culture has always been, and will hopefully always be, that we do what’s right for our students.”
The faculty and staff at our Stockton campus do everything they can to make sure you leave with the tools you need to achieve success in your chosen career. From a proactive Enrollment Services team, to an experienced, enthusiastic faculty, to a dedicated Career Services department, the goal of entire Stockton campus family is to help you get from where you are, to where you want to be.
“Our next Veterinary Technology classes start November 25th, while classes for all our other programs start December 2nd. I encourage anyone out there in the Stockton area thinking about entering a career in health care to come see our campus and meet our people for yourself.”
If you have friends or family in the Stockton area who could benefit from learning more about our campus, why not share this blog post with them and have them visit carrington.edu/schools/stockton-california. They could be ready to start classes in just a few weeks, maybe even before Thanksgiving! For comprehensive consumer information on our programs, visit carrington.edu Program availability varies by location.
