More than a decade ago while teaching at a community college, Connie Renda, a professor of health information management, met a student whose mother and father never expected him to go to college.
His parents’ education stopped at about the eighth grade. But he graduated with a Bachelor of Science, before working his way up to a high-paying supervisor role at a health care company.
His diploma, though, wasn’t from a four-year university. Instead, he earned it from San Diego Mesa, a community college that cost a fraction of the traditional price of a four-year education.
