William Jessup University on Saturday will mark a milestone in its 69-year history, graduating its largest class and the first students to come to the Rocklin campus.
More than 200 students will graduate from the private, Christian-based school. Several applied to the university when its Rocklin home was only a vision and a former furniture warehouse off Highway 65.
"I felt like I wanted to be a part of something big – there were just so many opportunities," said Alyssa De-Young, a Folsom High School graduate who will earn a degree in psychology.
Officials expect the university to double its student population to 1,200 over the next five years and plan to add amenities to accommodate the growth. In the meantime, students say they are proud to have built a close-knit community.
Students have shared smiles passing in the outdoor plazas hemmed by buildings in bright shades of yellow, purple and green. Inside classrooms, they've shared knowledge and their most intimate thoughts about life, God and society. Professors are called by their first names.
"We're a family," student Michael La Farge said. "We don't say that to people because it's cliché, but we feel it."
In August 2004, William Jessup University relocated its main campus from an eight-acre site in San Jose to 125 acres along Rocklin's Sunset Boulevard. Administrators were looking for room to expand from the college's roots as a traditional, nondenominational Bible college.
William Jessup University, formerly San Jose Christian College, now offers an array of secular disciplines – from liberal arts to business majors. It is considered "Sacramento area's only four-year private university," according to the college's Web site. To help bolster its reputation, William Jessup is moving forward with plans for new dormitories, dining and conference facilities, a gymnasium, classrooms, parking and offices. The planned amenities, along with financial offers, are helping to woo students shut out by crowded public universities.
"It's very important for us not to become an elite institution because of lack of space," said Joe Womack, university vice president for advancement.
But tuition can be expensive at $20,000 a year and $5,500 for room and board. The university is striving to be accessible to a range of "serious" students, Womack said, by offering grants to those leaving area community colleges. William Jessup also will pay the difference in tuition compared with any University of California campus. At least 85 percent of students at William Jessup receive financial aid, Womack said.
Students said the price is worth the smaller classes, averaging 15 students.
"At first, I didn't want to go to a small college," said DeYoung, who decided to apply to William Jessup because her father worked there. "But now I love being in a small, family environment."
DeYoung was among students who recently shared their experiences growing up with the campus over the past four years.
"We were 18 when we came to this little school, and there was so much excitement," DeYoung said.
The four-year students recalled late nights in the dormitories spent laughing, guitar "air band" competitions, open-mic nights and Frisbee tournaments. Then there was the barbecue at a professor's home to study for a midterm.
"Who does that?" La Farge said as he recalled the study session.
La Farge, a youth ministries major, said he came to William Jessup from a small town in Washington. He had heard good things from his parents, who are alumni. During his first visit to the campus, he wasn't disappointed.
"I remember feeling like the staff already saw me here," La Farge said. "They talked to me like a person and not like money in the bank."
Some students have come to William Jessup as missionaries from other countries, but most are Sacramento-grown and others, such as Jessie Jackowski, came to the Rocklin campus from the Bay Area. As a pastoral ministries major, Jackowski said she was drawn by the large number of local churches of various denominations.Building on students' broad background of denominations, professors have challenged their classes to consider other points of view about life. In a class on Christian author C.L. Lewis – best known for "The Chronicles of Narnia" series – students discussed the difference between love and kindness, the meaning of pain and the author's biblical references in his story lines. It was the kind of discourse that recognizes differing views and yet connects students, mind and soul.
"Someone from the outside may say we are all Christians, but we are stretched religiously and culturally," Jackowski said.
Call the Bee's Lakiesha McGhee at (916) 773-7630.
