Someday Juana Gonzalez hopes to be an actress, but for now she’s the average Palo Alto College student.

Gonzalez, a 19-year-old Latina freshman at Palo Alto is a first-generation college student. She lives in the 78211 zip code and she graduated from Harlandale High School. Juana represents the typical student at Palo Alto. “I chose Palo Alto because it’s close to home and I heard it had a good theatre program,” said Gonzalez.

In Fall 2000, there were 4,368 Hispanic students, 1,731 Anglo students and 182 African-American students on campus. Of these students, 2,454 were male and 3,930 were female. More than half of the students at Palo Alto are between the ages of 19 and 21.

“Basically, there is a high number of minorities at Palo Alto because of campus locality,” said Patricia Medina, Statistical Research Specialist at Palo Alto. Many also come to Palo Alto because it is the only campus on the Southside that offers a four-year degree from Texas A&M University-Kingsville System Center- Palo Alto.

Also, not many are aware that the faculty at Palo Alto College is also comprised primarily of women. Fifty- seven percent of faculty at Palo Alto is female. Furthermore, 60 percent of them are Hispanic.

Originally, citizens and leaders in the community saw the need for a college on the underserved Southside. When the Palo Alto campus opened its doors officially in 1987, the $13 million dollar campus was built to accommodate 2,050 students. Since then, Palo Alto has seen much physical growth and expansion.

The major feeder schools for Palo Alto are South San Antonio High School, McCollum High School, Harlandale High School and Southwest High School. Last semester, Bexar County was the top feeder county with 5319 students, but 392 students also came from Atascosa County, and 233 students came from Medina County.

Many students are attracted to Palo Alto because of its high transfer rate. “ I chose Palo Alto because there are reasonable class sizes, and many universities will accept a transfer from Palo Alto,” said Christopher Longoria, a freshman Radiology major.

Many students at Palo Alto College participate in a 2+2 program, which allows students’ credits to transfer to a four-year university. “ I think this program is great because you don’t have to worry about your credits not transferring and you can concentrate on doing good in your classes,” said Ricardo Garcia, a second-year student majoring in Business Administration.

Amongst the students participating in a 2+2 program last semester, there were 121 students who transferred to the University of Texas at San Antonio, 31 students transferred to Texas A&M at Kingsville and 28 students to the University of Texas at Austin.

There are also students at Palo Alto who don’t really set foot on campus on a regular basis. Taking classes via the Internet has been a growing trend at Palo Alto. These classes offer at-home convenience for some students. In the Spring of 2001, there were more than 950 students enrolled in Internet classes. Telecourses are also popular at Palo Alto. In the Spring of 2001, there were 597 students registered for these classes.

Students at Palo Alto balance school with work. Thirty-nine percent of all students at Palo Alto last semester were employed full-time, 27 percent of students were employed part-time and the remaining 34 percent were not employed.

As for Juana Gonzalez, she will be on campus for one more semester, and she will take fond memories with her. “The theatre students are close like a family,” said Gonzalez. “It’s been good here at Palo Alto.”