El Camino College
El Camino College is a two-year public
community college located in the city of
Torrance in
Los Angeles County,
California. It consists of 37 buildings spanning an area of roughly 26 acres (105,000 m²).
The El Camino Community College District was officially established as of July 1, 1947. Today the college serves nearly 25,000 students of a diverse background within the El Camino Community College District, including the cities of
El Segundo,
Manhattan Beach,
Hermosa Beach,
Redondo Beach,
Torrance,
Lawndale,
Hawthorne,
Lennox and
Inglewood. El Camino College offers nearly 2,500 different classes offered in some 850 different programs, including
vocational, undergraduate, and honors courses, many available in online and televised formats for distance education.
El Camino is known for its large program in English as a Second Language (ESL) which emphasizes a strong academic approach to prepare students for college-level work in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Students who have maintained continuous attendance may choose to graduate under the catalog requirements in effect at the time they graduate from El Camino College can either choose a Associate of Arts GE Degree or an Associate of Science GE Degree.
El Camino's
forensics program has won awards on a national level for a number of years, often beating 4-year universities such as Notre Dame and UCLA.
In addition to traditional undergraduate education, El Camino offers a variety of faculty organized and campus cooperation study abroad programs. In recent years students have traveled to locations such as
Vienna, Austria,
Oxford, England,
Sydney, Australia,
Paris, France, and
Shanghai, China. Students receive full class credit for classes taken abroad, as arranged with college administrators.
El Camino College is a popular choice for students to complete lower-division college requirements for often crowded universities. It is one of the leading transfer institutions in Southern California, offering transfer agreements with most four-year universities including
UCLA,
California State University, Long Beach,
San Diego State University,
Chapman University, and
Pomona College.
El Camino College also offers over 80 acclaimed career programs, including Fashion, Journalism, Computer Information Systems, Fire and Emergency Technology, Automotive Systems, and
Cosmetology.
The first time KECC was actually on the air experimentally was Career Day,
April 27,
1994. This operation lasted only four hours, from 9 AM to 1 PM. On
November 11,
1994, KECC signed on the air for the first time as a regularly scheduled carrier current broadcast station. At that time, the
frequency used was 1620 kHz.
The station was soon involved in emergency operation when heavy rains flooded the campus in January of
1995, during Registration. The campus police radio system had been submerged by the rising water and had shorted out. KECC being on higher ground was still operating and became a radio relay station, with the police phoning in problems and the broadcast staff relaying them.
In the fall of
2000 KECC changed frequency from 1200 kHz to 1500 kHz.
* El Camino is Spanish for "The Road." The road refers to California's first road:
El Camino Real, which means "The King's Road," or "The Royal Road."
*The El Camino College symbol was inspired by the numerous markers along the famous road, which consisted of a single bell suspended on an upside down hook-shaped pole. If closely observed, the initials E.C.C. are visible vertically in the shape of the bell itself.
* The campus was the location for the remake of the film
The Longest Yard starring
Adam Sandler*The school newspaper "The Union" was renamed from "The Warwhoop" as a result of pressure to be more politically correct and sensitive to Native Americans. The newspaper has won numerous awards.
*
El Camino College official website.
