The Modesto Junior College (MJC) is a community college

Community college

A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...

 located in Central Valley's Modesto, California

Modesto, California

Modesto is a city in, and is the county seat of, Stanislaus County, California. With a population of approximately 201,165 at the 2010 census, Modesto ranks as the 18th largest city in the state of California....

.

Accreditation

Modesto Junior College is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. In January 2008, the Western Association Colleges and Schools notified the college that it had been placed on Probation Status. In October 2009, Modesto Junior College was removed from probationary status and given an all clear.

Student life

Modesto Junior College offers Associate degrees. The school boasts 21,000 degree-seeking undergrads. The campus at Modesto Junior College features the Suburban setting, small city (50,000 - 249,999) and commuter campus. The community college has many facilities including a natural history museum.

Modesto Junior College is the oldest community college district (not school) in California history. It is the 16th oldest community college overall.

Sports

Modesto Junior College is a member of CCCAA. Its sports teams are referred to as the MJC Pirates. Sports at Modesto Junior College include Men's Intercollegiate Baseball; Men's Intercollegiate, Women's Intercollegiate, Men's Intramural and Women's Intramural Basketball; Men's Intercollegiate and Women's Intercollegiate Cross_country; Men's Intercollegiate and Men's Intramural Football; Men's Intercollegiate and Women's Intercollegiate Golf; Men's Intercollegiate and Women's Intercollegiate Soccer; Women's Intercollegiate and Women's Intramural Softball; Men's Intramural and Women's Intramural Table_tennis; Men's Intercollegiate and Women's Intercollegiate Track and field; Women's Intercollegiate, Men's Intramural and Women's Intramural Volleyball; Men's Intercollegiate Wrestling, and Men's Intercollegiate and Women's Intercollegiate Water Polo.

The Pirates are also one of the few Junior College teams in the United States to host its own Football Bowl Game

Bowl game

In North America, a bowl game is commonly considered to refer to one of a number of post-season college football games. Prior to 2002, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals and the games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating...

. The Pirates host the Graffiti Bowl every year in late November, in honor of their program's prestigious tradition along with respect for the once popular Graffiti Parade that occurred in Modesto during the 1960s and 1970s.

Modesto Junior College is home of the Pirates & their colors are Blue, Sliver, and White.

Agriculture

Modesto Junior College provides over 30 Associate Degrees in Agriculture. MJC is also home to an agricultural internship program in which students are given residence on West Campus . The school owns over 100 acres of various crops which it uses to teach the students theory of crop and animal sciences as well as give the students in the field experience.

Dean of Agriculture:
Mark Anglin

Notable Professors:
John Mendes: Animal Sciences, Area Leader, Internship Leader
Mike Morales: Plant and Environmental Sciences

Alumni Association

Modesto Junior College has been providing life changing opportunities to the Central Valley since 1921. The Modesto Junior College legacy lives in the hundreds of thousands of individuals that have taken classes, attended programs, and are celebrated as Modesto Junior College Alumni. Today Alumni are as active as ever. They are nurses, firefighters, police officers, and teachers building on the skills that they acquired at Modesto Junior College. The Alumni Association defines Alumni as anyone who has ever completed coursework at MJC, regardless of the graduation status. The Alumni Association was founded in 1967.

Notable alumni and faculty

• George Lucas
  George Lucas
  George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
  
   (creator of the Star Wars
  Star Wars
  Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
  
   saga) He also wrote and produced American Graffiti
  American Graffiti
  American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
  
  , a nostalgic portrait of teenage life in early 1960s Modesto.
• Gino Marchetti
  Gino Marchetti
  Gino John Marchetti is a former professional American football player in the National Football League. A defensive end, he played in 1952 for the Dallas Texans and from 1953 to 1966 for the Baltimore Colts.-Early years:...
  
   Former Defensive End
  Defensive end
  Defensive end is the name of a defensive position in the sport of American and Canadian football.This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations have substantially changed how the position is played over the years...
  
   for Baltimore Colts
  History of the Indianapolis Colts
  The Indianapolis Colts are a professional football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the AFC South division of the National Football League. They have won 3 NFL championships and 2 Super Bowls....
  
  , NFL Hall of Famer
• Hiram Fuller
  Hiram Fuller
  Hiram Fuller a.k.a. Hesham Ali Salem is Libyan professional basketball player, who grew up in the United States. He is a 6'9" , 268 lb power forward....
  
  , professional basketball player
• Charles E. Woodworth
  Charles E. Woodworth
  Major Charles E. Woodworth, Ph.D., , served as a major in the United States Army during World War II and as an entomologist for the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service.-Birth:...
  
  , entomologist, taught at MJC in the 1920s
• Roger Nixon
  Roger Nixon
  Roger Nixon was an American composer, musician, and professor of music. He wrote over 60 compositions for orchestra, band, choir and opera...
  
  , Composer
• Matt Bettencourt
  Matt Bettencourt
  Matt Bettencourt is an American professional golfer.Born in Alammeda, California, he turned professional in 2001 after attending Modesto Junior College....
  
  , PGA Tour
  PGA Tour
  The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
  
   golfer who finished 1st on the Nationwide Tour
  Nationwide Tour
  The Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level...
  
   money list in 2008.
• Jeremy Renner
  Jeremy Renner
  Jeremy Lee Renner is a two-time Academy-Award-nominated American actor and musician. Renner appeared in films throughout the 2000s, mostly in supporting roles. He came to prominence in films such as Dahmer , S.W.A.T. , Neo Ned , 28 Weeks Later and The Hurt Locker...
  
  , an Academy Award nominated actor
  Actor
  An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
  
  , The Hurt Locker
  The Hurt Locker
  The Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb...
  
  .
• Ray Lankford
  Ray Lankford
  Raymond Lewis Lankford and grew up in Modesto, California where he attended Grace M. Davis High School. Ray was a former center fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres from to . He was known for his combination of power, speed, and defensive...
  
  ,Played for the St. Louis Carnils, San Diego Padres.
• Jeff Moorad
  Jeff Moorad
  Jeff Moorad is a former sports agent and is currently lead owner of the San Diego Padres and part-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team.He is an Assyrian American...
  
  ,Former sports agent, now owns the San Diego Padres.
• Shawn Boskie
  Shawn Boskie
  Shawn Kealoha Boskie is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played from to . He was drafted by the Chicago Cubs, 10th overall in the 1986 Major League Baseball Draft....
  
  ,Former Major League Baseball Pitcher for the Chicago Cubs.
• Oscar Zeta Acosta
  Oscar Zeta Acosta
  Oscar Zeta Acosta was an American attorney, politician, minor novelist and Chicano Movement activist, perhaps best known for his friendship with the American author Hunter S. Thompson, who characterized him as his Samoan Attorney, Dr...
  
  , Chicano Activist & Lawyer
• Lindsay Pearce
  Lindsay Pearce
  Lindsay Pearce is an American singer, actress, and reality TV personality. Pearce is best known for being one of the runners-up on The Glee Project, which gave her a recurring role on the TV show Glee.-Early life:...
  
  , Glee actress.