Birthplace diversity at Saddleback
Saddleback College is located in the heart of Mission Viejo, a small city in Orange County with just over 97,000 people as reported in the 2014 census. Saddleback is one of two independent colleges in the South Orange County Community College District and has around 26,305 enrolled students either in or out-of-state.
A lot of students from the Orange County area continue their education out of high school at Saddleback. Many of those students come from neighboring cities such as Aliso Viejo, Lake Forest, El Toro, and Laguna Hills just to name a few. But, what goes unnoticed is the diverse group of people that attend Saddleback. At first glance, you’d think most if not all people in attendance are from right here in Southern California. After interviewing 215 people on Saddleback’s campus I was able to use data from those samples to show just how diverse the campus is.
First, I asked the sample of people their age and place of birth. Out of the 215 people I interviewed, 97 were from right here in Orange County. Although it’s a large number I expected there to be more people due to hyperlocality of the school. 39 people were from San Diego County, 20 were from Riverside County, 12 were from San Bernardino County, seven from Los Angeles County, four from Ventura County and 36 were out-of-state.
I then took the 36 people who were born out of state and received a lot of different birthplaces. Of the 36 people born out-of-state, 22 people were born in these states: Nevada, Hawaii, Arizona, Texas and Colorado.
Already we can see that many people from different areas around the United States find themselves at Saddleback. Thus, adding to the diversity of the campus that otherwise goes seemingly unnoticed. The 14 remaining students add to that notion. Out of the 14 remaining students out of 36 that were interviewed: 7 were from Mexico, 2 were from the Philippines, 3 were from Australia, and 2 were from British Columbia.
