HMB gets a satellite college campus

Half Moon Bay now has a satellite campus of the College of San Mateo with 390 students signed up for 19 different classes, including accounting, golf and guitar, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

A college campus on the Coastside has been more then 50 years in the making, and local officials have been unstinting in their support. The San Mateo Community College District always had plans for one, buying 160 acres south of Half Moon Bay back when it acquired land for College of San Mateo, Canada College and Skyline College. That location was not feasible, though, and the land is currently planted with Brussels sprouts.

The new campus opened at just the right time to host a conversational Italian class that 78-year-old Edwina Charles lobbied Tilmann for after she and her friends lost their former Italian teacher at Senior Coastsiders last year. Charles and her fellow classmates took a trip to Italy together this summer to practice their language skills, and they are reunited this fall in their brand-new classroom.

For a list of local courses, visit collegeofsanmateo.edu/coastside.