Contra Costa Community College District Chancellor and Richmond Promise Board Member Mojdeh Mehdizadeh has dedicated her career to serving communities like Richmond.

Over the last seven years, Richmond Promise has provided resources and support to thousands of college students from Richmond. That work has benefited from the support of many community partners, but none have been more dedicated to the organization’s success than Richmond Promise’s Board of Directors. We are pleased to introduce you to this passionate and dedicated group with a series of profiles that highlight their work and showcase their commitment to young people in Richmond.

Just a few weeks after being selected to become the 10th permanent Chancellor of the Contra Costa Community College District, Mojdeh Mehdizadeh has plenty to be excited about when she considers what lies ahead.

Contra Costa residents are coming back to school, and the Contra Costa Community College District is focused on providing as many pathways to higher education as possible.

The county’s community college district has always been one of Richmond Promise’s most active and valued partners, and Mehdizadeh has played a pivotal role in creating and maintaining that relationship. 

As a longtime educator and product of the very community college district she now heads, Mehdizadeh now serves as one of the longest-tenured members of the Richmond Promise Board of Directors. Even before the organization formally existed, she worked with city leaders to help shape the direction of Richmond Promise as then-President of Contra Costa College.

“I think what I loved most about it was the focus on Richmond,” Mehdizadeh said. “When we think about educational opportunities for young people in Richmond, it was the first-ever program to deeply build that college-going culture and connect it with the financial resources that are needed to deliver on the Promise.”

Just how close is the partnership between CCC and Richmond Promise? 

Richmond Promise staff are a regular presence on campus, especially when it comes to helping support the school’s First-Year Experience program that offers programming and other support in an effort to help new students succeed and persist in college. 

RP staff is on campus so often, Mehdizadeh recalls that when Contra Costa began working on the design process for new facilities on campus, space for Richmond Promise was actually included in the plans.

“We don’t feel a difference. There’s no us and them,” Mehdizadeh said. “We feel like we’re truly an integrated unit and the Richmond Promise is an organization that not only embraced Contra Costa College but is embedded at Contra Costa College.”

That integration has allowed Mehdizadeh to remain close with Richmond Promise throughout its existence, and her familiarity with the program brings an additional level of pride when she talks about the work being done on behalf of Richmond students.

“Over the course of the last several years, the number of students that complete the Federal Application for Financial Aid has more than doubled with the work of the Richmond Promise,” said Mehdizadeh. “All of the studies show nationally that students that actually complete the Federal Application for Financial Aid are much more prone to actually go to and complete college. It’s the staff of the Richmond Promise that are dedicated to making the kind of difference that really, really matters.”

The partnership between CCC and RP is reason enough for excitement as programming only continues to evolve and grow between the two. But, as she prepares to make permanent a role she’s served in an interim capacity since February of 2022, Mehdizadeh is just as bullish on the role Contra Costa’s community colleges are once again playing for county residents.

As with all institutions of higher learning, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a drop in enrollment across all three Contra Costa community colleges.

These days though, campuses are seeing a rebound. Both Contra Costa and Los Medanos College have enjoyed double-digit enrollment growth recently.

“Those are areas in our county where we have frankly the most underserved communities that absolutely need college,” Mehdizadeh said. “It’s just so wonderful and special to see that our community sees us, recognizes that we’re there for them and understands the excellence that our colleges provide in terms of education.”

One piece to that puzzle is a pathway to higher education that Richmond Promise works hard to educate students on. 

Many students think of community colleges as a step to get to a four-year college, but in fact, the career technical education (CTE) programs offered through the Contra Costa Community College District are among the most affordable and accomplished locally-based pathways to a good-paying career for students of any age.

One program Mehdizadeh references is the automotive technology program, specifically in the field of collision repair, at CCC. Led by Laura Lozano, the program provides on-the-job training that ranks among the best opportunities in the field nationally.

“Students are taking classes at Contra Costa College, they have been placed and are employed at Lexus and Toyota and other major dealerships where they are earning a salary while taking classes,” Mehdizadeh said. “The moment they complete their certificate or degree with us, they are hired permanently and earn over $70,000 a year as a starting salary. That’s incredible success. You don’t have to go through a four-plus year program in order to make what I would say is beyond a liveable wage in our communities.”

With such a high percentage of Richmond Promise Scholars electing to continue their education on a Contra Costa Community College campus, opportunities for partnership only continue to deepen. 

So, as the community college district kicks off its 75th anniversary celebration this December, the two organizations continue to find new ways to provide pathways to educational success for Richmond Promise Scholars. 

“Often we think of community colleges as ‘we’re just open-door, come in.’” Mehdizadeh said. “What the Richmond Promise does is it’s the extra hand that is necessary to reach out and pull young people in and to say that you belong in higher education, you belong in college. That’s our mission, and certainly the mission of Richmond Promise aligns incredibly well with the mission of the community college district.”