Peralta / Laney

This is where Laney College is located. Laney is one of the community colleges in the Peralta College District which serves the Oakland/Berkeley area. The two main colleges in the Peralta District are Laney and Merritt which is up in the Oakland Hills. The colleges are meant to help educate the populace in the area. You gets a variety of students at Laney, from the kids that are just hanging around after high school because they don’t know what else to do, to working adults looking to improve their careers. The campus has a nice clean look to it, a pleasant oasis from the hustle and bustle of the surrounding city.

Community colleges like Laney often get a bad rap because they accept any one who has a pulse, but I personally think such places are part of what make this country great. Unlike other countries where everything is based on an exam at the end of high school that determines your future, this country believes that you can always turn things around and continue to better yourself. Although I didn’t go to Laney, I did go to a community college that gave me the time and space to help turn me around. Given the poverty of much of the surrounding community, I think that Laney is the sort of place that helps to change lives in a way that few other places do.