East Los Angeles College

East Los Angeles College (ELAC) has an international, multicultural student body that complements the 14 communities comprising its primary service area. The college offers both academic transfer courses, which prepare students for admission to four-year colleges and universities, and occupational programs which prepare students for careers in two years or less.

East Los Angeles College empowers diverse learners and provides pathways to college transfer, career advancement, and degree completion through accessible, high-quality education and training. ELAC’s commitment to educational opportunity transforms individual lives and strengthens our communities.

Opening day (September 4, 1945) found 117 students enrolled on Campus, which was comprised of one building of the James A. Garfield High School plant on East Sixth Street, and another 267 nursing students enrolled to take classes at the General Hospital. On opening day, the college had twelve faculty in place. The college was organized around six major occupational and cultural fields. These were: Business; Industry; Civics, Health, and Welfare; Homemaking and Fine Arts; the Cultural Heritage; and Agriculture. Enrollments increased steadily, and thus the Board of Education purchased a thirty-seven acre (which grew to 82 acres) site at the base of Repetto Hills, on Brooklyn Avenue just west of Atlantic Boulevard. Four movable bungalows were erected, and in February, 1948, East Los Angeles Junior College became firmly established on its present site in the City of Monterey Park. The first Director (President today) of ELAJC was Dr. Rosco C. Ingalls.