La Sierra’s story began in 1922, when local Adventist leaders purchased land southwest of Riverside and opened the school with 84 students and two unfinished buildings. Those first students helped shape a campus still under construction, studying and living in a setting marked by dust, heat, and incomplete facilities. Some of the girls even had to use ladders to reach their dorm rooms, since the stairways had not yet been completed. By the end of the decade, the school had grown from La Sierra Academy into Southern California Junior College, reflecting an expanding vision for Christian education in Riverside.
Archive note: The school’s first annual, El Serrano, was published by the senior class in 1924, and El Serrano annuals continued through 1928. After the 1928 annual proved financially difficult to sustain, no El Serrano was published in 1929. By 1930, The College Criterion was publishing a Commencement issue that served as the annual-style record for the year.
