College of San Mateo

	Credit: Evan Hurd
	J. Craig Venter, Ph.D. Founder and President, J. Craig Venter Institute, and Senior Author on Human Diploid Genome Publication

 J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is considered one of the leading scientists of the 21st century for his contributions to genomic research. He was named one of TIME Magazine’s "Most Influential" people in the world in 2007 and 2008. Among his innumerable scientific accomplishments, in 1998, Dr. Venter founded Celera Genomics where he and his team successfully sequenced the human genome. He is founder and president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a nonprofit research organization. Dr. Venter is also founder and CEO of Synthetic Genomics, Inc., which is currently focused on solving societal needs such as producing new biofuels and biochemicals. Dr. Venter earned both a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology from the University of California, San Diego. He is also the 1991 recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award, American Association of Community Colleges.

During a conversation with Dr. Venter over the phone, San Mateo County Community Colleges Foundation (SMCCCF) learned how his experience as a student at College of San Mateo (CSM) provided a springboard for what he has accomplished.

SMCCCF: What were your reasons for attending CSM?
Dr. Venter:  As a young man growing up in the town of Millbrae in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was more interested in surfing than academics.  After graduating from Mills High School, I served as a medical Navy Corpsman in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. During this time, I observed the best and worst of human behavior and became extremely interested in medicine and science. In order to pursue medicine as a career, I would need to start my education over from scratch. Without the opportunity to attend community college, there wouldn’t have been a lot of other choices.
Because of my prior experiences in the educational system, I was uncertain if I was cut out for academic life or if academic life was cut out for me.  Enrolling at College of San Mateo (CSM) was a critical step in my career.

	photos/images courtesy of the J. Craig Venter Institute
	G-banded karyotype

What was your experience like at CSM?  What do you remember most about your experience at CSM?
CSM can take complete credit for my successes, including sequencing the human genome. At CSM, I was instructed by those whose careers it was to do what they were doing –I wasn’t one of hundreds in a classroom, which is why I perhaps received a good deal of individual attention from my instructors. 
Had I not met such strong, enthusiastic professors right away at CSM, my educational experience and my life would have been very different from that point onward. Bruce Cameron, my English professor, and Kate Murashige, my chemistry professor, both became lifelong friends of mine.  In my autobiography A Life Decoded, I mention how my experience at CSM and specifically Bruce and Kate were influential in my life.

You eventually transferred to University of California, San Diego (UCSD), which is known for its high admittance standards for scholastic performance. Was there something at CSM that helped you become a good student?
Because of the early experiences I had at CSM, I felt as well prepared for the upper-division academics as my classmates who enrolled at UCSD for their first two years of college, even among those who would have easily outscored me in high school. While working full-time as a respiratory therapist at Peninsula Hospital and taking a full load of classes at CSM, I earned my bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from UCSD in three years, including the 18 months I spent at CSM.

	photos/images courtesy of the J. Craig Venter Institute
	Dr. Venter’s genome via Spectral karyotype analysis

What would your advice be to a high school student considering community college?
I think it is a great choice and might be a model for what the education system should be. It isn’t just a system for wayward students. My son, niece and nephew started their college educations at community colleges in California and all went on to transfer into the University of California system.  My mother took courses at CSM. I believe community college is a unique and wonderful opportunity that we have in this country.