Santa Maria's Allan Hancock College is one of just seven community colleges in California that are up for a $1 million prize, and the only one selected on the Central Coast.
The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence is handed out every two years with a finalist list of 150 schools chosen nationwide. Hancock was picked as a finalist for its success with institutional performance, improvement and equity on student retention and completion measures.
Hancock also showed high levels of access and success for minority and low-income students.
Ten finalists will be named later this year and the overall winner will be named early in 2015.