Professor of nursing Cathy McJannet supervises SWC’s booming nursing programs based at Otay Mesa Higher Education Center.

After a deranged mass murderer killed 21 at a San Ysidro McDonald’s restaurant in 1984, a wounded community agonized over what to do with the site of the horror.

Southwestern College found a way to turn the tragedy into hope.

In 1989, the High Education Center at San Ysidro opened its doors, initiating a new era of SWC satellite campuses. Today the college has centers in Otay Mesa, National City and Coronado. Each houses specialty programs or services in far-flung corners of the sprawling district.

National City received a major upgrade with the $25.8 million plaza building that adds modern science laboratory classrooms for all students. This adds to a campus that houses the dental hygiene and medical assistant programs.

Christine Perri, a registered dental hygienist, has served as the dean of the National City campus and the Crown Cove Aquatic Center in Coronado for nearly 10 years.

She said the campus offers a complete class schedule of in demand courses, especially science.

“It affords (National City residents) so many more opportunities right here where they live,” she said.

HEC Otay Mesa specializes in training healthcare workers and first responders. It serves nearly 5,000 students annually according to the SWC website. Otay Mesa hosts the Police Academy, fire science technology, emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic programs, as well as its wide-range of nursing programs.

Silvia Cornejo is the dean of the Otay Mesa and San Ysidro campuses.

She said the centers provide opportunities for students and an economic stimulus for the community.

“What it provides is access to fabulous career education programs that have an excellent reputation in the community and train students to be in a job, with living wages,” she said.

San Ysidro’s HEC hosts the district’s popular Family Studies program (formerly called Child Development). Vivien Mayo, 45, an exercise science and psychology major, said HEC San Ysidro generated positive change from tragedy.

“Let us build something for other people to get together and remember those people who have passed away,” she said. “Yet let us make it fruitful.”

Cornejo agreed.

“(The center) is a commitment to that community that we believe in their desire to better themselves, to better their lives, and what better way than through education?”