{"id":4112,"date":"2018-10-16T10:12:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T14:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=4112"},"modified":"2024-05-07T13:36:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:36:24","slug":"our-humble-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/our-humble-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Humble Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside>\n<header>Ode to a building<\/header>\n<p>The following is excerpted from \u201cA Ballad of MJC,\u201d which was printed in the 1949 Monmouth yearbook.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\u201cThe building\u2019s plain, its beauty chaste,<br \/>\nIts tower a call to man<br \/>\nTo soak his brow in honest sweat<br \/>\nAnd learn whate\u2019er he can,<br \/>\nSo that in life\u2019s unruly race<br \/>\nHe\u2019ll never be an \u2018also ran.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"par1\">\n<p>On a chilly November afternoon in 1933, several hundred students and faculty gathered in the auditorium of Long Branch Senior High School for the first day of classes at Monmouth Junior College.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The federally funded, tuition-free institution had been created to serve as a stepping stone for local students whose families were impacted by the Great Depression. At the time of its founding, MJC provided two years of college-level courses in 23 subject areas, and all classes were taught in the high school between the hours of 4 and 9 p.m., after the building\u2019s daytime occupants had been dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>MJC was meant to be around for only a few years\u2014just long enough to support families through the Depression. But whereas other junior colleges across the country were dismantled over the next few decades, MJC persevered. When the institution gained full college status in 1956, operations were moved to the current campus. But for nearly a quarter-century\u2019s worth of Monmouth graduates, Long Branch Senior High School was the center of the academic universe.<\/p>\n<p><em>Compiled by Breanne McCarthy from Monmouth archival sources<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Top Image: An undated photo of Monmouth\u2019s first home, Long Branch Senior High School.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Long Branch Senior High School was once the center of Monmouth academics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":4115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":48,\"y\":74}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents","category-tides"],"thumbnail":"<img width=\"229\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-229x300.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-4115 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" role=\"presentation\" style=\"object-position:48% 74%\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-229x300.jpg 229w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-768x1005.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-782x1024.jpg 782w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-1120x1466.jpg 1120w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-560x733.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-280x367.jpg 280w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-320x419.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-640x838.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-2048x2681.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-1536x2011.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-1400x1833.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-1024x1341.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-828x1084.jpg 828w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-360x471.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs-9x12.jpg 9w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/lbhs.jpg 2303w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 229px) 100vw, 229px\" \/>","catString":"Currents, Tides","issue":"Fall 2018","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4112"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11797,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112\/revisions\/11797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}