ARVIN, Calif. -- For some current students at Bakersfield College, they're convinced that bringing a college center to the Arvin/Lamont area would meet what's currently an unknown demand for higher education.

"If we were to have a campus here, more students would be able to start at a community college and transfer to a four-year university," said Erika Hernandez.

"If there was a college here, I would be able to spend that gas money on classes and books," Jesus Alonso added.

They're among an estimated 1,600 students from Arvin and Lamont who make the trip to BC either by car or bus every day.

Maggie Rodriguez, who also drives to BC, says she knows several people who have dropped out because the transportation hurdle was insurmountable, including her cousin.

"It was hard because she didn't want to drop out," she says. "But she didn't have a form of transportation because her classes were either too early and I couldn't give her a ride or too late and I was already on my way home."

They're part of a group urging Bakersfield College and the Kern Community College District to build a college center in the Arvin/Lamont area.

Currently, two classes are offered at Arvin High School through Bakersfield College. If a college center were to be started, many of the initial courses would be held at Arvin High School.

"We're really looking for the entire community being able to take advantage of those types of courses and it's part of the economic development of the area," said Blanca Cavazos, principal of Arvin High School.

There is enough data to suggest potential students from Arvin and Lamont would be able to fill more than 90 course sections, according to Dr. James Young, chancellor emeritus of the Kern Community College District, and one of the people spearheading the effort.

The city of Arvin has offered land across the street from Arvin High School as a potential site for the college center. But the Kern Community College District owns land for a new college near Highway 223 between the 99 freeway and Union Avenue.

That site is half the distance that BC is from Arvin, but won't be developed for several years, and the time is now to bring higher education to Arvin and Lamont, as the district has for Delano, the Kern River Valley, and other outlying areas, Young said.

"The district has reached out to all of these outlying communities where there's a great need for higher education, but if there were ever two communities that needed this opportunity, it's these two communities," Young said.

Given the high unemployment and poverty rates in the area, college could serve as a way for families to improve their lives.

"We have to start getting out of poverty, and one way of doing it is through education," said Margarita Perez of the Arvin Family Resource Center. "If their kids can be educated or they themselves can be educated, that's a wonderful way to get started."

The group is in ongoing talks with the KCCD Board of Trustees and Bakersfield College officials, who have said they would consider the proposal and continue their discussions.