Our History
John F. Kennedy University (JFKU) has been an innovative educational institution in the San Francisco Bay Area since it opened in Martinez, California, in 1965 with just over 50 students.
The university mission: to provide new opportunities in higher education for working men and women who, despite a full range of life responsibilities, are determined to earn the benefits of advanced education to improve their future.
JFKU pioneered the commitment to lifelong learning for adults in the Bay Area; such opportunities were not available at the time in any other part of the California state education system.
Throughout its existence, JFKU has expanded its programs and services, added and changed locations, maintained its innovative whole-person approach, and increased its enrollment and alumni in the process of fulfilling its mission.
Today, we serve nearly 2,000 students who study for undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. We honor more than 12,000 alumni who apply their education locally and around the world. And each year we touch the lives of more than 30,000 people in Bay Area communities through outreach centers and a variety of public programs.
During its more than 40 years as an educational innovator, JFKU created programs in new fields such as career development, museum studies, sport psychology, and holistic health. In established fields such as management, psychology, and law, JFKU carved special niches for talented, experienced, lifelong learners who value education rooted in practice, taught by seasoned professionals, and offered on schedules that accommodate busy adults.
In 2004, JFKU opened a new permanent campus in Pleasant Hill, easily accessible to the 680 freeway, for programs in Continuing and Extended Education and all five JFKU schools: Graduate School of Professional Psychology, School of Education and Liberal Arts, School of Holistic Studies, School of Law, and School of Management. Also in 2004, the Department of Museum Studies joined the Department of Arts and Consciousness at our Berkeley campus.
JFKU retains its campuses in Campbell and Berkeley and its community counseling centers in Sunnyvale, Oakland, and Pleasant Hill. In 2007, the Center for Holistic Counseling in Oakland celebrates 25 years of service to the Bay Area community.