Santa Barbara

Santa Bárbara or Santa Barbara, (meaning Saint Barbara in several Romance languages), was an early Christian saint and martyr.

Santa Bárbara or Santa Barbara may also refer to:

Places and jurisdictions

Americas

University of California, Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara (commonly referred to as UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public research university and one of the 10 campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a 1,022-acre (414 ha) site near Goleta, California, United States, 8 miles (13 km) from Santa Barbara and 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Los Angeles. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers' college, UCSB joined the University of California system in 1944 and is the third-oldest general-education campus in the system.

UCSB is one of America's Public Ivy universities, which recognizes top public research universities in the United States. The university is a comprehensive doctoral university and is organized into five colleges and schools offering 87 undergraduate degrees and 55 graduate degrees. UCSB was ranked 37th among "National Universities", 8th among U.S. public universities and 28th among Best Global Universities by U.S. News & World Report 's 2016 rankings. The university was also ranked 39th worldwide by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and 38th worldwide (tied for 17th worldwide in engineering) by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2015.

Santa Claus

Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Santy, or simply Santa is a mythical figure with historical origins who, in many Western cultures, brings gifts to the homes of well-behaved, "good" children on Christmas Eve (24 December) and the early morning hours of Christmas Day (25 December). The modern Santa Claus is derived from the British figure of Father Christmas, the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, and Saint Nicholas, the historical Greek bishop and gift-giver of Myra. During the Christianization of Germanic Europe, this figure may also have absorbed elements of the god Odin, who was associated with the Germanic pagan midwinter event of Yule and led the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky.

Santa Claus is generally depicted as a portly, joyous, white-bearded man—sometimes with spectacles—wearing a red coat with white collar and cuffs, white-cuffed red trousers, and black leather belt and boots and who carries a bag full of gifts for children. Images of him rarely have a beard with no moustache. This image became popular in the United States and Canada in the 19th century due to the significant influence of the 1823 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" and of caricaturist and political cartoonist Thomas Nast. This image has been maintained and reinforced through song, radio, television, children's books and films.

Barbara

Barbara may refer to:

People

Places

Drama, film, and literature

Film

Print

Santa Barbara City College

Coordinates: 34°24′23.36″N 119°41′54.73″W / 34.4064889°N 119.6985361°W / 34.4064889; -119.6985361

Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) is a two-year community college that opened in 1911 and is located on a 74-acre (30 ha) campus in the city of Santa Barbara, California, USA. SBCC was named co-winner of the 2013 Aspen (Institute) Prize for Community College Excellence, earning it a #1 national ranking. The college was recognized for its quality and focus in four areas: facilitating underrepresented and minority student success, student learning outcomes, degree completion and transfer rates, and labor market success in securing good jobs after college.

Lori Gaskin was appointed school President in spring 2012. SBCC is one of the 113 community colleges in the state of California.

Athletics

A member of the Western State Conference, City College offers intercollegiate athletic competition for men in baseball, cross country and football; for women in softball; and for men and women in basketball, volleyball, track and field, golf, tennis, and soccer. The men and women's soccer teams were both WSC Champions in 2011, the first time this had been achieved by one college in the WSC in the same year. The SBCC Vaqueros soccer and football teams play at the 10,000-capacity La Playa Stadium in Santa Barbara.