Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Together with the help of the community, we thought we could, and we were right!

What a great series of announcements Mesa State College has been fortunate to be able to make in the past few weeks. Those announcements come after months, even years, of hard work by lots of people.

On Feb. 22, the new partnership with the University of Colorado at Boulder to deliver a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering was announced. I think this is the most significant academic addition to Mesa State in a generation. Mesa State is all about partnerships, and to partner with CU-Boulder in order to meet the Western Slope demand for mechanical engineers is tremendous.

Using the extraordinary faculty from both institutions, highly qualified students will be able to attend Mesa State and earn an already accredited degree in mechanical engineering from CU-Boulder. This partnership will allow western Colorado students access to a world-class education they may not otherwise have been able to receive by offering the entire four-year engineering degree program in Grand Junction.

We will also begin our new construction management program next fall and add a baccalaureate option to radiologic technology. Both of these additions are also driven by the needs of our community partners. Excellent employment opportunities for construction managers are expected through 2014. And as radiologic equipment continues to become more technologically sophisticated, the need for additional classes and labs also grows.

We were elated to also announce Feb. 22 that a $250,000 pledge from ConocoPhillips put the Saunders Capital Campaign over its $6-million fundraising goal. There are so many partners in the business community that made this effort a success — banks, restaurants, construction companies, energy producers and scores of small businesses.

We had tremendous support from the community — individuals, the school district, the city, the county, college faculty and staff, and philanthropic foundations from around the state. In fact, there were more than 400 individual contributors to the Saunders Capital Campaign, truly a community effort from a broad array of partners.

I also want to thank Sen. Josh Penry and Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis for their tireless work behind the scenes to help make this campaign a success.

Finally, none of this would have been possible without two very special people. Terry Farina and Doralyn Genova, tireless community advocates, served as the capital campaign committee co-chairs and led a terrific team of community leaders.

With success comes credit, and credit is due to the work of many heroes in our community who are paving the way for a very bright future at Mesa State College.

<i>Tim Foster is Mesa State College president.</i>