MENIFEE -- Jennifer Cervantes and her husband, Vicente, took their two young sons shopping for schoolbooks Friday.

But the books aren't for the children. They are for Jennifer. The 31-year-old, who has been a waitress for the past 15 years, wants to follow her dream to become a teacher. Her first step is going to college.

"I decided that I wanted something that pays more money. I want to be able to put my sons through college someday," Jennifer Cervantes said. "I always wanted to be a teacher, so I'm going for it."

Cervantes is an example of the type of students signing up at Mt. San Jacinto College, where classes start Monday.

Enrollment is soaring at the community college, which has two main campuses: one in Menifee and the other in San Jacinto.

The number of students at the Menifee campus has risen from 6,513 to 7,473 in the last year -- an increase of almost 15 percent, college spokesman Bill Marchese said Friday.

"We've seen this sort of steady growth in enrollment, particularly at the Menifee campus, over much of the last decade," he said.

Total enrollment for the college rose about 10.5 percent since last year to 10,600, he added.

At the same time, enrollment at the college's Temecula locations has fallen by more than 15 percent. Some of that decrease might be because the college offers fewer classes in Temecula than it does at its Menifee and San Jacinto campuses, Marchese said.

Mt. San Jacinto rents rooms at a few local high schools in Temecula to hold evening classes in the city.

Daytime classes are more popular right now than evening classes, he said. The college's online classes are also getting more students: 1,046 this year compared with 755 last year. That is a 38.5 percent spike.

Stay-at-home parents transitioning into the work world are another category of students contributing to the enrollment spike, Marchese said.

Jannette Gutierrez, 40, of Menifee, is one of those looking to make that move. She wants to be a registered nurse.

Gutierrez started her family in 1988, after she got out of the military, she said. Gutierrez had been out of the work world for 18 years. On Friday, she searched the campus store shelves for the books she'll need this semester.

"My kids are grown. So, last year, I went out into the work world looking for a job. But I found out that I wasn't qualified for much, " Gutierrez said during a break from shopping at the campus bookstore Friday.

"I want to work in a field where I would have a future," she added. "So, it's back to school for me."

Contact staff writer Lorell Fleming at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2621, or lfleming@californian.com.