Valencia College
| Valencia College | |
|---|---|
| Motto | We Say You Can. |
| Established | 1967 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | $63 million[1] |
| President | Sanford Shugart |
| Academic staff | 396 |
| Admin. staff | 2,557 |
| Students | 35,351 |
| Location | Orlando, Florida, U.S. |
| Campus | Urban |
| Former names | Valencia Junior College (1967–1971) Valencia Community College (1971–2011) |
| Colors | Red and Gold[2] |
| Affiliations | Florida College System, Association of Florida Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools |
| Website | www.valenciacollege.edu |
Valencia College, formerly known as Valencia Community College, is a public state college in Orlando, Florida, United States. Valencia is the third-largest member institution of the Florida College System.
The college was founded in 1967 as "Valencia Junior College", taking the name "Valencia Community College" in 1971. In December 2010, Valencia's Board of Trustees voted to change the college's name to "Valencia College", as the academic scope of the school expanded to include bachelor's degrees.[3] Valencia has several campuses in Orlando with additional campuses in Kissimmee, Osceola,and Winter Park. More than 30,000 students enroll each year. Valencia is ranked first in the United States for the number of Associate's degrees awarded; it is first among two-year schools.[4]
Valencia was named the top community college in the United States in 2011 by The Aspen Institute. The Aspen Institute awarded Valencia the first annual Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence after a year-long effort to recognize extraordinary accomplishments in individual institutions of the nation’s 1,200 community colleges. The Aspen award was granted based on, "a rigorous, yearlong effort...to assemble and review an unprecedented collection of data on community colleges and the critical elements of student success: student learning, degree completion and transfer, equity and employment/earnings after college."[5]
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[edit] Administration
The Valencia Foundation $68 million endowment is about 12 times the average community college endowment, which reflects the abnormally large commitment of local business, organizations, and individuals, including the foundation board of directors. People on the Board of Directors are as follows.
- Chairman, Raymer Maguire III
- Vice Chairman, Bertica Cabrera-Morris
- Trustee, Jerry Buchanan
- Trustee, Lew Oliver
- Trustee, Maria Grulich Toumazos
- Trustee, Lori Kifer
- Trustee, Jo Quittschreiber[6]
The seal of the college includes the coat of arms of Valencia, Spain, in the middle and the entire diamond design stems from it. However, the college is not named for the city in Spain, but rather for the Valencia oranges which are grown in central Florida (which is why the old-timers pronounce it [va-LEN-sha] as is proper for the citrus fruit).
[edit] Locations
Valencia College operates a total of four campuses and three sites in its service area, which encompasses Orange County and Osceola County.
[edit] Campuses
- East Campus (701 North Econlockhatchee Trail Orlando FL, 32825)
- Osceola Campus (1800 Denn John Lane Kissimmee FL, 34744)
- West Campus (1800 South Kirkman Road Orlando FL, 32811)
- Winter Park Campus (850 West Morse Boulevard Winter Park FL, 32789)
[edit] Sites
- Criminal Justice Institute The Criminal Justice Institute occupies a separate 77,000-square-foot (7,200 m2) state-of-the-art criminal justice training facility. The CJI is certified and approved by Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to operate law enforcement and corrections academies, advanced courses and specialized training. Valencia is one of 4 colleges in Florida that trains Department of Juvenile Justice recruit officers.
- Valencia Downtown Center Valencia's Downtown Center is located in the historic Chicone Building in downtown Orlando, at the corner of Orange Avenue and Church Street. The Downtown Center is home to the Office of the President, Academic Affairs, College & Community Relations, Valencia Foundation and Workforce Development.
- Valencia Continuing Education and Professional Training is located at Sand Lake Center. Valencia's continuing education, training and professional development division of Valencia College serves businesses, government agencies, individuals and organizations of all sizes, across every industry throughout the Central Florida community.
- Valencia Center for Global Languages is located alongside the continuing education and professional training division at Sand Lake Center. Valencia's Center for Global Languages offers conversational English and Spanish courses, cultural diversity workshops, American sign language and corporate training programs. Valencia's Center for Global Languages prepares students for entry into a college degree program.
- Valencia College at Lake Nona High School is Valencia's newest location, where both dual-enrollment and credit classes are offered to Valencia students. A new Lake Nona Campus is scheduled to open in August 2012. [7]
[edit] Academics
The average class size is 23.5 students.[citation needed]
Valencia was named 1998-99 National Community College of the Year by the National Alliance of Business and was chosen by Time Magazine in 2001 as one of the nation's best schools at helping first-year students excel.[8]
[edit] Student profile
College-wide Headcount = 31,901 for 2011. [9]
88% degree/certificate seeking students 60.1% AA 39.9% AS/AAS/Certificate
Race / Ethnicity Diversity Enrollment: 16.6% African American 5.1% Asian/Pacific Islander 38.7% Caucasian 28.9% Hispanic 0.3% Native American 10.4% Other[citation needed]
[edit] Financial Aid Growth
- $153.9 million financial aid awarded in 2009-2010. (End of year in 2008-2009 was $90 million).
- Valencia is the number two (2) public college in Florida and number twenty-eight (28) nationally (among all colleges) in Pell grant recipients.
- Over 27,000 students registered and received aid in 2009-2010.
[edit] Arts & Entertainment Programs
- The college's strengths lie in media-related courses. In an interview with Jane Pauley on The Today Show in 1990, Director Steven Spielberg called Valencia's film program one of the best available in the nation [1]. The school trains film technicians who gain experience by participating in feature films. As a result, the students have had the opportunity to work with famous filmmakers such as George A. Romero and four-time Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise, in addition to film, stage, and television stars Julie Harris, Talia Shire, Ed Begley, Jr., Sally Kellerman, Mickey Rooney, Wood Harris, Ja Rule, Ruby Dee, Kat Dennings, among others. The program was also spotlighted as one of 6 college film programs to watch in the January 2011 edition of the International Cinematographers Guild Magazine.
- Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys and Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC both attended Valencia's music department.
- Bob Newhart briefly taught at the college during 2003.
[edit] Partnerships
A long-standing partnership between Valencia and the University of Central Florida has contributed to Valencia’s transfer rate, considered to be among the highest in the country. DirectConnect to UCF guarantees Valencia grads acceptance and accelerated admission to the university. Since the program’s inception in 2006, approximately 45,000 students have indicated that they are DirectConnect to UCF students.[10]
[edit] Athletics
Although Valencia is not a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), Intramural sports are available. The Valencia Community College bowl team has won five national community college championships at NAQT and Six State championships.
[edit] Notable People
| Alumni | Year | Notability |
|---|---|---|
| Dick Batchelor | AA 1970 | Former Florida State Representative. |
| Mike Bielecki | AA 1979 | Professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1984-1997. |
| Lisa Boots | AA 1994 | Professional figure skating coach. |
| Dr. Phillip Chen | AA 1988 | M.D. and a Ph.D. and is the president of Cognoscenti Health Institute, a new clinical laboratory located at Orlando’s Central Florida Research Park. |
| Mary Collier | AA 1982 | Central Florida philanthropist and Valencia’s first Distinguished Graduate. |
| Teri Corbett | AA 1987 | Assistant animal curator at Sea World Discovery Cove. |
| Rich Crotty | AA 1970 | Orange County Chairman and recent winner of the 2001 Region 3 Florida Association of Community Colleges’ LeRoy Collins Distinguished Alumni Award. |
| Howie Dorough | AA 1993 | A band member of the Backstreet Boys. |
| Ilona Edwards | AA 1973 | Retired member of the Orlando Police Department where she managed and was the television and radio spokesperson for Crimeline. |
| Mitzie Fader | AA 1986 | An inventor and has developed a patented chemical compound that combats foam creation in pulp and paper production processes. |
| Scott Fletcher | AA 1978 | Former second baseman and shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers. |
| Sandy Groves | AS 1980 | Missionary and worked in the medical field in Zaire, Africa. |
| Gregg Hale | AA 1992 | Filmmaker and producer of the Blair Witch Project. |
| Chris Kirkpatrick | AA 1993 | Band member of N'Sync. |
| Tammy Lamm | AA 1984 | Owner of American Ad Specialties. |
| Sharon Lewis | AA 1993 | Founder and chief executive officer of HR Visions, Inc. One of Central Florida’s newest full-service human resources providers. Also, Sharon is a former Valencia Distinguished Graduate. |
| Kyle Lublin | AS 1991 | Owner of CFO Consulting, Inc. |
| Olindo Mare | AA 1994 | Place-kicker for the Miami Dolphins and FACC’s 2000 Region 3 LeRoy Collins Distinguished Alumni Award Winner. |
| Silvia Marshall-Nolt | AS in Nursing 1987 | Recently finished up her term as president of the Florida State Association of Rehabilitation Nurses for 2001-2002. |
| Reggie McGill | AA 1975 | Political advocate and Director of Governmental and Community Affairs at a local law firm, Greenberg Traurig. |
| Howard Musika | AS 1991 | One of the key digital artists who designed the special effects for the film, Titanic. |
| Connie Parrish | AA 1991 | Recently selected for the 2001 Eckerd 100 Award, which honors top woman volunteers across the nation. |
| Alan Perez | AS 1997 in Film Production | Self employed film maker who has worked on several HBO and television productions. |
| Wes Platt | AA 1989 | Journalist and author of Other Space, a revolutionary Internet storytelling project. |
| Nanelle Russ | AA 1970 | Selected for the 2001 Eckerd 100 Award, which honors top woman volunteers across the nation. |
| Paul Skinner | AS 1977 | Former Daytona Beach Fire Chief. |
| Nina Thompson | AA 1978 | Motivational speaker and author of Healing Your Heart by Trusting the Spirit. |
| Lex Veech | AA 1971 | Community Relations Representative for the Orange County Convention Center. |
| Frederick J. Walsh | AA 1970 | Former chief of the Orlando Police Department. |
| Al Weiss | AA 1974 | Former president of Walt Disney World Resorts. |
| Corry Westbrook | AA 1991 | Regional Grassroots Coordinator with the National Audubon Society in Washington, D.C. |
| Danny J. Wilson | AA 1971 | Former chief of the Orlando Police Department. |
[edit] References
- ^ Endowment Information
- ^ Valencia Identity Summary Sheet. ValenciaCollege.edu. Valencia College. Retrieved on 5 June 2011.
- ^ Postal, Leslie (14 December 2010). "Say hello to Valencia College". Orlando Sentinel. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-12-14/business/os-valencia-college-name-change-20101214_1_president-sandy-shugart-associate-degrees-community-college-week. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
- ^ http://today.ucf.edu/valencia-no-1-for-associate-degrees/
- ^ "Florida’s Valencia College Named Top US Community College". The Aspen Institute. http://www.aspeninstitute.org/news/2011/12/12/valencia-college-wins-aspen-prize. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
- ^ "Board of Directors". http://valenciacc.edu/aboutus/whoweare/trustees.cfm. Retrieved 11/10/2010.
- ^ http://valenciacc-news.com/events/construction-set-to-begin-on-lake-nona-campus
- ^ http://valenciacc.edu/aboutus/whoweare/fascfacts.cfm
- ^ "Enrollment". Valencia College. http://valenciacollege.edu/IR/EnrollmentStatistics.cfm. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
- ^ http://valenciacc-news.com/direct-connect-to-ucf/valencia-is-again-top-producer-of-associate-degrees-in-nation
[edit] External links