Valencia College

Valencia College
Motto	We Say You Can.
Established	1967
Type	Public
Endowment	$63 million
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
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. 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.

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."

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

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).

Locations

Valencia College operates a total of four campuses and three sites in its service area, which encompasses Orange County and Osceola County.

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)

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.

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.

Student profile

College-wide Headcount = 31,901 for 2011.

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]}

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

External links

• Official website