Valencia Community College

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Valencia Community College
Motto	"A Better Place to Start"
Established	1967
Type	Public Community College
Endowment	$68 million[1]
President	Sanford C. Shugart
Faculty	396 (full-time)
Staff	2,557
Students	35,351
Location	Orlando, Florida, USA
Campus	Urban
Colors	Red, Black and Gold (unofficial)
Nickname	Matadors (unofficial) [2]
Website	www.valenciacc.edu

Valencia Community College is a multi-campus college located in Orlando, Florida in the United States, and is third-largest institution of the Florida College System.

The college was founded in 1967 as Valencia Junior College, taking its current name in 1971. It has several campuses in Orlando with additional campuses in Kissimmee, and Winter Park. More than 30,000 students enroll each year.

Valencia is ranked second in the United States for the number of Associate's degrees awarded; it is first among two-year schools.[3]

Profile

The average class size is 23.5. The campus is diverse, with 51% of students being white, 22% Hispanic, 15% African-American, and 6% Asian.

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.^{[citation needed]}

The seal of the college includes the coat of arms of Valencia, Spain, in the middle and the entire diamond design stems from it.

Campuses

Valencia Community 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 academy's, advanced courses and specialized training. Valencia is one of 4 colleges in Florida that trains Department of Juvenile Justice recruit officers.
• Downtown Center
• Sand Lake Center

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[4]. 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, among others.[5]
• 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.

Intramurals

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

Ion Sancho

Maurice Ramirez

External links

• Official website