Valencia College

Valencia College, also known as Valencia or VC, 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 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 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."

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