In 2019, to better serve more than 74,000 students, Valencia College will add new services and learning space at its eight campuses and training centers across Orange and Osceola counties. Additionally, the college will open a new campus with the University of Central Florida and a workforce training center – both in downtown Orlando.
While spring semester classes begin on Monday, Jan. 7, students may still apply and register by visiting the Future Students webpage. Students, faculty and staff arriving in January will see an update to Valencia College’s free-rides partnership with LYNX, as the local bus system adds the college to its new PawPass app. Participants can use their smartphones to present a virtual ticket and board the bus free of charge. For more information, visit the college’s LYNX page.
Later in January, Valencia College will continue to expand economic opportunity in the region by opening the first of two new career training buildings on its Osceola Campus in Kissimmee. The Center for Accelerated Training will house short-term programs in construction, transportation logistics, warehouse packaging, clinical medical assistance and residential apartment service maintenance. The 14,700 square-foot building will also be home to the campus’s continuing education language programs, including English for speakers of other languages and intensive English, as well as Spanish and Portuguese. It will become the college’s third CAT building. A fourth CAT building, supported by a $2.3 million grant from the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund, will open on Pittman Street in downtown Orlando near the forthcoming joint campus shared with the University of Central Florida.
The shared downtown campus, opening on Aug. 26, 2019 in partnership with UCF, will include two buildings anchoring the Creative Village development west of Interstate 4: the Dr. Phillips Academic Commons building and UnionWest, a 15-story student housing and learning tower. Valencia College’s School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts will relocate downtown from the West Campus on Kirkman Road. Valencia College students seeking an A.A. degree and select A.S. degrees will be eligible to register for classes at the downtown campus beginning May 31.
The spring 2019 semester will close with the celebration of the college’s 50th commencement, set to take place in two ceremonies – morning and afternoon – on May 5 at UCF’s CFE Arena. The college’s first commencement ceremony was held downtown in 1969 at the First Presbyterian Church of Orlando, when 130 students graduated from what was then known as Valencia Junior College. During the current academic year, Valencia College officials esitimate that approximately 8,200 students will earn their degrees.
For more news about Valencia College, please visit www.valenciacollege.edu/news
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