{"id":31199,"date":"2011-12-12T17:33:07","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T22:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=31199"},"modified":"2019-07-01T16:33:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T20:33:30","slug":"valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"Valencia Named Best Community College in Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_31202\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\" class=\"figure\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2011\/12\/photo-jacque-brund_40431.jpg\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img size-medium img-fluid w-100 wp-image-31202\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2011\/12\/photo-jacque-brund_40431-300x216.jpg\" alt><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img size-medium img-fluid w-100 wp-image-31202 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" alt data-src=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2011\/12\/photo-jacque-brund_40431-300x216.jpg\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Valencia College and UCF share classroom and office space at the University Center, which opened in 2009 on Valencia&#039;s West Campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Valencia College, a close partner of the University of Central Florida, has won the inaugural Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Announced in a ceremony held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the award comes with $600,000 in prize money.<\/p>\n<p>In a competitive year-long process, the Aspen Institute, along with a panel of some of the biggest names in higher education, selected&nbsp;Valencia from a preliminary list of 120 \u201ctop\u201d community colleges in the nation, based on student performance and graduation data collected by the U.S. Department of Education.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe college is an engine for employment in Central Florida, and a model for the country,\u201d said Josh Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute\u2019s College Excellence Program.<\/p>\n<p>In selecting Valencia as the best community college in America, Aspen officials noted that more than half of the college\u2019s full-time students graduate or transfer within three years of entering the school, a rate significantly higher than the national average (51 percent versus 39 percent).<\/p>\n<p>Many of the transfer students attend UCF through the innovative <a href=\"http:\/\/regionalcampuses.ucf.edu\/directconnect\/\">DirectConnect to UCF<\/a> program. DirectConnect offers guaranteed admission to graduates of Valencia College, Lake-Sumter and Brevard community colleges and Seminole State College of Florida.<\/p>\n<p>UCF academic and financial aid advisers work closely with students to help them make a seamless transition to <a href=\"http:\/\/regionalcampuses.ucf.edu\">UCF<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To read a more detailed story about the Aspen Prize, visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.valenciacollege.edu\/\">Valencia College website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Valencia College, a close partner of the University of Central Florida, has won the inaugural Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Many Valencia graduates transfer to UCF.","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":31201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1323,3930,4770,4771,202,5030],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-31199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","tag-direct-connect-to-ucf","tag-regional-campuses","tag-transfer-and-transition-services","tag-transfer-students","tag-alumni","tag-valencia-college"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Valencia Named Best Community College in Nation | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Valencia College, a close partner of the University of Central Florida, has won the inaugural Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Many Valencia graduates transfer to UCF.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Valencia Named Best Community College in Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Valencia College, a close partner of the University of Central Florida, has won the inaugural Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. Many Valencia graduates transfer to UCF.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-12T22:33:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-01T20:33:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2011\/12\/photo-jacque-brund_4043.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chad Binette \u201906MPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chad Binette \u201906MPA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chad Binette \u201906MPA\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/903c8395fc752306f926db4ebed914db\"},\"headline\":\"Valencia Named Best Community College in Nation\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-12T22:33:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-01T20:33:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/\"},\"wordCount\":268,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2011\/12\/photo-jacque-brund_4043.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"DirectConnect to UCF\",\"Regional Campuses\",\"Transfer and Transition Services\",\"transfer students\",\"UCF Alumni\",\"Valencia College\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Colleges &amp; Campus\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2011\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/\",\"name\":\"Valencia Named Best Community College in Nation | University of Central Florida News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/valencia-named-best-community-college-in-nation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2011\/12\/photo-jacque-brund_4043.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-12T22:33:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-01T20:33:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/903c8395fc752306f926db4ebed914db\"},\"description\":\"Valencia College, a close partner of the University of Central Florida, has won the inaugural Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. 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