Diablo Valley College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Diablo Valley College (DVC) is a two-year community college located in Pleasant Hill in Contra Costa County, California.
The college is one of three publicly supported two-year community colleges in the Contra Costa Community College District (along with Contra Costa College and Los Medanos College), and was first opened in 1949. Current enrollment is 26,000 students and it has 300 full-time and 370 part-time instructors.
Diablo Valley College has a well-regarded academic reputation, and is a popular choice for students to complete lower-division college requirements for ofttimes overcrowded California universities: DVC is ranked number one in transfers to four-year institutions in the state, ahead of all other California community colleges [citation needed]. In 2004, the top four transfer destinations were California State University, East Bay (formerly Hayward), San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis.
DVC also offers a variety of occupational specialties, including hotel/restaurant management, culinary arts, dental technology, and real estate. DVC has a very active speech and debate team.
DVC has had famous athletes throughout its sports history, probably most recognized being Willie McGee, a former MLB National League MVP, who played for the DVC baseball team in the 1970's. Demarshay Johnson, a former DVC Basketball star currently playing for Nevada, was named 1st team All-State for California for the 2004-2005 season. In that season, he led the entire state in blocks, averaging 5.2 per game.
DVC has satellite centers in San Ramon and Walnut Creek and also offers classes in other facilities in Concord, Martinez, Danville, and San Ramon.
The college officially began in 1949, and was then called East Contra Costa Junior College. The college moved to its permanent campus in 1952, and changed its name to Diablo Valley College in 1958.
Recently, the college received some much-needed remodeling. A new Physical Science, Life Health Science, and Advanced Technology Building, along with a new bookstore, are just some of the additions. Future plans include a remodel of both the Business Education and Engineering Technology Buildings.
[edit] Notable alumni
In addition to the athletes named above, notable alumni of Diablo Valley include:
- Scott Dyleski, convicted murderer
- Lianne Lin, model
- Julie Strain, model and actor
[edit] School newspaper
The Inquirer, the college's student-run newspaper, is produced on campus through the Journalism-121 class. It is printed on community presses of the Contra Costa Times. The paper has been produced with as many as 10 pages, but recently has been forced to print only 4 pages as enrollment in the class has declined. [1]
Notably, the newspaper was forced to produce their paper off-site at the Times' newsroom when a bomb-threat closed the campus and access to the newsroom was restricted.
