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Osceola Campus Celebrates 25 Years

Apr

29

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Friday, April 29, 2022

The Osceola Campus celebrates its 25^th anniversary this year, and the following photos show events from the campus’ early years.

Matador Day, Circa 1998

This is an early Matador Day — now called Spirit Day — on the Osceola Campus. The open field where the picture was taken is now filled by Building 1 (even though it was the second building constructed on campus). The building was constructed in 2000-2001, so this picture is from 1997-1999. The people in the picture were all faculty in the math department, including current Wendi Bush, professor, mathematics (third from the right).

Open House

This picture was taken before classes started on the Osceola Campus. We had an open house in December 1996 when people could come and tour the one building on campus (now called Building 2). Melissa Pedone, interim president of the Osceola, Lake Nona and Poinciana Campuses, was in one of the campus’s two biology labs and jokingly posed with the skeleton for Anatomy and Physiology classes. Tim Grogan, professor, biology, took the picture.

Aerial Photo of Osceola Campus

This picture was taken by Mark Guillette, professor, sociology, on his returning flight to Orlando from his Valencia College Foundation Endowed Chair experience in Mexico City.

“I was awarded the 2021-2022 Patricia Havill Whalen Chair in Social Sciences,” Mark shared. “My proposal was to travel to a Spanish-speaking country to participate in an intensive Spanish language learning program. I paired with Fluenz, a school based in Mexico City that offers such programs.

“I was in Mexico City for six days. Each day there were individual and group classes with a rotating set of Spanish teachers. The curriculum was tailored to each student depending on the progress throughout the week.  Local cultural events were also incorporated into the program, such as a visit to the National Anthropological and Frida Kahlo Museums,” he added.

Do you have a memory or photo from the early years of the Osceola Campus? We would love to hear about it. Please email them to Meredith Morris, professor, speech, at mmorris54@valenciacollege.edu.

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