Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College is one of Florida's public community colleges, located in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is run by the College's Board of Trustees, appointed by the governor of Florida, whose chair is Helen Aguirre Ferré, a bilingual journalist. The College is also run by its President, currently Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, and by its various campus presidents throughout the county. The College has six different campuses, each having various outreach centers: North, Kendall, Wolfson, Medical Center, Homestead, and InterAmerican. The two largest outreach centers are located in Hialeah and Liberty City.
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History
Miami Dade College was founded in 1960 as Dade County Junior College. A facility was built on an old naval air station nearby Opa-Locka Airport, which would soon become the College's North Campus. The College enrolled black students, becoming Florida's first integrated junior college, and Cuban exiles who could not afford other schools. As the College grew, another campus was built in Kendall, and was named the South Campus. (It would later change its name again to the Kendall Campus.) The College was re-named Miami-Dade Junior College, and its two flagship campuses expanded and enrolled more students: in fact, it began enrolling more students than the University of Florida or Florida State University. After some time, college president Mitchell Wolfson Jr. envisioned a campus at the heart of Downtown Miami, and in 1973, the Wolfson Campus was built. The College changed its name to Miami-Dade Community College around the same time.
As the College kept enrolling students, some felt that its academic standards were too weak. Therefore, the College kept its open admissions policy while strengthening its academics. Around the same time, a Medical Center campus was built near Miami's Civic Center adjacent to the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital to train students in Allied Health and nursing (RN) programs. With the Mariel exile community arriving in 1980, the College created an outreach center in Hialeah to help incoming refugees gain an education. Another outreach center, the InterAmerican center, was built to accomodate bilingual education. Because students in Homestead found it difficult to attend classes at the Kendall Campus, the Homestead Campus was built in 1990.
During the mid-1990s, the College began undergoing significant changes. The College made use of new media and technologies under the direction of College President Eduardo Padrón. As the Florida legislature spent less on education, the College began to rely heavily on its foundation. The College also had to figure out new ways of recruiting students, and the College began its "Successful Alumni" campaign in the late 1990s, marketing to Miami-Dade County residents about the College's alumni.
Beginning in 2000, the College implemented its Strategic Plan to revamp the College and its recruting goals. In 2002, the College disbanded its Honors Program and created The Honors College for talented high school graduates. The Honors College represents Miami Dade College's most academically gifted students.
In 2003, the College was granted the right to award baccalaureate degrees in education to meet future education needs. Thus, the College changed its name from Miami-Dade Community College to Miami Dade College. However, the College's mission to serve its community has not changed, expanding its role in the community.
Facilities
Miami Dade College operates six campuses and various outreach centers dispersed within Miami-Dade County. The Honors College is located in three campuses (North, Kendall and Wolfson, with Wolfson being its main office), and all campuses have different schools (Engineering, Business, etc.). Some campuses also operate dual-enrollment programs for high school students. Most campuses also have College Preparatory or English as a Second Language (ESL) courses that help students pass the Computerized Placement Test (CPT) that will allow them to take college-level Mathematics and English courses.
The North Campus has specialized programs that train future firefighters, police officers, and EMS personnel. It also has a School of Entertainment and Design Technology and has a partnership with the Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU) for engineering programs. The North Campus also operates two outreach centers: the Carrie Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center in Liberty City, and the Hialeah Center. The Hialeah Center is now undergoing transition from an outreach center to its own campus within two years.
The Kendall Campus serves as the College's Admissions Office and Disbursing Office. Kendall Campus also houses the College's athletic teams. The Sharks compete at the highest level of the National Junior College Athletic Association and its teams have won various district and state level awards.
The Wolfson Campus has strong business and legal assisting programs (accredited by the American Bar Association). It also has partnerships with the University of Florida and the Miami-Dade County Public School systems in operating the New World School of the Arts for talented high school and undergraduate students.
The Medical Center Campus, located near the County's main hospitals, trains students in the Nursing (RN) and Allied Health fields, completing the Associate in Applied Science degree that will allow them immediate entry into health professions.
The Homestead Campus contains the College's Aviation program, one of few accredited by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The InterAmerican Campus contains the School of Education, where baccalaureate in science degrees are awarded to future educators. The College's first Bachelor of Science (BS) degree recipients graduated in 2005.
Present and Future
Miami Dade College's Board of Trustees are considering another campus to be built in Miami-Dade County's western region, just west of Doral. The Hialeah Center is also on its way to becoming a full campus, which means that expansion may be necessary. The College is also looking for sources of funding so that it could fund current and perhaps future baccalaureate programs.
Currently, the College enrolls approximately 160,000 students, and almost 6,000 go on to earn baccalaureate degrees, AA/AS/AAS degrees, vocational, technical and/or college credit certificates. Its student population is as diverse as Miami-Dade County. Associate in Arts transfer students from Miami Dade College go on to transfer primarily to schools within the State University Sytem of Florida, though some do transfer to out-of-state institutions mainly through articulation agreements made between institutions.