| College of the Sequoias | |
| Motto: | The first step to success |
| Type: | Public Junior College |
| President: | Brent Calvin |
| City: | Visalia |
| State: | California |
| Country: | United States |
| Mascot: | Giants |
| Other Names: | --> |
| Former Names: | --> |
| Coor: | 36.3238°N -119.3152°W |
| Colors: | Orange and Blue |
| Athletics Nicknames: | --> |
| Sports Nickname: | --> |
| Sports Nicknames: | --> |
College of the Sequoias (COS) is a public two-year community college in Visalia, California. The college is named for the Giant Sequoia trees native to the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range.
College of the Sequoias was originally established in 1926 as Visalia Junior College as a department in the city high school. Its mission at that time was to provide inexpensive, lower-division college education to local high school graduates who intended to transfer to a traditional four-year college.[1] Visalia Junior College was later expanded and a campus was built in 1938. The campus was built on what is still the college grounds. In 1949, it expanded further and formed the College of the Sequoias Community College District.
College of the Sequoias' main campus is in Visalia, but it also has full-service centers in Hanford and Tulare.
Each location offers the full-range of general education offerings and students services, but each also features a flagship program. The Visalia main campus is the home of Nursing and Allied Health, the Hanford Center (opened in 2010) is the home of the Public Safety Academy, and the Tulare College Center (opened in 2012) is the home of Agriculture.
COS offers classes at many other locations. These include: Corcoran, Dinuba, Exeter, Farmersville, Hanford, Ivanhoe, Lemoore, Lindsay, Orosi, Porterville, Strathmore, Three Rivers, Tulare, and Woodlake.
The current enrollment of COS is 11,141 students,[2] and the college offers a variety of transfer, vocational, and community-based classes, including the fire/police academies for Tulare and Kings counties. College of the Sequoias is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC).[3]
The college athletics teams are nicknamed the Giants, and COS sponsors 14 teams which participate in the Central Valley Conference.[4]