Trinity Valley Community College (TVCC) is a public community college based in Athens, Texas. It has six campuses serving five counties across the southeast and eastern parts of the state.
Contents
History
TVCC was founded in 1946 as Henderson County Junior College (HCJC) in Athens, the county seat. The current name, adopted in September 1986, was taken from the Trinity River, which bisects the region. By that time it had expanded to serve residents of more than one county.
TVCC began its expansion to a multi-site campus in 1969 when it began to offer courses at a nearby Texas Department of Criminal Justice unit.
In 1972, courses in Palestine were held for the first time and in 1975 TVCC opened a separate campus facility three miles north of Palestine (the Anderson County seat).
In 1973 TVCC started offering courses in Terrell (its first expansion into neighboring Kaufman County) and opened a separate campus facility there in 1986.
In 1983 TVCC opened its first specialized campus, the TVCC Health Science Center in Kaufman (the Kaufman County seat). As of 2022, the site now holds Adult & Continuing Education classes for the area.
Starting in 2020, TVCC moved the Health Science Center to the former Renaissance Hospital site in Terrell. One of the buildings at the campus holds High School dual credit courses for Health Science in partnership with Terrell ISD.
Campus locations and service area
TVCC operates six public campuses serving the Texas counties of Anderson, Henderson, Van Zandt, Rains, and Kaufman, southeast of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex:
Athens
The Henderson County Campus, which also serves as TVCC's headquarters, is in Athens west of TX-19 on Prarieville Road. This campus also hosts the Pinnacle program that serves Dual-Credit courses on campus for area K-12 ISDs surrounding and including Athens.
Palestine
The Anderson County Campus is in Palestine on TX-19 north of the US-287 junction headed to Bethel.
The Palestine Workforce Education Center, located at Palestine Mall on Loop 256 and TX-19 South.
Kaufman
The Kaufman City Campus is at the site of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital at the US-175 and TX-243 junction. This was the former site of the Health Science Center from 1986 to 2019.
Terrell
The Terrell Campus is in Terrell on the eastbound offramp to Wilson Road on Interstate 20.
The TVCC Health Science Center is also located in Terrell on TX-34 north of I-20. It also operates a distance learning program for the University of Texas at Arlington's RN to BSN program.
TDCJ
In addition, TVCC serves TDCJ Region II Students at prison units in Anderson County outside of Tennessee Colony.
Service Area
Athletics
Trinity Valley has an athletics program offering the following sports: football, cheer, dance, volleyball, basketball, softball, and soccer. The Trinity Valley nickname is the Cardinals. An eSports program was also added in the 2019–2020 School Year.
Notable alumni and persons affiliated with TVCC
Margene Adkins, professional football player
Darren Benson, professional football player
Matt Bryant, professional football player
Rock Cartwright, professional football player
Albert Connell, professional football player
Brandon Coleman, professional football player
Paul Dawson, college football player
Anthony Dickerson, professional football player
Shelton Eppler, professional football player
Todd Fowler, professional football player
Al Harris, professional football player
Robert Jackson, professional football player
Tramain Jones, professional football player
Shawn Kemp, professional basketball player
Betty Lennox, professional basketball player
Roger Muñoz, member of the Nicaragua men's national basketball team
John Randle, professional football player
James Scott, professional football player