Montgomery College
Encyclopedia
Montgomery College is a public, open access community college
located in Montgomery County
, Maryland
, just outside Washington, D.C.
in the United States
. The college has three campuses, the largest of which is in Rockville
; the other campuses are in Takoma Park
/Silver Spring
and Germantown. Off-campus sites include the Business Training Center in Gaithersburg and Westfield South in Wheaton, which are operated by the college's Workforce Development and Continuing Education division.
Montgomery College has an enrollment of nearly 60,000 credit and noncredit students. Of the Montgomery County Public Schools
graduates who choose to stay in Maryland for college, 60% attend Montgomery College within the following academic year. The college is noted as being one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse in the nation, with students from over 170 countries enrolled. The college also employs more than 1,500 faculty members.
. In 1950, the college moved to Takoma Park, absorbing the Bliss Electrical School, which had occupied the site.
The Rockville Campus opened in 1965; the Germantown Campus opened in 1975 and has occupied its present permanent site since 1978. Montgomery College also offers learning opportunities through its extensive Workforce Development and Continuing Education
programs.
The Takoma Park Campus began expanding into neighboring Silver Spring, with the opening of a new Health Sciences Center in January 2004. The campus expansion in Silver Spring included the addition of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Arts Center, which opened in fall 2007. The building houses the campus visual arts programs and the School of Art + Design, formerly the Maryland College of Art and Design, which merged with Montgomery College in September 2004. To reflect the campus expansion into Silver Spring, the Board of Trustees officially renamed the Takoma Park campus as the "Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus" in June 2005.
The Rockville campus offers more than 600 courses in more than 40 curricula. The Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus is known for its nursing and allied health science career programs, and the Germantown campus is known for its science programs, including computer science and biotechnology.
All three campuses are served by the Montgomery College Libraries
system, which has a location at each campus.
.
The basketball/volleyball arena, Knights Arena in Rockville, was home to the Maryland Nighthawks
of the Premier Basketball League
for the 2007 season, before the team moved to Georgetown Preparatory School
Field House.
The baseball field, Knights Field, is the home field of the Rockville Express
, a member of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League
.
Division III National Championship in 2001 and again in 2006. Montgomery College-Rockville golfer Brent Davis won the NJCAA
Division III Individual Championship in 2005 with a score of 288.
, and student tuition and fees.
The exposition started in 2008 with 25 groups at the Takoma Park campus. The second expo took place in the Goldenrod building of the Germantown campus. The 3rd expo was held on April 9, 2010 at the Rockville campus.
Among the College's notable alumni are:
Community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...
located in Montgomery County
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, just outside Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The college has three campuses, the largest of which is in Rockville
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
; the other campuses are in Takoma Park
Takoma Park, Maryland
Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, D.C., and part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City," is a Tree City USA and a nuclear-free zone...
/Silver Spring
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
and Germantown. Off-campus sites include the Business Training Center in Gaithersburg and Westfield South in Wheaton, which are operated by the college's Workforce Development and Continuing Education division.
Montgomery College has an enrollment of nearly 60,000 credit and noncredit students. Of the Montgomery County Public Schools
Montgomery County Public Schools
Montgomery County Public Schools ' is a school district that serves Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. It is the largest school district in Maryland. As of the 2009–2010 school year, the district had 11,500 FTE teachers serving 141,777 students at 200 schools.Students in the district score among the...
graduates who choose to stay in Maryland for college, 60% attend Montgomery College within the following academic year. The college is noted as being one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse in the nation, with students from over 170 countries enrolled. The college also employs more than 1,500 faculty members.
History
The college was organized in 1946 as "Montgomery Junior College," with its campus located at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High SchoolBethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is a Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, public school named for two of the towns it serves along with Kensington and Silver Spring, Maryland. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda, an unincorporated community in Montgomery County...
. In 1950, the college moved to Takoma Park, absorbing the Bliss Electrical School, which had occupied the site.
The Rockville Campus opened in 1965; the Germantown Campus opened in 1975 and has occupied its present permanent site since 1978. Montgomery College also offers learning opportunities through its extensive Workforce Development and Continuing Education
Continuing education
Continuing education is an all-encompassing term within a broad spectrum of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada...
programs.
The Takoma Park Campus began expanding into neighboring Silver Spring, with the opening of a new Health Sciences Center in January 2004. The campus expansion in Silver Spring included the addition of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Arts Center, which opened in fall 2007. The building houses the campus visual arts programs and the School of Art + Design, formerly the Maryland College of Art and Design, which merged with Montgomery College in September 2004. To reflect the campus expansion into Silver Spring, the Board of Trustees officially renamed the Takoma Park campus as the "Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus" in June 2005.
Academic curricula and programs
Montgomery College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. It offers two-year associate's degrees and a variety of professional certificates and letters of recognition. The degrees offered are Associate of Arts (A.A.), Associate of Science (A.S.), Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.), Associate of Arts in Teaching (A.A.T.), and Associate of Fine Arts (A.F.A.). Graduates of two-year degree programs typically transfer to four-year colleges and universities.The Rockville campus offers more than 600 courses in more than 40 curricula. The Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus is known for its nursing and allied health science career programs, and the Germantown campus is known for its science programs, including computer science and biotechnology.
All three campuses are served by the Montgomery College Libraries
Montgomery College Libraries
The Montgomery College Libraries is the three-campus system of Montgomery College in Montgomery County, Maryland.The acting instruction librarian on the Rockville Campus is Abi Sogunro.-External links:* *...
system, which has a location at each campus.
Honors programs
Some of Montgomery College's most accomplished honors programs are listed below:- General Honors Program
- Renaissance Scholars Program (at Germantown and Takoma Park/Silver Spring)
- Montgomery Scholars ProgramMontgomery Scholars Program (Montgomery College)The Montgomery Scholars Program is a rigorous two-year program of Rockville Campus within the Honors Program system of Montgomery College in Maryland, US...
(at Rockville) - Macklin Business Institute
Other programs and services
- MC/MCPS Partnership
- Paul Peck Humanities Institute
- Phi Theta Kappa National Honors SocietyPhi Theta KappaPhi Theta Kappa, also ΦΘΚ or sometimes PTK , is the international honor society of two-year colleges and academic programs, particularly community colleges and junior colleges. It also includes Associate's degree-granting programs offered by four-year colleges...
(ΦΘΚ or PTK) - School of Art and Design (SA+D)
Athletics
Each Montgomery College campus has its own athletic teams. The athletic teams are known as the Knights: Rockville Campus, Falcons: Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus, and Gryphons: Germantown Campus, and compete in the NJCAANational Junior College Athletic Association
The National Junior College Athletic Association , founded in 1938, is an association of community college and junior college athletic departments throughout the United States. It is held as Divisions and Regions. The current NJCAA holds 24 separate regions.-History:The idea for the NJCAA was...
.
The basketball/volleyball arena, Knights Arena in Rockville, was home to the Maryland Nighthawks
Maryland Nighthawks
The Washington GreenHawks were a team of the Atlantic Coast Professional Basketball League based in Washington, D.C.. As the Maryland Nighthawks they were formerly part of the American Basketball Association and a founding member of the Premier Basketball League , in which they later played as...
of the Premier Basketball League
Premier Basketball League
The Premier Basketball League, often abbreviated to the PBL, is a men's professional basketball minor league in the United States that began play in January 2008. The league had ten teams for the 2008 season and thirteen teams for the 2009 season. Nine teams from Canada and the United States...
for the 2007 season, before the team moved to Georgetown Preparatory School
Georgetown Preparatory School
Georgetown Preparatory School is an American Jesuit college preparatory school for grades 9 through 12. It is the oldest all boys school in the United States, and the only Jesuit boarding school in the country...
Field House.
The baseball field, Knights Field, is the home field of the Rockville Express
Rockville Express
The Rockville Express is a collegiate summer baseball team based in Rockville, Maryland. Most of its players are drawn from the college ranks. The team is a member of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League . The Express plays its home games at Knights Field on the campus of Montgomery...
, a member of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League
Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League
The Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League is a collegiate summer baseball league located in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan areas. All players are from NCAA-sanctioned colleges and universities and have at least one year of NCAA eligibility remaining.-History:The CRCBL...
.
National championships
The Knights women's tennis team won the NJCAANational Junior College Athletic Association
The National Junior College Athletic Association , founded in 1938, is an association of community college and junior college athletic departments throughout the United States. It is held as Divisions and Regions. The current NJCAA holds 24 separate regions.-History:The idea for the NJCAA was...
Division III National Championship in 2001 and again in 2006. Montgomery College-Rockville golfer Brent Davis won the NJCAA
National Junior College Athletic Association
The National Junior College Athletic Association , founded in 1938, is an association of community college and junior college athletic departments throughout the United States. It is held as Divisions and Regions. The current NJCAA holds 24 separate regions.-History:The idea for the NJCAA was...
Division III Individual Championship in 2005 with a score of 288.
Budget
Montgomery College's fiscal year 2008 tax-supported operating budget is $197.4 million with funding from Montgomery County, the state of MarylandGovernment of Maryland
The government of Maryland is conducted according to the Maryland Constitution. The United States is a federation; consequently, the government of Maryland, like the other 49 state governments, has exclusive authority over matters that lie entirely within the state's borders, except as limited by...
, and student tuition and fees.
Montgomery College Foundation
The Montgomery College Foundation is a 501(c)(3) (tax-exempt) charitable organization governed by business, alumni and community members. The Foundation, with assets of $61,297,513, according to the 2006 IRS 990 form, also helps fund the college, placing it among the top five community colleges in the nation in private funding.Sarah Silberman Art Gallery
In 2008, Montgomery College named its Rockville campus gallery the Sarah Silberman Art Gallery. In addition to donating $500,000 for its complete renovation, Sarah Silberman funded two endowed scholarships in ceramics and sculpture.Student Excellence Expo
The Student Excellence Expo is a one-day event scheduled to showcase for the entire college and the community what Montgomery College students are learning. It is unique because it includes presentations from students throughout the college, including transfer, career, credit, non-credit, curricular, co-curricular, honors, developmental, and American English Language Program students.The exposition started in 2008 with 25 groups at the Takoma Park campus. The second expo took place in the Goldenrod building of the Germantown campus. The 3rd expo was held on April 9, 2010 at the Rockville campus.
Notable features and alumni of Montgomery College
Montgomery College has served nearly 450,000 credit students since its founding in 1946.Among the College's notable alumni are:
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’90 - Co-director and Co-writer - Neal FredericksNeal FredericksNeal L. Fredericks was an American motion picture cinematographer, most famous for The Blair Witch Project, noted and praised by critics for its distinctive cinéma vérité style of camera work...
’89 - Cinematography
- Eduardo Sánchez
- Barbara WalshBarbara WalshBarbara Walsh is an American musical theatre actress who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions. Walsh is known for her Drama Desk Award winning and Tony nominated role as Trina in the Broadway production of Falsettos....
- Broadway shows and a Tony Award nomination - Rick LeventhalRick LeventhalRichard Gary Leventhal , known professionally as Rick Leventhal, is an American reporter. He is a senior correspondent for Fox News Channel since June 1997. Before joining FNC he spent 10 years in local news, reporting and anchoring in markets including Columbia and Spartanburg, West Palm Beach and...
- Correspondent, Fox News - Jerome WilliamsJerome WilliamsJerome Williams is a former professional basketball player in the NBA, who last played for the New York Knicks. He was a star player on the Magruder High School basketball team...
- former NBANational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
basketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
player - Morgan WoottenMorgan WoottenMorgan Bayard Wootten is an American former high school basketball coach.From 1956 to 2002, he coached at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. He has the most wins as a head coach in the history of basketball on any level. A number of his players went on to play in the NBA,...
- "Mr. High School Basketball" - Paul JamesPaul James (actor)Paul James is an American actor. He may be best known for his role on the ABC Family television show Greek as Calvin. He also starred in the movie The Architect. James attended the theater program at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland where he participated in a variety of musical theater...
- Television and film actor