SchChat - School | Napa Valley College

Descriptions

The citizens of Napa County made a clear commitment to higher education in 1941 when they passed a bond issue to establish Napa Junior College. One year later, in 1942, Napa Junior College was founded as part of Napa Union High School district. The first year of World War II marked the college’s first class – of just 16 students, only one of whom was male. Once the war was over, GIs flooded into the new college seeking educational opportunity. During 1948-49, a modern new college was built next to the high school. The community reaffirmed its commitment to the local college in 1962 by passing a bond issue to buy land and build a new college campus on land previously occupied by the Napa State Hospital. After 23 years, the college had its own campus, its own school district, and an enrollment of 1,771 students. It renamed itself Napa College and continued to grow its student body on the site it continues to occupy to this day. In 1982, Napa College changed its name to Napa Valley College. The official opening of a permanent Upper Valley Campus in St. Helena in the fall of 1994 brought educational opportunities closer to home for upper valley residents and added new dimensions to the college curriculum.