Trinidad State College is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...

Trinidad, Colorado Trinidad is the home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 8,329 as of the 2020 census. Trinidad lies north of Raton, New Mexico, and s ...

. It was founded in 1925, making it the first community college in the state of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. Trinidad State operates a satellite campus in the nearby city of Alamosa, Colorado. The college offers 49 degree programs in vocational fields.

Academics

TSC offers courses in many diverse areas, including gunsmithing, aquaculture, cosmetology, welding, nursing, as well as traditional arts and STEM subjects such as English, biology, and chemistry. Additionally, TSC trains first-responders with both an affiliated

Emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...

training center in

Grand Junction, Colorado Grand Junction is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 65,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making Grand Junction the 17th mo ...

, and its own on-campus Peace Officer Standards and Training program. Trinidad State has been continually accredited by the

Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...

since 1962.

Athletics

As a member of the

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

, Trinidad State College offers 11 athletic programs, including: *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

* Men's

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

* Women's

* Men's Cross Country * Women's Cross Country * Men's Indoor/Outdoor

Track & Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

, * Women's Indoor/Outdoor

* Men's Soccer * Women's Soccer *

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Name change

On May 18, 2021, Colorado's governor signed a law officially changing the college's name from Trinidad State Junior College to Trinidad State College.

Notable alumni

* Franklin Clarke, former

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list t ...

player for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

Mark Grudzielanek Mark James Grudzielanek (; born June 30, 1970) is a former Major League Baseball second baseman and shortstop. Grudzielanek played for six different teams during his 15-season career. He batted and threw right-handed. He was most recently the ma ...

, former professional baseball player All-Star with teams including the

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

and the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

Spencer Haywood Spencer Haywood (born April 22, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player and Olympic gold medalist. Haywood is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2015. High school career In 1964, Hayw ...

, Olympic gold medalist, professional basketball player, and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee * Gayle Hopkins, advanced to final round in the men's long jump at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics * Danny Jackson, former two-time baseball

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

All-Star * Cody Jones, former football player for the Los Angeles Rams * Kimmi Lewis, rancher and politician * Devonte Upson (born 1993), basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League * Larry Walton, former football player for the Detroit Lions * Gary Weaver, former football player for the Green Bay Packers

References

External links

Official website
Colorado Community College System Buildings and structures in Alamosa County, Colorado Buildings and structures in Las Animas County, Colorado Education in Alamosa County, Colorado Education in Las Animas County, Colorado NJCAA athletics Educational institutions established in 1925 1925 establishments in Colorado {{Colorado-university-stub