Brevard Community College

Brevard Community College was officially renamed Eastern Florida State College on July 1, 2013. The college is one of the 28 public state and community colleges in Florida. It is located on Florida's Space Coast, an exciting and progressive area where NASA once launched manned space shuttles, and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where unmanned launches still take place. Other cities in the Space Coast include Titusville, Cocoa Beach, Cocoa, Merritt Island, Melbourne, Indialantic, Rockledge and Palm Bay.

The college first opened its doors to 768 students in 1960 under the name Brevard Junior College. Classes were held in the former Cocoa High School in Cocoa. Thirty one faculty members taught courses for students to qualify for four different Associate's degrees. It was during the era of racial segregation and a separate college, Carver Junior College, opened the same year to serve African-American students. In order to comply with the desegregation law of 1963, the colleges simply merged to form Brevard Community College at its present Cocoa location. In 1970, it was renamed Brevard Community College after the state created a two-year college system. The school had a huge increase of 51 percent for students enrolled in online classes between 2007 and 2010. Today the college is called Eastern Florida State College and offers Bachelor's degrees in general business and health care management.

The four brick and mortar campuses that comprise EFSC are located in Cocoa, Melbourne, Palm Bay and Titusville. Close to 100 degree and certificate programs are offered at EFSC including career and technical programs. Many students choose to participate in the Associate's transfer program known as "DirectConnect," a joint effort with the Florida Institute of Technology. EFSC boasts the highest graduation rate of any state or community college in Central Florida.

Other programs at the school include a Law Enforcement Academy that trains officers for the local police forces. An Aerospace program by the college operates at the Kennedy Space Center. Athletic programs include softball, baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball and men's golf. The men's golf team has won several National Junior College Championships and the men's baseball team carries the honor of two state championships. The college operates WEFS TV, an educational television station that broadcasts educational and cultural information of special interests.

The college has several notable alumni including former Major League Soccer play Pete Marino, Darrell Hammond, a cast member on Saturday Night Live and PGA Championship golf winner Pete Azinger.