Reflects two centuries’ of continuous evolution as an educational institution

National College, known since 1886 as a leader in career-focused education, announces that effective March 4, 2013, its flagship Roanoke Valley Campus, located in Salem with additional facilities in Vienna, Virginia, plans to become American National University.

“Since our founding in 1886, National College has continually been in a process of evolution,” says National College President Frank Longaker. “The transition of our Roanoke Valley Campus to university status recognizes not only the significant transformation of the college over the past 126 years, but our continued evolution through the 21st century. It is neither a beginning nor an end, but a waypoint.”

National College’s Roanoke Valley Campus, located in Salem, Virginia since the 1980s, is the home of the college’s administration. In late 2012, the college opened a higher education center in Tyson’s Corner, in the Washington, DC/Northern Virginia region, offering programs through the college’s School of Professional Development and English Language Institute. National College’s other 29 campus locations, located in six states, will continue to operate under the National College name.

“It is important to note what does not change—the individual attention and career-focused instruction that National graduates have known for over a century,” adds Longaker. “Beyond this, American National University will offer students everywhere the opportunity of this experience in a growing number of fields, through multiple means of instruction, and at baccalaureate and graduate levels.”

The selection of the name American National University reflects the notion of continuous development. American, recognizing the institution’s role as a leading American provider of career-focused education for students from around the world; National, acknowledging the historical name and nationwide reputation; and University, representing a status as a graduate-level institution offering diverse academic, online, international, ESL, and corporate training programs.

More information on our institutional vision Evolution 2086 can be found on the National College web site at http://www.National-College.edu/about/evolution-2086/.

Submitted by Nancy Simmons, National College.