Hillsborough Community College (HCC) is a two-year community college, located in Hillsborough County, Florida. The college has six campuses located throughout the county. Locations include: Brandon, Dale Mabry, Plant City, Ybor City, MacDill AFB, and South Shore (on the south shore of Tampa Bay in Ruskin). Administrative offices and headquarters are located on Davis Islands, near downtown Tampa.
HCC was one of the last community colleges to be created in Florida, founded in 1968. Only Pasco–Hernando Community College, out of the 28-school Florida community college system, was founded later. Despite its late start, HCC has grown to include over 43,000 students. In 2010, HCC ranked 8th in the state and 20th in the nation in total number of associate degrees produced. In January 2008 the school opened its first residence hall, Hawk's Landing, named after the school mascot. This marks HCC as one of the few community colleges with its own residence hall and will be a gauge of viability for future endeavors by other community colleges.
HCC houses the prestigious Honors Institute. In 2007, Dr. Lydia Lyons, Director of the Honors Institute was elected to the office of Vice-President of the National Collegiate Honors Council. In 2009, she served as the President of that organization. The Honors coordinator, Lauren Furry, currently serves as the Vice President of the Southern Regional Honors Council. Every year the graduating students from the Honors Institute transfer to universities and colleges such as Boston University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Mount Holyoke College, UCLA, Virginia Tech, and Yale.
There is a small sports program at HCC, with the school having a handful of sports teams that compete against other colleges.
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