Mission and History

The Castro/Valencia campus provides access to courses and programs that fulfill general education, Associate degree, certificate, and transfer requirements as well as opportunities for personal development and life-long learning. The campus offers a broad range of credit classes and a select set of non-credit offerings in a convenient location. The class schedule provides working adults, traditional students and others the opportunity to engage in high quality educational experiences on weekday evenings. Courses are offered from a broad range of academic and vocational education departments. The Campus provides extensive foreign language instruction to prepare students to function in diverse local and global communities. Over 100 classes are offered each semester.

The Castro/Valencia campus was founded in 1983 as an educational center for San Francisco’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities, and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Studies curriculum. Outreach to these communities continues to be an essential part of the campus’ mission, including classes offered at the LGBT Community Center. Over the last twenty years, the educational offerings have expanded to serve a broad range of students with diverse educational needs from all of San Francisco’s communities. The campus was established by faculty and staff who wanted to create a learning environment that respects, celebrates, and profits from diversity and consistently offers quality educational opportunities; their vision continues to guide the Castro/Valencia campus.

Note: Do not call the James Lick Middle School or visit the school during the day. The Middle School staff do not have information regarding the CCSF Castro/Valencia programs and they do not take messages for the campus.