College of the Sequoias (COS) is a California community college located on the eastern edge of the San Joaquin Valley midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The college, like most of the early community colleges in the state, developed out of the local public school. In 1926 the Visalia Unified School District established "Visalia Junior College" as a department in the high school. In 1939 it built the current college campus, and in 1949 it nurtured the formation of an independent College of the Sequoias Community College District.

From its opening in the fall of 1926 until World War II the district's sole mission was to provide inexpensive, lower-division college education to local high school graduates who intended to transfer to a traditional four-year college. This "transfer" mission shaped the college during these years in that it provided the theoretical and political basis for its founding, defined its initial curriculum and activities, led to the construction of its campus, and met the needs of the overwhelming majority of its students.

After the onset of the great depression in the 1930s the college embraced a second mission that shaped its development through the 50s. The depression drove many unemployed young people to enroll in classes who were either not prepared for, or not necessarily interested in, transfer education. Confronting this fact, and recognizing that larger enrollments generated greater state financial support, school officials began to develop appropriate courses for these "terminal" students. By the late 40s they had expanded the vocational curriculum, developed some "general education" courses, set up a career guidance and counseling office, and established a job placement service. This vocational emphasis helped increase enrollment and community support for the college and ushered it into a period of stable growth that lasted into the 1960s.

During the 1960s and 70s a new mission known as "community education" came to shape COS's development and transformed the institution, quite literally, from a "junior" to a "community" college. This mission called on the college to be a "full service" institution that met not only the community's adult educational needs, but also provided it with vocational and recreational activities. Educators generally understood this mission to include adult education, continuing education, community services, and community-based education. In essence, this mission sought to make COS the region's adult educational, cultural and recreational center.

By the 1980s, however, funding constraints and state mandated reforms led the college to reevaluate this broad community-—education mission. During the 1990s the College reaffirmed transfer and vocational education as primary missions and relegated community education as a secondary position.