Driving up the majestic incline to where Austin Community College’s Pinnacle Campus’ large, 10-story building perches atop its hill country plateau, it’s easy to see where the name “Pinnacle” came from. The views are outstanding, and parking is easier than you might expect at the 57-acre campus.
Back to School for Adults
Can you do this again? Go back to school after you’ve been working for a while? Perhaps you feel like it’s your first morning in first grade all over again, and you feel unsure, apprehensive, a little overwhelmed? Regardless, ACC Pinnacle’s compact campus specially crafts assistance to meet any student’s needs. Taking a deep breath, you venture through the tinted glass doors and steel yourself for a visit to the Admissions Office, located conveniently on the first floor.
You are drawn in by a warm glow of the dramatic, soaring 10-story atrium ringed by open air walkways on each floor and watching a few of the 4,000 students and faculty moving about their tasks. The meeting with admissions staff calms your concerns as you’re introduced to student assistance programs, continuing education class offerings and placement testing. After being oriented with the ACC Pinnacle Campus and all it offers, you may take a moment to sit down at Simon’s, the campus’ ninth-floor café in the clouds where you can enjoy a view that actually looks down on even the tallest buildings of downtown Austin over eight miles away.
Business-Related Roots Lead to Growth in Business Education
Located adjacent to US Highway 290 in the Oak Hills area, ACC’s Pinnacle campus facility was originally designed and constructed in 1983 as a 10-story commercial office building and was adaptively remodeled to become the Pinnacle campus in 1991. Rising higher than any other building in southwest Travis County, its base sits 500 feet above sea level putting its roof above any other Austin-area building.
The mission statement of the Austin Community College system is “to promote student success and improve communities by providing affordable access to higher education and workforce training in its eight-county service area.”
To fulfill its mission, the college will provide, within its resources, the mission elements prescribed by the State of Texas: vocational and technical programs of varying lengths leading to certificates or degrees.
ACC’s vision statement includes “being recognized as the preferred gateway to higher education and training as the catalyst for social equity, economic development, and personal enrichment.”
Learn Online or in Day, Evening and Weekend Classes
The ACC Pinnacle campus offers educational experiences in many disciplines to meet the varied needs of area’s students, including associate degree programs, continuing education and hands-on career training, non-credit personal-enrichment course participation and an opportunity to take and earn college credits for college-level courses while still in high school.
As part of Austin Community College District, a nationally recognized two-year college system, Pinnacle Campus produces an online “Distance Learning” program used throughout the district, as well as day, evening and weekend classes, making accessibility easy and convenient to many who want to enhance their careers or even reinvent their lives.
Career Path Counseling, Tutoring and Affordable Rates
The ACC student experience is characterized by individual growth with professional assistance counseling in career path selection, free tutoring services and a wide range of over 60 ongoing student life activities for the chance to have fun on those breaks from the classroom. Students may also serve in student government or get involved with worthwhile adventures volunteering to help others in the community.
Affordability has always been paramount among the goals of ACC, and it manages to offer this expansive program at a very reasonable rate per credit hour for students that reside within the ACC district, which includes most Austin area residents. ACC offers classes that often transfer for credit to four-year colleges and universities for those who wish to continue their education elsewhere. Pinnacle students’ success rates have proven to be very high as they continue their career beyond their ACC experience. “Start Here, Get There” is their apt ACC campus motto.
Campus Fun
Is an activity you’re looking for unavailable? At Pinnacle, you can start a club centered on that activity and share it with others. All this and more is what makes the experience of the Pinnacle campus extraordinarily satisfying to students. Class sizes are typically small, about 22 students on average, and professors often have real-world experience. Many hold day jobs in the field they teach.
ACC’s Pinnacle Campus hosts fall and spring events. The Student Life team at Pinnacle creates a series of weekly events and happenings that include a vast array of activities for all students to enjoy. Whether participating in an outing on the hike and bike trails near Town Lake, an evening out on 6th Street, getting group tickets for a live concert in the “Music Capitol of the World,” or just hanging out with fellow students and friends, students pursue a balance of working hard and having fun.