Emily Griffith Technical College | |
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Address | |
1860 Lincoln Street Denver, Colorado 80203 United States |
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Coordinates | 39°44′45″N 104°59′09″W / 39.7458°N 104.9858°WCoordinates: 39°44′45″N 104°59′09″W / 39.7458°N 104.9858°W |
Information | |
School type | Public technical college |
Motto | For All Who Wish To Learn / Denver's most Unique Technical College. |
Opened | September 9, 1916 |
Status | open |
CEEB code | 060405 |
Executive Director | Jeff Barratt |
Education system | Colorado Community College System |
School color(s) | Black and Purple |
Website | http://www.emilygriffith.edu |
Emily Griffith Technical College is a public technical college in downtown Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded by Emily Griffith in 1916 as Opportunity School, it was renamed in her honor in 1933. The school is affiliated with Denver Public Schools, offering an alternative high school program, and is part of the Colorado Community College System.
Denver educator Emily Griffith (1868–1947) shared her dream of opening a school to serve people of all ages and interests with a Denver Post features writer in 1915. Following its publication, she persuaded the Post and local trolley cars to promote the idea. In May 1916, Griffith received the condemned Longfellow School at 13th and Welton Streets from the Denver Board of Education. Opportunity School opened on September 9, 1916.
By 1954, the school served 10,000 students annually and had over 400,000 alumni.Public television in Denver, directed by Jim Case, signed on January 30, 1956 from a studio in an auto body shop at the school. Funding from Denver Public Schools gradually declined over the years, leading the school to begin charging Denver residents tuition in 1991.
Courses also changed with the needs of the community, adding more English as a Second Language and health care courses and closing programs in shoe repair, audio/visual electronics, and precision machining in the mid-1990s.
The College operates across three campuses. The main campus, located at 1860 Lincoln Street in Denver, houses many of the school's Continuing Technical Education (CTE) programs, along with Adult Basic Education (ABE) classes for those seeking their GED, as well as the English Language Acquisition (ELA, also known as ESL) programs. A second campus at 1205 Osage Street houses the College of Trades and Industry, while a third campus at 200 E. 9th Ave. houses the Video Production and Editing Program.