College of the Desert (COD) is a public two-year community college located in Palm Desert in the Coachella Valley of Riverside County, California. The current COD enrollment is about 10,200 students, of which about one third attend college full-time. COD is distinguished as the home of the Energy Technology Training Center, a nationally recognized leader in alternative fuel training, and a model for nine other community college alternative-fuel training programs throughout California. The college was also recognized as a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) in 2000, for which it received a $1.8 million federal grant to enable it to continue serving the Coachella Valley's 51% Hispanic population. Courses at the college address a local need for employees in the hospitality, medical and agriculture industries, and COD offers A.A. degrees and certificate programs in culinary management, nursing, turf management, public safety and agriculture as well as in unique vocations such as transportation technology and digital design.