Northwest Florida State College is a state college in Niceville, Florida and part of the Florida College System. NWFSC was founded in 1963 as Okaloosa-Walton Junior College, with its campus in Valparaiso, Florida; students started class the next year. A permanent campus in Niceville was built and started serving students with the 1969-70 academic year. The school voted to change its name to Okaloosa-Walton Community College in 1988, and gained four-year status in 2003, thus changing its name to Okaloosa-Walton College. OWC also has a charter high school called the Okaloosa-Walton Collegiate High School, which opened in 2000. In June 2008, Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed a bill that allowed several community colleges, including OWC, to offer four year degrees and be considered part of Florida's upper education under the newly-formed Florida College Pilot Project making OWC one of the state colleges in Florida. Due to the change, school officials elected to once again change the name this time to Northwest Florida State College. The Collegiate High School at Northwest Florida State College is a charter school in Niceville, Florida that was established in 2000.