North Orange County Community College District

North Orange County Community College District, doing business as Fullerton College, is a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and minority institution operating as a child entity within the North Orange County Community College District. Fullerton College serves as a federal grant recipient in STEM education and workforce development, competing exclusively as a prime recipient across four distinct federal agencies with no contract prime awardees and no subcontracting activity.

Fullerton College's federal footprint centers on NSF-funded STEM education initiatives and workforce development grants. The college received a $499,893 NSF Division of Undergraduate Education grant (CFDA 47.076) awarded October 15, 2026, to develop and study a scalable mathematics research communities model for two-year colleges, leading a staged expansion to eight participating institutions over three years through October 2029. The college also received a $345,514 NSF grant (CFDA 47.076) awarded July 1, 2023, to create a LIDAR certificate program and two LIDAR courses addressing demand for skilled technicians in 3D structure scanning, precision building inspections, and site analysis, with completion targeted for June 2026. A $172,967 NSF STEM Education grant awarded February 15, 2025, funds earth science instrumentation including drones, weather stations, water column systems, bioreactors, and multi-parameter probes to support hands-on learning for over one thousand students through January 2026. The college also holds a $250,000 Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration grant (CFDA 20.112) awarded January 18, 2022, supporting aviation maintenance technical workforce education and training through July 2023.

Customer concentration sits heavily with the Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (6 awards, 46% of the award count) and the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education (3 awards, 23% of the award count), together accounting for 85% of recent awards. The Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration Eastern Region and the Department of the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory round out the customer set. Recent activity shows an episodic award pattern — one award each in 2024, 2025, and 2026 — with most dollars obligated ($72.7 million) concentrated in early awards from the source window and potential value now minimal as grants cycle toward completion. Fullerton College's parent organization is North Orange County Community College District, which also oversees Cypress College and operates with minority-institution status across its portfolio.