The Orbital · Imperial County, California

From a Valley classroom to a Valley career — without ever leaving.

Imperial County does not lack talent. It lacks a connected ladder — a way for a high-school student to climb from a first college course to a paid technical credential to a degree to a career, with every rung inside the county. Most of those rungs already exist. The Imperial Valley Intelligence Center's job is to connect them — and to add the rung that has always been missing: the place where the work is.

12Valley high schools already in IVC's dual-enrollment program — college courses taught at the high school, today

50 seats/yrfunded SAVRN Institute training seats — two 25-person cohorts a year on campus

15+ paidwork-based learning placements each year, each with a mentor and a written skill plan

8 → 4stackable certificates building into 4 associate-degree pathways

B.S. at IVCImperial Valley College offers a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Automation — a four-year technical degree at the community college

2 campusesSDSU Imperial Valley in Calexico and Brawley — bachelor's and graduate programs in the county

Orbital 1High school — the ladder starts today

The first rung already exists in twelve Valley high schools.

Imperial Valley College's dual-enrollment program already places real college courses inside Valley high schools — taught face-to-face at the school or online — at no cost to the student. Brawley Union, Calexico, Calipatria, Central Union, Desert Oasis, Desert Valley, Holtville, Imperial, Southwest, Freedom Academy, Valley Academy, and West Shores students can all start earning college credit before they graduate. The ladder's first rung is not a proposal. It is running now.

What the campus adds: career-exposure days, supervised Learning Center lab visits, and equipment demonstrations — so "data center technician," "controls specialist," and "security analyst" become jobs a 16-year-old can see, not abstractions.
Aligned dual-enrollment sections: working with IVC and the districts, dual-enrollment coursework that maps to the Institute's foundations — workplace safety, electrical fundamentals, networking basics — so high-school credit becomes a head start on a certificate.
Teachers climb too: faculty and counselor immersion days on the operating campus, so the people advising students have stood on the plant floor they're describing.

The number that mattersValley high-school students engaging the Learning Center each year — visits, aligned dual-enrollment completions, and cohort applications from partner high schools.

SAVRN digital visualization studio design: students and visitors around a curved data wall — What a class trip sees — the campus visualization studio, where the Valley's data becomes something you can stand in front of.

Orbital 2SAVRN Institute — a paying credential

A certificate with a paycheck attached.

The SAVRN Institute's eight certificates are built from the campus's real work — 288 to 528 clock hours each, 58% of the full curriculum hands-on, taught on the same systems students will operate. Every certificate stands on its own: a student can stop here with a paying technical credential. Fifteen or more students a year go further, into paid work-based placements with a named mentor, safety training, and a written skill plan.

Certificate	Clock hours	Leads toward
CERT-DCO-1	Data Center Operations Technician — 480 hrs	Critical Facilities Operations A.A.S.
CERT-NET-1	Network & Fiber Infrastructure Technician — 432 hrs	Critical Facilities Ops · AI/Compute Ops A.A.S.
CERT-HIT-1	Hardware Installation Technician — 384 hrs	AI / Compute Operations A.A.S.
CERT-ELV-1	Electrical Power & Protection Technician — 528 hrs	Electrical Power & Protection A.A.S.
CERT-EMV-1	Electromechanical & Vibration Technician — 480 hrs	Electrical Power · Liquid-Cooled Mechanical A.A.S.
CERT-MEC-1	Mechanical & Cooling Technician — 528 hrs	Liquid-Cooled Mechanical Systems A.A.S.
CERT-SEC-1	Physical Security & Fire Detection Technician — 384 hrs	Electrical Power & Protection A.A.S.
CERT-SDB-1	Service Delivery & Business Operations — 288 hrs	All four A.A.S. pathways

OSHA 30NFPA 70E arc-flashCompTIA Server+CompTIA Network+CompTIA Security+BICSI DCDC (entry)EPA 608Electrician's-apprentice licensureAI Factory Operator — Level 1

The number that mattersCertificates completed, paid placements filled, and the wage band of every graduate's first role — published annually, with retention at 12 and 24 months.

SAVRN campus design: the Training Institute building fronting the modular compute blocks — The SAVRN campus design in the Imperial Valley desert — the Institute in front, the working compute blocks behind. Students train on the systems they will run.

Orbital 3Imperial Valley College — associate degrees, and now a bachelor's

The community college that goes further than most.

Imperial Valley College already teaches the trades this campus runs on — electrical technology, air-conditioning and refrigeration, welding, water treatment, industrial automation and plant operations, computer networking, and cybersecurity. The Institute's certificates are designed to stack into four associate-degree pathways co-delivered with IVC. And IVC holds a distinction most community colleges don't: a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Automation — a full four-year technical degree, at community-college cost, in the county.

A.A.S.

Critical Facilities Operations

Stacks Data Center Operations, Service Delivery, and Network certificates — the operators who run the campus floor.

A.A.S.

Electrical Power & Protection

Stacks the Electrical, Electromechanical, and Security certificates — the people who keep power safe and flowing.

A.A.S.

Liquid-Cooled Mechanical Systems

Stacks Mechanical & Cooling, Electromechanical, and Service Delivery — the specialists in the thermal systems modern AI requires.

A.A.S.

AI / Compute Operations

Stacks Hardware, Network, and Service Delivery — the technicians closest to the computing itself.

The four-year door is already open in-county: IVC's B.S. in Industrial Automation builds on an associate of science — automation technologies, robotics, control systems, industrial networks. A campus controls technician can earn a bachelor's degree in exactly the field they work in, without leaving the Valley.
The commitment: curriculum and articulation co-designed with IVC within 120 days of the project's final investment decision — so Institute certificates carry credit toward IVC programs instead of duplicating them.
Working while climbing: the campus's shift structure and paid placements are designed so a technician can hold a full-time role and continue stacking coursework — the ladder is built for people who need a paycheck while they climb.

The number that mattersInstitute graduates continuing into IVC degree programs, and articulation agreements executed — reported annually.

Orbital 4SDSU Imperial Valley — the university in the county

A university campus twenty minutes away — two of them, in fact.

San Diego State University has operated an Imperial Valley campus in Calexico since 1959, with a second location in Brawley since 2004 — nearly a thousand undergraduates in eleven degree programs, plus graduate study. These are the programs that exist in the county today; SAVRN claims no partnership with SDSU. The ladder is geography, not paperwork — and the geography is already in place.

Undergraduate

Degrees in the Valley

Criminal justice, public administration, nursing, public health, psychology, liberal studies, English, mathematics, history, social science, and Spanish — bachelor's programs delivered at the Calexico and Brawley campuses.

Graduate

And beyond

Master's programs including homeland security, social work, and nursing leadership — advanced study without leaving the county.

Fit 1

Security careers

The Institute's physical-security and cybersecurity track pairs naturally with SDSU-IV's criminal justice bachelor's and homeland security master's — a campus security analyst can build a degree-backed career in public safety.

Fit 2

Operations leadership

The service-delivery and business-operations track pairs with public administration — the path from campus coordinator to operations leadership, in the Valley's own institutions or SAVRN's.

The number that mattersCampus employees enrolled in any in-county degree program while working — with the education-support policy published alongside wage bands.

One student's climb

What the ladder looks like from inside a life.

An illustrative path — one of many. Every step below uses a rung that exists on this page.

Age 16 — junior year

First college credit, at her own high school

A student at a Valley high school takes an IVC dual-enrollment course on her own campus, visits the Learning Center on a class trip, and watches a controls technician walk a thermal loop. The job stops being abstract.

Age 18 — the summer after graduation

Institute cohort, first certificate

She wins a seat in a 25-person cohort — free — and completes the Electrical Power & Protection certificate: 528 clock hours, more than half of them hands-on, plus OSHA 30 and NFPA 70E.

Age 18–19

Paid placement, named mentor

One of the year's paid work-based placements: real shifts on the operating campus, a written skill plan, a mentor whose name she knows. Her first technical wage — published band, no mystery.

Age 19–21

Full-time technician, stacking toward a degree

Hired into a permanent role — she counts toward the 50% local-hire goal. She stacks a second certificate and IVC coursework toward the Electrical Power & Protection A.A.S. while working; the shift structure is built to allow it.

Age 21–23

The four-year degree, in the field she works in

She enters IVC's B.S. in Industrial Automation — robotics, control systems, industrial networks — as a working controls specialist. Tuition support per the published education policy. She has never had to leave the county.

Age 23+

Shift lead. Then whatever she wants.

Controls lead on the campus, engineering roles anywhere in the West, or a public-safety or administration degree at SDSU-IV. The ladder doesn't end — it branches. Every branch was reachable from a Valley classroom.

This is an illustrative composite, not a promise of any individual outcome. The commitments behind it — free cohort seats, paid placements, published wage bands, local-hire goals, and education support — are the Community Benefits Agreement terms described on the community publication.

Two honest exits, one honest gap

Every exit from this ladder is a win. And one rung is still missing.

Exit 1

Stop at the credential

A certificate plus an industry credential plus a paid placement is a complete, honorable outcome — a paying technical career at 19 without a dollar of student debt. The ladder never treats stopping as failure.

Exit 2

Keep stacking

Certificate to associate to bachelor's — technical at IVC, public-service at SDSU-IV — while employed. The campus's education-support policy and shift design exist so the climb doesn't require quitting.

The honest gap: Imperial County still has no in-county engineering or computer-science bachelor's degree. IVC's B.S. in Industrial Automation proves the model — a community college can deliver a four-year technical degree when regional industry justifies it. A permanent, growing intelligence campus is exactly the justification the county has been missing. SAVRN will make that case, publicly, alongside the Valley's educators.
What binds all of this: the ladder's commitments — 50 funded seats, 15+ paid placements, the 120-day IVC co-design window, the 50% local-hire goal, published wage bands and promotion criteria — are proposed Community Benefits Agreement terms, reported against annually on a public scorecard.

From a Valley classroom to a Valley career — without ever leaving.

The first rung already exists in twelve Valley high schools.

A certificate with a paycheck attached.

The community college that goes further than most.

Critical Facilities Operations

Electrical Power & Protection

Liquid-Cooled Mechanical Systems

AI / Compute Operations

A university campus twenty minutes away — two of them, in fact.

Degrees in the Valley

And beyond

Security careers

Operations leadership

What the ladder looks like from inside a life.

First college credit, at her own high school

Institute cohort, first certificate

Paid placement, named mentor

Full-time technician, stacking toward a degree

The four-year degree, in the field she works in

Shift lead. Then whatever she wants.

Every exit from this ladder is a win. And one rung is still missing.

Stop at the credential

Keep stacking

The Community Publication

The Imperial Valley Strategy