California's vast Central Valley has been called "the Appalachia of California" and "the Other California." Long neglected as either irrelevant or hopeless, the Central Valley has become the focus of government and private philanthropists who understand the growing importance of this region to the state and the nation. The problems of the Central Valley have long been apparent to higher education leaders in the region. But apart from very limited occasional partnerships, collaboration among higher education institutions to solve regional problems has not been the usual practice. In the spring of 2000, this began to change. The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium has experimented with various ways to build and nurture a college-going culture. The mission is focused but allows sufficient flexibility to approach the problem of low college attainment from numerous angles. By collaborating across traditional boundaries of institutional systems, geography, and competitive tradition, progress is being made.