Harrison College’s Grove City campus hosted its first commencement ceremony for graduates at 7 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the Grand Oaks Event Center, 1801 Gateway Circle.

Harrison College was established in Indiana in 1902, and opened the Grove City campus in September of 2009.

State Rep. Cheryl Grossman (R-Grove City) addressed the class of 16 graduates. The ceremony honored students from the June and September graduating classes.

“This is a huge milestone for Harrison College in Ohio, but it’s just the beginning of what we plan to accomplish here,” Pat Mozley, president of Harrison College’s Grove City campus, said in a written statement. “Harrison College has graduated more than 75,000 students in our 109-year history. We want to have that kind of impact in Ohio over the next 100 years.”

All 16 of the graduates earned associate degrees in one of six programs: accounting, business management, criminal justice, human resources, medical assistant and medical reimbursement technology. Nine of the graduates are from the medical assistant program.

“The medical assisting program is our most populated program,” Mozley said.

Mozley attributes the popularity to the public’s awareness of the high number of jobs that will be available in that sector in the future. She said Harrison College is one of the few colleges in the Columbus area that offers an associate degree in medical assisting.

The Grove City campus plans to offer bachelor’s degree programs in the near future, Mozley said. The five degrees would include business management, health care management, human resources, criminal justice and accounting.

“Those complement the programs that we currently offer,” she said.

This fall quarter, total enrollment at the campus is 213 students, Mozley said. Last year’s fall quarter enrollment was 99 students. Of the current 213 students, 75 students or 35 percent are from Grove City. Columbus ZIP codes, which could be anywhere inside of Interstate 270, make up 48 percent or 102 students.

Galloway, Hilliard and Dublin make up 9 percent or 20 students, with the remaining 16 or 7.5 percent living south of Grove City in the areas of Lancaster, Ashville, Groveport and Circleville.

The most popular program for the campus continues to be the medical assistant program, which currently has 81 students. Criminal justice is second-largest, with 47 students enrolled. Business management follows with 31 students. Medical reimbursement technology has 25 students.