A special ceremony was held Thursday morning at Floyd Medical Center for Phillip Zane, whose mother is in the hospital.

Zane is one of 14 to graduate from Georgia Northwestern Technical College’s Basic Law Enforcement program.

A commencement ceremony took place on the Calhoun campus Thursday afternoon.

Because Meribeth Zane was badly injured in a wreck and was unable to attend the Gordon County graduation ceremony, Earl Hill, a basic law enforcement instructor, and Tom Bojo, the dean of public service technologies, arranged to have a small graduation ceremony at the hospital so she could see her son graduate from the program.

According to Bojo, both Meribeth Zane and David Zane, Phillips Zane’s father, were very supportive of their son attending the Basic Law Enforcement Academy.

“Mrs. Zane really wanted to be able to see her son graduate. If she wasn’t going to be able to come to the ceremony, we were going to bring it to her,” said Bojo. “I contacted Natalie Stegall at Floyd Medical Center and she made this happen.”

Meribeth Zane said she was overwhelmed by emotion.

“I am so appreciative to everyone for doing this for us. Phillip has always wanted to help people and now he is going to have a job where he can truly help people,” said Zane.

The fall 2009 law enforcement graduations are Zane, Timothy W. Bridges, Michael J. Corvino Jr., Dhruv R. Desai, John L. Erwin, Kevin M. Garland, D. Blake Jackson, Eric S. Lowrance, Logan Allen McDougle, Scottie E. Powell, Jeremy Trey Rider, Adam S. Rogers, Cody R. Scoggins, and J. Chad Shaw.

Their next challenge is finding a job.

“Some of us had not been in a classroom for over 15 years, while others had just stepped out of high school,” said Chad Shaw.

For now, Shaw remains unemployed.

He’s not alone.

Graduate Cody Scoggins, a native of Armuchee, is seeking employment in Floyd County. He his enlisting the help of his brother Shane Scoggins, a Floyd County police officer, in his job search.

“He helped me know what to expect and know what not to expect,” said Scoggins. “Hopefully, I can get hired on with the county.”

Students who are graduating and don’t have work lined up may worry about finding a job, but as a teacher at GNTC for 15 years, Earl Hill said a degree will still be a valuable asset.

“The best reference I would give them is I would go to war with them,” said Hill, who served in the Marines.

Each graduate had 20 weeks of learning, culminating into 40 hours of class a week, along with physical fitness training.

Calhoun Times Staff Writer Karissa Stewart contributed to this report.