A special commencement ceremony was held recently at Floyd Medical Center in Rome for Phillip Zane, a Georgia Northwestern Technical College law enforcement graduate, whose mother was in the hospital.

Mother Meribeth Zane was badly injured in a wreck and was unable to attend the Gordon County graduation ceremony on the Calhoun campus Nov. 12.

Zane was one of 14 to graduate from GNTC’s Basic Law Enforcement program.

Tom Bojo, the dean of public service technologies, arranged to have a small ceremony at the hospital so she could see her son graduate from the program.

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

Zane wasn’t the only proud parent.

Many mothers, fathers and family members attended the GNTC Basic Law Enforcement graduation on the Gordon County campus later that same day.

The commencement program took place in the auditorium at the Gordon County campus at 1 p.m., where graduates participated in a diploma ceremony, followed by an oath of honor pledge.

Guest speaker Earl Tillman addressed the graduates with southern humor, but also shared some serious advice for grads to follow at home.

“We spend most of our time trying to please the general public and then we unload it on our families,” said Tillman. “Be good to your families.”

The theme of this year’s class is never shall I fail my brother, a motto that the grads choose themselves, which helped unite them.

The fall 2009 law enforcement graduates are 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, Chad Shaw and Phillip Zane.

Their next challenge is finding a job.

For now, Calhoun native John Erwin remains unemployed. But he’s used this time to encourage his 14-year-old daughter to continue her education following high school.

“If I can go to college and accomplish this, than you can too,” Erwin said.

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. Once students are admitted they must maintain passing scores in classes such as criminal and constitutional law classes, defensive tactics and criminal investigators.