Ohio Hi-Point celebrates 50 years of inspiring success

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About 500 people showed up to celebrate Ohio Hi-Point Career Center’s 50 years of vocational education on Thursday, Oct. 3. (EXAMINER PHOTO | SHARYN KOPF) 

Ohio Hi-Point Career Center (OHP) marked their 50th anniversary on Thursday, Oct. 3, and, it would seem, this is just the beginning.

“Over the next 50 years you will see the power of career education continue to grow,” Kelsey Webb, OHP marketing and public relations coordinator, said. “We’re training students for careers that don’t even exist yet.”

With five decades of success in mind, OHP invited past, present and future students and the community for a day of celebrating. The event featured live music, food trucks and specialty chocolates.

They also scheduled photo shoots with alumni from each of the five decades over the course of the afternoon.

According to Webb, they witnessed several reunions throughout the day, including two men who graduated in 1981 and hadn’t seen each other since, probably, 1981.

Though OHP started with six programs in 1974, it now boasts 19 at the Bellefontaine campus, which has a student body of over 700. On top of that, they offer 60 more programs through satellite sites, reaching another 4,000 young people preparing for a career.

“If you look at the evolution of these career fields, we can only imagine what we’ll be teaching over the next 50 years,” Webb concluded. “And Hi-Point wants to be the leader in that evolution.”