What an ACCSC School of Distinction Award Means for You as a Student
On the morning of September 18, in a hotel ballroom in San Antonio, a lot of people in business attire applauded politely while our Columbus campus was handed a plaque.
That’s the part you’d see in the photo. What it means for a student walking into the studio on East Main Street in Whitehall next week takes a little more explaining. So here goes.
The news, in one paragraph
Ohio Media School – Columbus has been named a 2025-2026 School of Distinction by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, better known as ACCSC. The Commission evaluated 216 accreditation applications this cycle and gave this award to eight of them. Columbus is the third campus in the Beonair Network of Media Schools to earn it, following Illinois Media School – Chicago and Colorado Media School – Denver, which each received the same recognition in their own accreditation cycles.
What accreditation actually is
Accreditation is an outside review. ACCSC is an independent body, recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, whose job is to look hard at career schools and decide whether they’re doing what they say they’re doing. Every few years, a team comes to campus and examines the programs, the equipment, the instructors’ qualifications, the student surveys, the graduation and employment records, the catalog, the enrollment agreement, and the way the school handles money, complaints, and refunds. Then the school has to fix whatever they find.
It is not a marketing badge. It’s closer to an audit that never fully ends.
Why it matters to you
Your financial aid. Accreditation by an agency the Department of Education recognizes is a condition of a school’s eligibility to participate in federal student aid programs. If you’re planning to use federal grants or loans, the school’s accreditation status is what makes that possible in the first place.
Your training. Because the review looks at curriculum, equipment, and faculty, accreditation is part of why the studios stay current and why your instructors are working professionals rather than people who used to be. Our programs are also reviewed by a Program Advisory Committee of media professionals from the Columbus market who meet regularly to tell us what the industry needs now, and that feedback is documented and acted on because ACCSC expects it to be.
Your credential. A diploma from an accredited institution is one that employers and other schools recognize. When a hiring manager or a transfer admissions office asks where you trained, “an ACCSC-accredited school” is an answer that means something.
What the School of Distinction award adds
Being accredited means a school meets the standard. Being named a School of Distinction means the Commission looked at how a school met it and decided that deserved separate recognition. In ACCSC’s own words, the award recognizes accredited member schools that demonstrated a commitment to the expectations and rigors of ACCSC accreditation, as well as a commitment to delivering quality educational programs to students.
Eight schools out of 216 applications. That’s the context.
How Columbus earned it
Awards like this get handed to a campus, but they’re earned by people, most of whom will never be in the photo.
They’re earned by instructors like Marty Bannister, who teaches sports broadcasting in Columbus and, on Friday nights, is in a press box calling high school football for ABC 6 and CW53, and on other nights is calling Ohio University games for the Ohio Sports Network and ESPN3. His students learn play-by-play from someone who did play-by-play that week.
They’re earned by the campus staff who keep the records straight, answer the surveys honestly, sit through the advisory committee meetings, and treat a student’s question about a refund as seriously as a student’s question about a microphone.
And they’re earned by students, whose work and whose feedback are a big part of what the Commission reviews.
“[Campus Director quote: two or three sentences on the Columbus team and what the recognition means for the campus.]” said [Name], Campus Director of Ohio Media School – Columbus.
A network pattern, not a one-off
Columbus joining Chicago and Denver matters because it shows the standard holds in three different cities, with three different teams, three different student populations, and three different local media markets. That’s not luck. That’s the way the Beonair Network operates: the same expectations for every campus, the same daily discipline of doing right by students, whether or not anyone is watching that year.
What’s next
The Columbus campus continues to offer training in Radio & Television Broadcasting, Digital Media Production, Audio Production, Film & Video Production, and Sports Broadcasting, and two new programs, Social Media Marketing and Podcast Production, launch in October 2026. [Add any upcoming open house or campus event here.]
Come see it for yourself
The best way to understand what an accredited, hands-on media school looks like is to stand in the studio. Schedule a tour of Ohio Media School – Columbus at 5330 E. Main St., Suite 200, in Whitehall, or call 614-655-5250. Bring your questions. We’ll have people there who can answer them from experience.
Ohio Media School – Columbus is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC).