The only thing better than a birthday celebration is two birthday celebrations, and that's what happened at the University of Wollongong's Batemans Bay campus on Thursday.
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The university celebrated 40 years of independence and the Batemans Bay campus celebrated 15 successful years at Hanging Rock.
"We started with 30 students and have had have had 500 students graduate," UOW Batemans Bay campus manager Gayl Vidgen said.
"We had our first teachers graduate in 2009 and will have our first nurses at the end of 2016.
"We have two students that have PhDs and and several who are working to achieve this goal at the moment.
"The university of Wollongong is contributing towards a healthier economy for the South Coast and improving lives by empowering people with knowledge and great jobs."
There is no better example of what the Batemans Bay campus has achieved than it's In2Uni outreach and community engagement coordinator Jaimey Facchin.
"I'm a local girl and I went to school here, and I never thought university would be an option for me because I bombed in the HSC," she said.
"My family encouraged me to come to this campus, and I thought I would spend one semester here and then go to the main campus at Wollongong."
However, she quickly fell in love with the Batemans Bay campus.
"The amount of support here is fantastic; it is like a little family, I love it," she said.
"I got involved in everything I could, like the student health fund.
"I loved it here so much I knew this was where I wanted to work."
Ms Facchin has been in her current role since January.
"I never want to leave here," she said.
"They are going to have to kick me out."