Ohio University Southern may be an institution of higher education but it is using fundamentals that are learned at a young age — how to play with building blocks — to plot its success.

OUS is taking a steady approach to growth, adding a variety of components and programs over the years to become a tremendous asset to southern Ohio and the entire Tri-State.

Now, OUS has more than 2,000 students enrolled for the fall quarter, the first time the university has broken that plateau in several years. This reflects an almost 15 percent increase over 2008.

While the economy and consistent marketing have played an important role, this growth is the culmination of work that started with the Ironton campus’ approach to add gradually additional buildings and facilities and serve as the main hub. At the same time the school was working to add programs, growing the number of associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree offerings to more than two dozen plus developing a variety of other articulation agreements with the Athens branch and area schools.

Then came the addition of the Ohio Horse Park as home for the equestrian program, the Nature Center as a community and science classroom, the expansion into a state-of-the-art Proctorville campus and the development of a child care center in Hanging Rock.

All these components — which essentially span the entire county — work together to make Ohio University Southern a tremendous asset to the community and also a tool that can be used to grow and develop Lawrence County.

Youth may learn how to utilize building blocks but, many times as adults we forget those basic principles. Thankfully, the past and present leadership at OUS remembered those lessons.