Bob Martin: Joining us today on Imagine America Radio is Dr. Kelly Moore, president of Lincoln Tech, Denver, Colorado. The topic of today’s episode of Imagine America Radio is the current coronavirus. More importantly, how have you, or how has Lincoln Tech in Denver, responded in order to better assist your employees, current students, and maybe look forward to accommodations you’re making to recruit prospective students? Dr. Moore?

Kelly Moore: Great questions, thank you. In order to respond to the coronavirus, or COVID-19, we’re complying with local and state orders, which unfortunately means that our campus is closed to protect the health and safety of our faculty, staff, and students and community, and play our part in flattening the curve. As a result, we’ve moved all our educational programs to distance learning. Our students are able to see and interact with our faculty and fellow classmates through both synchronous and asynchronous learning.

Lee Doubleday: That’s great. And Dr. Moore—This is Lee. I’m talking to Dr. Kelly Moore, campus president of Lincoln Tech in Denver, Colorado. So what I think I hear you saying is that you are now fully transitioned to online learning. Are you still open for tours or is that something that maybe potential students could do virtually?

Kelly: The prospective students can do that virtually. We are open virtually. So we are providing prospective students and their families the opportunity to experience the campus through virtual tours, as well as virtual presentations through a variety of different platforms available through the technology that they have at their fingertips.

Lee: That’s fantastic. And I have a follow-up question to that: Can I still enroll for a future class? And is there maybe a website or somewhere that I could go to look at when some of the future upcoming starts are? Or is there a recurring start date or anything like that that I could view?

Kelly: Yes. Students can continue to enroll for a future class. Our next start is April 29th and we start every month. So approximately every four weeks, we have a new class that’s starting. And the way that the student can access that information is to go to lincolntech.edu. They can actually apply online, and our admissions representative will contact them. Or they can reach out and fill out a quick form. Or we have a chat feature. They can fill out their information there and we will have somebody contact them.

Lee: Yeah, and as somebody who has used your website before, it is very self-intuitive and easy to use and I have actually, myself personally, used the chat feature before and it works very well. So if the campuses are still closed because of the virus, with your upcoming start dates and one every month, what will happen? Will classes start online or virtually? Can you explain that to me?

Kelly: Sure. So we actually have a process in place, and we will provide an online or a virtual new student orientation program prior to classes starting. We also have a process to get all of the necessary materials to our new students so that they can begin learning right away. And their very first classes will be done through distance learning until the campus opens up, and then we get back on the ground and we’ll move directly into the lab feature of that course.

Bob: Dr. Moore, Bob Martin again back. Again, we’re speaking with Dr. Kelly Moore, campus president, Lincoln Tech, Denver, Colorado. Help me a little bit, if you would. Put your potential high school enrolled student—We’ve got a situation here where most, if not all, the high schools in the country are closed. Most, if not all, of the students are probably not going to see their guidance counselor this year; they’re not going to have access to the resources that are available through their career, maybe tours, maybe visits from your reps etc. etc. and Lincoln Tech has a very robust high school program. So what I’m saying, what would you recommend for those particular individuals? First, the student that is interested in the Lincoln Tech and then, secondly, the guidance council who is out there trying to get resources?

Kelly: Great questions and they’re so critical to what we’re experiencing right now. Our high school admissions representatives are able to conduct a presentation via Zoom to a class of students, small groups, or individually. So if a student is interested in learning more about us, they can check our website at lincolntech.edu, they can request information through our chat feature, they can request information through an online form to learn additional information about us.

If a high school counselor is interested in helping bridge that information gap between a prospective student or a student that’s interested in learning more about opportunities that Lincoln Tech might have available, they can reach out to us as well. We can do a high school presentation; we can customize information to not only that guidance counselor and/or that high school teacher to provide some educational opportunities for their ongoing classes that are being conducted remotely. And then the students also have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with an admissions representative.

We have a virtual tour available for our students to be able to actually experience the campus. We have a very large campus; it’s a 212,000 square-foot facility. So this gives them the opportunity, while not to see it physically, they can see it virtually and experience the different programs that we have available for them.

Bob: We’re talking to Dr. Kelly Moore, campus president, Lincoln Tech, Denver, Colorado. She’s been our guest today and is talking about the very important accommodations that are being made to try to accommodate students that want to attend the Denver campus. I want to thank you for your time, and it has been really, really very, very exciting. I know your campus, I know your admissions people; they’re outstanding. Kudos.

I’m leaving this call, Dr. Moore, with three takeaways. And if there’s another one you want to add to it, that’s fine. First takeaway: Lincoln Tech in Denver, Colorado, is open for business and is ready to answer any questions and provide virtual tours to any prospective students. In addition, you also may have made significant accommodations to existing students so that they’re—even though there is some interruption, there will be a minimum of mid interruptions and it will allow them to try to finish the courses quickly as they can and get out in the workforce.

Second thing I’m taking away from this is that you are, indeed, enrolling new students and that any prospective student that wants to look at your campus is free to go to your website at lincolntech.edu and look at the upcoming campus tours and also, more importantly, the starts that are coming up.

Finally, I know the kind of person you are from having talked with you is that I know that you’re more than ready, willing, and able to answer any kind of questions. There possibly may be questions from this call that people want to talk to someone, and so we’re going to give your email address out, and that’s kmoore@lincolntech.edu. And I would encourage any and all of our listeners that if they want to get in touch with you, to do so by email, and feel free to contact them.

You’ve been listening to Dr. Kelly Moore, campus president at Lincoln Tech in Denver, Colorado. Our topic today has been Dr. Moore’s leadership in leading the Lincoln campus in accommodating the coronavirus epidemic. I want to thank our audience for taking time out of their very busy and hectic schedules to attend today’s episode, and I would encourage you to go to the website of Lincoln Tech and see if there aren’t any other questions that they might be able to answer. On behalf of my colleague, Lee Doubleday, I want to thank you for joining us, and please be safe.