Bob Martin: Joining us today for this edition of Imagine America Radio is Mark Bohen, campus president, Lincoln Tech in Moorestown, New Jersey. The topic of today’s episode is the coronavirus epidemic and how his campus in Moorestown, New Jersey, has adapted to the current national crisis.

Mark, thank you for joining us.

Mark Bohen: It’s a pleasure. Thank you for having me on today.

Bob: For purposes of this podcast, may we call you Mark?

Mark: Yes. Definitely.

Bob: Well, Mark, jump off right now for us and tell us, what have you had to do in order for your campus to accommodate this coronavirus epidemic for your students, for your employees? Everything. As much as you can cover.

Mark: Okay. Well, most important is the safety of our students, our faculty, and staff. So once this epidemic hit, we decided to—instead of being on our campus, we decided to go with distance education. And distance education is having our students—they all have laptops, and our instructors are working with them on a daily basis. It’s been amazing to see the interaction with our instructors through email, Skype, Zoom, and our own education platform, Canvas.

So, we have all our students now doing distance education. I would love to report to say our attendance has been unbelievable, so our students have really adapted quite well. And once it’s safe to get back to the campus, we will continue our on-ground courses.

Lee Doubleday: Now, Mark, this is Lee. I’m talking to Mark Bohen, campus president of Lincoln Tech in Moorestown, New Jersey. I just want to say first, off the bat, congratulations to you and your team. I’ve talked to a number of different Lincoln Tech campuses. It seems as though you guys are really quick to adapt to this pandemic and really offer a lot of beneficial instruction and online education to students so that they can continue their education and quickly move into the workforce. So, congratulations on what it is that you guys have done! We’re all sitting here impressed with that.

Mark: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that and, believe me, it’s been a team effort with the whole Lincoln Tech community. I’m also proud of our campus in assisting our community and our healthcare providers out there during this coronavirus issue. Lincoln Technical Institute in Moorestown, we have donated many medical supplies to the Burlington County Relief Fund and also to our local community, the emergency medical technicians staff of Moorestown. So, again, on behalf of myself and the entire campus, we’d like to thank you for all your hard work and dedication during this trying time.

Lee: With that being said, now I understand that your school is currently teaching completely online—but are you still open for campus tours, or is that something maybe that’s done more virtually?

Mark: Yes, actually, our campus tours have been virtual right now. The campus has been closed to all of our employees, as well as anybody that would like to visit the campus, but we do have virtual tours that our admissions representatives could guide our students through that process—or future students—to get a real flavor for what the school and the program would be like if they attended Lincoln Tech.

Lee: Okay. And if I’m a student who’s interested in learning more about that virtual tour, would I just go to the website, or would I contact the admissions team off of the website, or how would—?

Mark: Yes. I mean if you wanted to contact us, I mean we have our local number, which would be (856) 722‑9333. They could also visit our website at lincolntech.edu. They can even call our 800 number, which would be (800) 806‑1917. All they would need to do is ask for an admissions representative and someone would get back to them as soon as possible.

Lee: Okay. Great. Now, that kind of leads into my next question, which is: Can I still enroll for a future class, and are you guys still—do you have upcoming starts? Are you guys still enrolling new students? Tell me a little bit more about that.

Mark: Absolutely. We are continuing to enroll students for future classes. We do have our next class start. So we are continuing to start students. We are offering different starts on each of our programs that we offer, from now through the end of 2020.

Lee: Wow, okay. Great. Let me ask you this: If the campus is still closed because of the pandemic, because I’m assuming it’s going to be a while until this is sort of uplifted, especially in New Jersey, where you are. So, what will happen? Will my class still start online if my class start is coming around and the pandemic is still happening?

Mark: Yes. All of our programs are starting with distance education. We do have all our services available online and through our departments virtually. So, we do have our admissions department that students can get assistance. We have financial aid, career services, education. All of our departments are working virtually to assist, not only our future students but our existing students as well.

Bob: We’re talking to Mark Bohen, campus president, Lincoln Tech in Moorestown, New Jersey. This is Bob Martin again, Mark. Real quickly. I’m a guidance counselor. I could be a VA employment counselor, education counselor. I could be a workforce development board. But if I, as a student, were used to using those people, those resources, to find about Lincoln, what is the best way for a prospective student to research Lincoln, research your particular campus, and what websites, emails, that sort of thing? Would you mind giving us that, please?

Mark: Sure. Great question, Bob. They could visit our website at lincolntech.edu. They could also call the campus directly, at (856) 722‑9333, and ask for an admissions representative. And we also have an 800 number, which is (800) 806‑1917. I think if they call or visit the website, that would direct them right into our campus and we would be able to help them as soon as they reach out to us.

Bob: We’re talking to Mark Bohen, campus president, Lincoln Tech – Moorestown, New Jersey. I’ve got a couple of takeaways and I want to ask you to give us some more information.

First takeaway I’ve got is Lincoln Tech in Moorestown, New Jersey, is open for business to assist all existing and any potential new students. My second takeaway is Lincoln Tech in Moorestown, New Jersey, is indeed enrolling new students, and potential students can go to your website or they could contact you directly at the campus or call the campus number. Third is, what I’m going to ask you to do is—if you wouldn’t mind repeating back for our audience so they can contact you directly for any questions related to what you’ve brought up here. Your contact information, website information, and telephone numbers, please.

Mark: Right. Yes. Our website information is lincolntech.edu. Our local phone number is (856) 722‑9333, and our 800 number is (800) 806‑1917. They could just ask for an admission representative and we would be able to help you and guide you through the process.

Bob: We want to thank our guest, Mark Bohen, campus president, Lincoln Tech – Moorestown, New Jersey, discussing how this particular campus of Lincoln Tech has adjusted to the current coronavirus pandemic. We also want to thank our audience for taking the time out to listen to this podcast. We know that they’re busy and they’ve got a lot of other conflicting things.

On behalf of my colleague, Lee Doubleday, and myself, please be safe and we will talk to you again very soon. Thank you.