COVID-19 and Lincoln Tech in East Windsor, Connecticut’s Response

Bob Martin: Today’s guest on Imagine America Radio is Kevin Clark, campus president, Lincoln Tech in East Windsor, Connecticut. The topic of today’s episode is the current coronavirus epidemic. What we want to do is find out from Kevin what’s going on on his campus. More importantly, we want to know how has Kevin and his staff responded to assist current students and to assist current employees.

Kevin, welcome to the show and if you could inform our audience, we’d appreciate it.

Kevin Clark: Yeah, absolutely. Lincoln’s done many things to provide continued training while we keep everybody as safe as possible. We spent two full days training our instructors to teach the lecture portion of classes online. All our students are now learning through distance education. It’s going really well so far. The feedback we’re receiving from the students has been very positive. They appreciate the school continues to provide an education to them, and they can do it from the comfort and safety of their own home, which they certainly like. The important part to remember is that the students will continue to learn throughout this challenging time.

Lee Doubleday: Kudos to you and your team on getting everything up and running in such a short amount of time, and it seems like you guys are doing a really good job.

Kevin: Thanks, I really appreciate that. I think kudos, big time, to the Lincoln leadership team. They really are outstanding. I mean, they have provided real, super strong leadership through this that then, obviously, as a campus president, makes my job a lot easier when it’s strong guidance from our corporate office in terms of what we’re doing and how we’re going to do it, and they’re just incredibly responsive to challenges and questions that come up from the campus.

And on top of that, the East Windsor team is just awesome. Some people have really—You know, I think in times of sort of crisis or major challenges in our society, whether it was a natural disaster or what have you, some people rise above and beyond, and some people just can’t sort of get through and they sort of go the other direction. By and large, everybody really has gone above and beyond. I mean, I don’t want to say I have low expectations because I don’t. I have very high expectations, but they’ve been blown out of the water by the way that the instructors and staff have responded to this whole thing. The optimism, the encouragement, moving students along, going above and beyond—that’s really been amazing and, frankly, it makes me incredibly proud.

Lee: Yeah, and you should be. Yeah. I mean, like I said, kudos to you and your team. I just think that you guys seem to be on the ball and I’m hoping that, coming out of this, you guys are going to be just fine. Seems like everything seems to be just fine—if not going really well, so.

Kevin: Yeah, I agree, I think that’s parts of it, frankly, when I look at it, Lee, I think that, as it’s said—certainly I’ve heard a lot of our political leaders saying that we’re going to come out of this stronger than we were going in, and I would offer that cliché is probably going to be true of Lincoln as well. We’re really developing skills that people didn’t need to really develop before this began, and we’re going to use those moving forward.

Lee: Yeah, yeah. That is an interesting point, and I think a lot of schools are sort of taking a lot of stuff away from this whole experience and are going to be adding it to their repertoire, I guess, and maybe run a little bit more efficiently through some classes or some pieces of classes being taught online, and I just think that you guys have done a really great job of addressing the issue and being prepared for it.

Kevin: Well, thank you. I really, really appreciate that and I will accept that because people are really working quite hard.

Lee: We’re talking to Kevin Clark, campus president of Lincoln Tech in East Windsor Connecticut. So I think I heard you say that you guys are currently teaching everything virtually or online, but are you still open for campus tours, or is that something that can be done virtually as well?

Kevin: Yeah. Well, the building is currently closed for tours. We do offer extensive tours through slideshows on YouTube. Additionally, we have virtual tours that students can see when they engage the process. So there’s definitely ways to still see the school, if not in person right now. But that will start back up as soon as the building is open and we’re able to rock and roll again.

Lee: Awesome. And my next question sort of piggybacks off of that one, which is: If I’m a student and I’m interested in going to school at East Windsor, can I still enroll for a future class, and is there maybe a website or somewhere I could go to look at your upcoming start dates?

Kevin: Yeah, absolutely. So we are still enrolling for future class. And our next one is right around the corner, on April 27th, and we are definitely doing that. If students are looking for information, they should absolutely go and check out the Lincoln webpage.

Lee: Okay. And if campuses are still closed because of the virus—I’m assuming that they are going to be by April 27th, but maybe even in the future—what will happen? Will the class sort of just start virtually, as they’re learning right now?

Kevin: Yeah. So new classes will definitely start, as I said. But at this point, we’re thinking that we’re going to be doing classes online, and we’re fully geared up to do that, and we are prepared to do that. Students will participate in an online orientation. They’re going to actually drive up to the school for those programs that get laptops. For any student who doesn’t have their own device that meets our requirements to participate online, they can actually get a loaner from us. We’re going to do drive-up distribution, then we’re going to have an online orientation so that students are fully prepared to go engage their online course and that they feel comfortable and ready to do that. And all the staff and all the instructors are going to be there every step of the way to help them along so that we have a great new start.

Bob: We’re talking to Kevin Clark with Lincoln Tech in East Windsor, Connecticut. Kevin, real quickly, if you would put the hat on as a student, particularly a high school student, of which you see them often. Now you’ve got someone who probably isn’t going to—The schools have been closed down for the most part, and probably will be through the school year. The counselor isn’t there to give them the resources of the career center, isn’t there to maybe let your reps in to come in to talk to these students. Where would you direct our audience—in particular, potential students—where particularly would you send them if they wanted to get more about Lincoln Tech and more about enrolling, admissions, and starts?

Kevin: Sure, absolutely. I would encourage them to check out the Lincoln webpage. I’d encourage them to check out our Lincoln YouTube videos and check us out on social media, like Facebook and on Instagram. They should contact the school, and we’d be really happy to tell them about all the great things that we’re doing and what a great school it is. All they have to do is call our main line, and admissions will be very happy to assist them in any way we can.

Bob: You’ve been listening to Kevin Clark, campus president, East Windsor, Connecticut. Kevin, correct me if I’m wrong, please. I have three takeaways on this particular call.

First thing I’m hearing is that Lincoln Tech in East Windsor is open for business and has made major accommodations to try to assist all current students. Second thing I’m taking away from it is Lincoln Tech in East Windsor is enrolling new students, and any interested parties—our students, guidance counselors, anyone that’s interested—should go to the Lincoln Tech website for a full complete listing of open-house tour and admissions kind of things. The third thing I’m going to ask you to do, if you don’t mind, is there may be some questions, there may be some issues that our listeners may have issues with or questions with, and I would encourage them to go to Kevin Clark, kevinclark@lincolntech.edu, for any questions. That is Kevin’s direct email address.

You’ve been listening to Kevin Clark, campus president, Lincoln Tech – East Windsor, Connecticut. Our topic has been the COVID-19 virus. I want to thank our guest Kevin for giving up his time today to come on board and tell us a little bit about what they’re doing, which is pretty extensive. And I’d also like to thank our audience that is taking time out of their very valuable and probably hectic schedule to join us today.

On behalf of my colleague, Lee Doubleday, and myself, Bob Martin, we just wish you a great day, and we hope you’ll all just be safe. Thank you very much.

Kevin: Thank you so much.