COVID-19 Response from Lincoln Tech in Allentown, PA

Bob Martin: Joining us today for this edition of Imagine America Radio is Angela Reppert, campus president, Lincoln Tech – Allentown, Pennsylvania. Today’s topic on today’s episode of Imagine America Radio is the coronavirus and how this particular campus of Lincoln Tech has responded to the national virus.

First of all, Angela, I want you to thank you for joining us today and taking out time from your busy schedule.

Angela Reppert: Thank you.

Bob: Could you please very quickly outline what you’ve had to do to accommodate the coronavirus that’s ravaged the entire country?

Angela: Sure. Lincoln Tech – Allentown, and the company as a whole, is very dedicated to, first, ensuring our staff, faculty, and students are safe while continuing their education. Though for now, we have transitioned to distance education until we can get back to the campus. The instructors in every program continue to speak with their students and interact on an online format. We have taken care of cleaning up the building. We have closed our doors right now to the public while maintaining still being open for future enrollments.

Lee Doubleday: Angela, this is Lee with Imagine America Radio—talking to Angela Reppert, campus president of Lincoln Tech in Allentown, Pennsylvania. That kind of leads into my next question, which is: Are you still open for tours? Or is that something that students can do virtually, maybe on a website?

Angela: We are not open to the public right now for tours. We can have our students speak with our admissions representative, who can navigate through a virtual tour at this time or the student can view our campus at lincolntech.edu. But we’ll ensure—for any student that eventually comes back to the campus, we will give them the individual tours that they’re needing to meet the staff and faculty and see every area of the campus.

Lee: That’s great. And my next question is: Can I still enroll for a future class? I know that you said that you’re teaching online right now. But is it still possible to enroll for future classes?

Angela: Yes, that’s correct. Students that are interested—or the public that’s interested—in attending Lincoln Tech for any one of our programs can contact our school. They’ll be transferred to a representative, who will go through the admissions process, the classes that are available, and when to enroll for a class that can start this month in May, June, and forward. We’re not stopping enrolling for our future classes.

Lee: Oh, that’s fantastic. That’s good to hear. That’s good information. That leads me to my next question which is: If campuses are closed because of the virus, what will happen? Will the class still start on that next start date? Let’s say, for instance, classes are starting relatively soon, and the coronavirus is, obviously, still happening—what will happen? Are you starting classes online?

Angela: That’s correct. You’re going to start distance education. We are able to let students pick up the materials needed for distance education by pulling up to the front of the school. And we give them either the laptop for their program or the books needed that they will take home, and they will be met on orientation by an online instructor and every staff member. We will start the program and then, eventually, the students will come back into the building when it is safe. And we will continue their education on campus.

Lee: Okay. And I have one last question, which is: Are your current student services—i.e. admissions, financial aid, career services—are all those still available to current students or even future students?

Angela: That is correct. Every office is still available to students. From admissions, they go through the financial aid process. We have advisors available online, career services. Every department will reach out to the student—including education, the business office—to our future student, to take care of any needs that they might have through the distance education.

Bob: I’ve got one question. It moves from the following, which is Lincoln Tech has a long and proud history of a very robust high school program. Across the country, high schools have shut down. The best-case scenario might be that the guidance counselor may be monitoring his or her email from home. What do you recommend, or how can you help those counselors best serve the high school population for purposes of researching the school, researching the career; is it your website, is it email? What might it be? What would you recommend?

Angela: Okay, I would recommend the high school to view the website, our lincolntech.edu website. Or call the campus and speak to admissions representative or director of admissions, who can then help the high school counselor gather any information needed to give to any students that require it. We will be open.

Any questions, again, through any of the departments—we can supply that guidance counselor or whoever needs the information they require.

Bob: Angela, do you have both the website address and/or the general telephone number you might be able to put on this call?

Angela: Sure, lincolntech.edu is the website. Our direct line to our campus in Allentown is (610) 398-5300, or a toll-free can be called at (844) 675-1228.

Bob: We’ve been talking to Angela Reppert, campus president, Lincoln Tech – Allentown, Pennsylvania. Angela, I’m leaving here with three observations.

First observation that I’m leaving with—I think our audience will too—is that Lincoln Tech in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is open for business and is assisting current students, existing students, and is available in a little bit different fashion to assist potential students.

Second take away that I’ve got, Angela, is Lincoln Tech in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is enrolling new students and they should go to the lincolntech.edu website for the most comprehensive and up-to-date information, campus-by-campus, of upcoming open houses, enrollments, etc.

Finally, I would ask any of our interested parties—students, parents, guidance counselors, workforce boards, whoever it may be—to contact Angela directly at areppert@lincolntech.edu to ask any questions that may have come up as a result of this particular podcast and/or anything that they have relative to thinking about starting their career.

We want to thank today’s guest, Angela Reppert, Lincoln Tech – Allentown, Pennsylvania. We also want to take this time, an opportunity to thank our audience for taking time out of their very busy and very, very hectic schedules to listen to this episode of Imagine America Radio.

On behalf of my colleague, Lee Doubleday, and myself, please be safe. And we’ll be talking to you very soon.