Reedley College provides laptops, hotspots to help students take studies online

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- When Reedley College first closed its doors, not all students were sure they could keep up with their studies.

Stephen Kodur was one of them.

"I live in a rural, country part of Dinuba that access to quality, cheap internet is unheard of," said Kodur,

He said at first making the switch to online was a scary concept for him and his peers.

"When that first came out I had a lot of different concerns, as a student transitioning to online learning what does that look like? How can we bridge the gap?" continued Kodur.

His questions were quickly answered and his concerns put at ease.

"Reedley College put out an email saying, 'we're trying to keep students connected. There's laptops available for you to check out. There's hot spots for you to check out,'" explained Stephen.

To make sure students can make a seamless switch, Reedley College is loaning out laptops and other accessories.

"Our campus technology folks worked on deploying laptops and digital connections for students," said President of Reedley College Jerry Buckley, "Our outlying, rural communities that have very little internet access now have some way to connect."

Now Stephen uses a hot spot to keep up with his work.

"We have to make it easy. This is a difficult situation in the first place," continued Buckley. "Certainly nothing any of us imagined would happen in our lifetimes, so to keep people engaged and working towards their educational goals we want to make sure there are no barriers."

Reedley College hosted its first online town hall for students today to help answer questions, get connected and stay connected to their new online world of learning.

For more news coverage on the coronavirus and COVID-19 go to abc30.action.news/coronavirus/.