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learning prior to the pandemic. We are unique in the sense that Mayo Clinic is our campus and our classroom. Most of the hands-on activities that are essential to health care professions, things like providing patient care and using the specialized equipment on campus, require students to be in person. This was critical for students to experience as they are training to be the health care workforce of the future. It was important that we teach them how to safely work in the hospital and clinical environments, rather than shield them from it.” In Spring 2020, when many colleges and businesses migrated to remote learning and working, Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) kept its doors open with three priorities in mind: Ensure a healthy and safe environment to learn and work; provide instruction and support for students to finish the semester; and keep the campus open to provide essential services for faculty and students. “Students were impacted, but every effort was made to minimize that impact, and their response was overwhelmingly positive,” says Jeffery Boyd, RCTC President, “Just as our faculty and staff had to learn new ways to teach and work, our students were just as dedicated to learning new ways to learn, complete their assignments and finish their degrees.” Boyd also doesn’t believe the biggest impact for RCTC’s students the past two years has been from shifting from in-person to online learning, but it has been experiencing heightened levels of depression, anxiety, and stress and dealing with unexpected financial burdens and other basic need challenges, such as inadequate housing and food insecurities. “Through our partnership with Zumbro Valley Health Center, a licensed mental health therapist is available to our students on campus to help them deal with the many unknowns in this world,” Boyd says. In addition, the RCTC Foundation has a student emergency account established called the Yellowjacket Emergency Support (YES) Fund where students needing some financial assistance can go to help pay for rent, utilities, or other expenses. Students also have free access to an on-campus food pantry, of which anyone can donate non-perishable food and personal hygiene items directly to the pantry or make a monetary donation through the RCTC Foundation.
Students and faculty had to adapt to new ways to learn and teach at Rochester Community and Technical during the height of the pandemic.
Photo Credit: Rochester Community & Technical College
continued, the college instituted remote recruitment for uninterrupted enrollment and matriculation. Telemedicine curriculum used remote diagnostics and monitoring became standard in all schools. Mayo Clinic School of Professional Development also converted to all virtual sessions and produced COVID-19 educational content to meet the needs of its own staff and medical professionals globally. As Troy Tynsky, Administrator of Operations, Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science explains, “the students have really been amazing and have shown a lot of determination throughout the pandemic. Many of our programs were already heavily using blended learning and flipped classroom models of
| Advantage Magazine 6
May 2022
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