While all classes have switched to online learning due to the coronavirus pandemic, students at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility were worried they would be left behind and their semester forgotten. Thanks to the dedicated educators of the Southwestern College, however, they made sure that wouldn’t happen.
With no access to tools that help with online education like computers or cellphones at the correctional facility, the students in the school’s program worried they wouldn’t be able to continue with their semester. To add to their concerns, only employees were allowed to enter the premises as of March 17 in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
But in early April, program director Patrice Milkovich, English teacher Will Dalrymple and Project Specialist Raquel Funches spent an evening compiling and sorting more than 6,000 sheets of paper to prepare the student’s coursework, according to Southwestern College.
Donned in face masks and practicing proper social distancing, the trio made packets for students in the 22 classes offered inside the prison.
“There was no way I was going to let the guys make it halfway through the semester and then not be able to complete,” Dalrymple said in a statement.
