East Valley Institute of Technology, better known as EVIT, is a “system of career training options” that offers high school students hands-on learning for various careers. Like other schools across the country, EVIT has been forced to move their curriculum online.As of now, EVIT is still figuring solutions to still be able to provide their students opportunities to complete their classwork and putting a strong emphasis on student initiative and communicating with their teachers.

To ensure that all students have access to their online lessons, EVIT has been working with their affiliate schools to help provide students with laptops.

According to EVIT Superintendent Doctor Chad Wilson in an EVIT update Q&A, “Starting Monday, April 6, EVIT students who have been issued Chromebooks by their high school will have access on those devices to our online EVIT classrooms if their high school or school district allows it.”

In an address to EVIT students and their parents, Wilson expresses their sadness of no longer having a full campus while concurrently expressing their determination to keep students on track.

“One of our goals, as we move forward, is to give our students the opportunity to continue their learning while we’re not on campus. We recognize that it will be a bit of a challenge since a lot of what we do is hands-on,” Wilson said “Please bear with us, as this is a new experience for us and please rest-assured that we are going to everything we can to help your son or daughter have the opportunity to successfully complete their industry certification and, for our seniors, their graduation requirements.”

On the student end of things, many are able to keep up with the change of pace.

“It’s okay, the work is all the same. I just have to do it online. Learning the lessons is harder because you have to learn it yourself but the assignments are not different from before,” senior and veterinary student April Lu said regarding her regular EVIT classwork.

However, that does not mean Lu’s work has remained unaffected.

“She didn’t want more people than necessary there because she was worried about covid-19,” said Lu about her mentor from the Gilbert Veterinary Hospital. Given the circumstances Lu and the rest of her classmates in similar situations are no longer required to complete all 140 hours of internship experience.

For senior Aaron Murray, a student enrolled for a baking program, the focus has shifted from baking to hitting the books.

“My chef is having us study for the test (American Culinary Federation Certification) so we are using websites to study and take practice tests, and he asks us questions based off the material we should’ve studied,” Murray said, “We aren’t doing many baking projects which is a real bummer.”

Murray admits that he misses “Baking orders for customers, the proper kitchen supplies,” and like many, misses his classmates and teacher.