By Casey Shillabeer ’22, staff writer 

The COVID-19 pandemic put a lot of plans on hold, especially for students who graduated high school in 2020.  

“2020 was a smaller class because of COVID-19,” Ed Wright, LVC’s vice president of enrollment, said. “Twelve percent of students admitted in 2020 didn’t go to any college at all. Some of them re-applied to admission in 2021, and ended up a part of the class of 2025,” Wright said. 

Since many students did not enroll in college due to COVID-19, a lot of schools have seen their enrollment rates declining. LVC, on the other hand, has stayed relatively flat year after year.  

LVC admitted their first group of nursing students in October and plans to admit another group in November. Ten percent of applicants applied for the nursing program.  

“Not a lot of central Pennsylvania schools have nursing programs, so we wanted to add a major that has a career that is in high demand,” Wright said.  

Along with nursing, LVC has been adding more graduate concentrations so that graduate enrollment can grow. Recent additions include clinical mental health counseling and master of science in intelligence and security studies.  

If interested in pursuing a graduate degree, students can view the complete list of programs on the LVC website.