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Students Guide "The College Tour" Viewers Through Rio Salado College
The College Tour, an Amazon Prime TV series that tells the story of colleges and universities through the lens of their students, recently filmed at Maricopa Community Colleges. Hosted by Alex Boylan, the series offers a unique on-the-ground perspective of learning from people with first-hand experience. They share their ambitions and discuss how the school they’re attending is helping them achieve them.
Rio Salado College is one of the 10 MCCCD schools featured in The College Tour’s fall spotlight. Rio’s story is told through the journeys of a group of students that include Jackie Elliot and Mahesh Poudel (future episodes with Spanish-speaking students will launch in a future update). While the episodes will be on Amazon later, you can watch them now.
Rio's student population includes quite a few working adults who've come to school after matriculating in the school of life for a while. Jackie Elliot is a perfect example of this kind of student. A single mother, she started college at the age of 32 after finding sobriety so she could learn how to “help others as they have helped me.” Rio’s online scheduling gave her the flexibility she needed to pursue her ambition to become a counselor.
“I want to offer another individual the opportunity to receive help, guidance and realize their own potential and resiliency,” Elliot said.
Some Rio students go back to school to rekindle their interest in an old passion. Mahesh Poudel enrolled in Rio to do just that. Coming to this country from Nepal, this father of two said he used to have a deep love of technology. He decided to try and reignite that spark in 2018.
“I always wanted to go back to college ever since I had to cut my education short when I moved to the U.S,” Poudel said. “While looking for college, I saw certificates and degrees that Rio offers that are very much suited for what I wanted to learn.”
Poudel said that his experiences as a student at Rio Salado have motivated him to continue his learning.
“It’s not just about degrees, it's the support and assurance the degree brings,” Poudel said. “Rio gives me the confidence to continue my education. With the help of a wonderful instructor and excellent advisor, I’m looking forward to graduating from Rio this semester with a degree in programming and system analysis.”
Interested in learning more about Jackie and Mahesh’s journeys? The College Tour videos are available to stream now.