GROVE CITY — Students who attend Grove City College are able to enroll in classes at home while studying abroad.

Students who are abroad may listen to professors during class at Grove City as they watch a PowerPoint presentation. This is possible through the Office of International Education and the college's technology services.

Since 1994, every full-time freshman attending Grove City College is given a new laptop and printer, according to the college's Web site. Students who travel abroad take this laptop with them.

"Rather than having an 8 o'clock class at home, it's a 2 o'clock class for us," said Jon Ward, 20, a Grove City engineering major and junior from around Erie who will travel to the Brittany region in France for the fall semester.

"It sounds like it's going to be like a Web conference setup," Ward said. "We'll basically have a conference phone so we can listen and ask questions that (the teacher) can answer.

"It's really nice for us because, with the tablet laptops Grove City gives us, we'll be able to write on our homework (with a stylus) and turn it in. It's going to take some responsibility on our end to know how much we can be discussing, (but) the professor will set up office hours specifically for French students alone."

He said he'll have one class and a laboratory that will be taught in France, with three classes from Grove City. In France, Ward will attend a French class, while engineering management, mechanics of materials and fluid mechanics will be provided from home.

"It was one of my draws for going to Grove City," Ward said, adding that this will be his first trip abroad. "I took four years of French in high school and one of the projects we did was to plan a three-day trip to Paris. I wanted to live that project out. You can only learn so much in the classroom; I wanted to go over there and learn it better, especially the speaking of (French)."

Lois Johnson, director of GCC's Office of International Education, said anyone in liberal arts, sciences or engineering can apply for the abroad program.

She said the option to take classes from home started five years ago when Mark Reuber, field director for the Office of International Education, wanted students to have the correct number of credits and still be considered part of the college.

Johnson said the first year was "a catastrophe because technology in France wasn't up to speed."

Ward called the program a "great deal" because he said he only has to pay a couple hundred dollars above tuition costs, which includes room and board, and that Reuber told him to plan for $2,000 for a passport, travel fees and other expenses.

The simultaneous class option is only available in France, Johnson said, but the office has been commissioned by the college board of trustees to have other centers built in South America, Central America and/or Asia, which will result in three centers overall.

Ward said that each of the 13 students traveling to France will attend the same classes.

"Students who are selected are usually pretty good students," Johnson said. "We rarely have anyone in our program below a 2.5 (quality point average)."

She added that a couple professors will go abroad sometime during the semester for a week to give the French students abroad some hands-on practice.