High school students throughout Atlantic Canada can learn more about some of their post-secondary options this week.
The Atlantic Association of Registrars and Admissions Officers (AARAO) will hold its first of several virtual post-secondary fairs on Wednesday.
Curtis Michaelis, outgoing recruitment and outreach planning committee chair, said they have purchased a platform that can house 50 information booths.
“Students are going to be able to do some instant-message chat with different reps and have the option for video calls and then be able to explore those virtual information booths, collecting documents and links so that they can do their research on their post-secondary options,” said Michaelis.
The association has been offering in-person fairs at high schools across Eastern Canada for nearly 30 years, but the pandemic forced them to shift their thinking.
Officials held a number of events through Zoom last year, but Michaelis said they wanted to do something a bit more innovative and interactive for the students.
“It’s been a lot more work to set up, but the end product I think that we’re going to be able to deliver for students and the experience that they’re going to be able to have this time around will be much more enjoyable,” he said.
In addition to the large Expo Days, the association will be holding smaller events for each Maritime province throughout the fall.
Michaelis said those events will allow students all to be in the same virtual room with the reps, mimicking an in-person event.
“You move around in kind of a birds-eye view and you see your speech bubble around you. Anyone who’s in your speech bubble circumference will allow you to have conversations with each other,” said Michaelis.
“As you move around the space, you can talk to different reps, but all reps can be talking with different students at the same time throughout the space. It kind of feels more like a conference centre space that students would generally be used to.”
The Expo Days will take place on Sept. 29 and Dec. 2 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Separate events are scheduled for Nova Scotia students on Oct. 20, Prince Edward Island students on Nov. 2, and New Brunswick students on Nov. 18. Those three events run from 7 to 9 p.m.
You can register for free on the Atlantic Association of Registrars and Admissions Officers’ website.
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