Virtual college fair allows for safe exploration of options

Poughkeepsie High School students can explore more than 150 different colleges virtually, thanks to an effort sparked by Virtual Senior Wednesdays.

Growing out of the weekly virtual tours arranged and presented by counselors Kelly Jackson-Semexant and Takiyah Ingram, a new Virtual College Fair page on the website has been created. The page combines the weekly tours the counselors were offering, along with other schools, Director of Special Projects Kristina Giangreco said.

“One of our district goals was to increase the number of colleges represented in our fair to 150, but because of COVID, colleges aren’t coming out,” she said. “Kelly and I started talking and thought about creating a virtual college fair.”

Now, students can go online any time they want and explore community colleges, CUNY schools, private colleges and universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, technical and trade programs, and colleges from around the nation.

Each listing has a link to the college’s main webpage, admissions page, an email to the admissions department and a video about the school - either recorded from the virtual tour done for PHS students or from videos culled from the school’s YouTube channel.

“Hopefully this takes down some of the barriers to students looking at schools as some of the links were not easily found,” Giangreco said.

So far, 164 colleges are represented and the list will grow, she said.

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