Frequently asked questions for educators and exhibitors
For Educators
How do I sign-up to participate?
You can sign-up to participate here.
How many classes can I enroll?
You can enroll as many classes and students as you’d like.
Do we have to attend the Virtual Fair on a certain day or will there be some flexibility with that?
No. Students will be able to access the virtual JA Inspire fair for 90 days following the kickoff event dates. However, it is strongly encouraged that you participate in the live virtual JA Inspire scheduled for June 1st and 2nd, 2022. Your class can attend one of the two live days.
I thought there was supposed to be an in-person event? Is that still happening?
No. Unfortunately, due to the rising COVID-19 cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant, JA Rhode Island had to make the difficult decision to cancel the in-person event for 2022 out of an abundance of caution. We are hopeful that we will be able to host an in-person event during the 2022-2023 school year.
What type of technology needs will the school and educators need to be concerned about?
Check with your school’s technology department to be sure there are no firewalls for students and teachers to be able to access the virtual platform. Employers will have links to videos via YouTube and Vimeo- Please check with your technology department to make sure the students are able to access these sites on their school-issued computers. Please ensure that students will have access to the internet at home if they will be attending the virtual fair at home; be sure that your school will have the bandwidth support for the students to access the platform in school. Also, be sure that your students have headphones on the day of the event.
What/if any are the curriculum requirements for students to complete before attending the virtual JA Inspire event?
There is a new and robust curriculum for MS & HS with engaging and enrichment activities for the students. The entire curriculum can be accessed digitally via our flipsnack link. All of the activities are downloadable/fillable PDFs that students can access on any device. The curriculum includes videos and links to outside resources, including JA’s newly constructed JA Connect site and Digital Career Book, where students will create their own accounts and take a skills and interest inventory that will provide them with information regarding careers and education to help them throughout the rest of the JA Inspire sessions. There are 5 sessions, as well as a pre-test, that the students will need to participate in prior to attending the JA Inspire virtual event, a reflection activity, and a post-test following the event.
There are three delivery options that educators can choose from when deciding how to engage students in the curriculum. The curriculum can be 100% student self-guided, 100% teacher-led, or a hybrid of both.
JA of RI will provide a pre-recorded overview training of the curriculum to share with schools upon program request, or if a school prefers JA of RI can provide a virtual training overview of the program for that particular school and teachers.
How will the lessons be accessed and delivered?
The lessons can be self-guided or teacher-led. The curriculum is electronic with downloadable and fillable PDFs, and links to assessments.
What type of activities will be included in the curriculum that will help prepare the students for the day of the event?
You can view the Program Overview here. Activities that will be included are: career and skills assessment; resume writing tips; how to create an elevator pitch; ability to explore career clusters and high growth high demand careers.
Will students need support from teachers when completing the activities?
The activities have been developed for the students to complete independently, however, teachers can provide support for students as needed.
Will the students be required to turn in their completed activities prior to the event?
Yes, that is the expectation.
What type of support will be available on the day of the event?
There will be a JA Information Booth for technical support, as well as email communication to help educators and students who have technical issues.
What type of training and support will be provided to educators leading up to the event?
JA Rhode Island staff will provide a tutorial video walk thru for the vFairs virtual platform, and are available to schedule and run training for educators to prepare them for the JA Virtual Inspire event.
How long will training take?
The training will be virtual and depending upon how many educators attend each training and the number of questions, plan to be available for 1-1 1/2 hours.
What type of experiences should the students expect on the day of the event?
Students will have the opportunity to visit and meet with a variety of exhibitors, be able to ask questions, create a virtual swag bag to add pdf documents and links for videos that employers will offer at their booths, participate in gamification and a scavenger hunt, as well as attend career information speaker series in the auditorium.
How will students gather information about various employers?
Please see the list of the exhibitors’ booths here. Once logged into the virtual event the exhibitor booths will be arranged by career cluster in one of 12 exhibitor halls.
Will the students be expected to log onto the virtual platform?
Yes. Teachers will be responsible for creating initial student unique log-ins, and for giving directions on how to log on to the required websites JA Inspire Virtual requires.
Will there be a cost associated with schools attending?
No. There is no cost to educators and students.
Is there a limit to how many students can attend per day?
No, there is no limit.
How many exhibitors/employers will be at the career fair?
Please see the list of exhibitors here. Please note that there will be more exhibitors added to this list over the course of the next few months.
Will the students be limited to the number of interactions/booths they go to?
No, there will not be limitations on the number of booths/interactions they have.
Will the students be able to have live conversations with employers?
No. There will be no live interactions between students and employers at the event. However, each booth will be able to participate in a moderated Q&A sessions during the live days on June 1st and June 2nd, 2022. Students will also have the ability to submit their own questions through the exhibitor booths and employers will answer the ones they deem appropriate. Those questions will then be posted for future visitors to that booth.
What type of images will the students be seeing once they are logged into the virtual platform?
Once logged onto the platform, they will see the outside of the RI Convention Center, and once inside the main lobby there will be avatars that will represent students and will be moving, there will be links to the various exhibit halls, auditorium, and lounge.
For Exhibitors
What is JA Inspire Virtual?
JA Inspire is a coalition of educators and industry leaders, led by Junior Achievement of Rhode Island. At the center of our work is a powerful, massive career exploration that showcases the many valuable careers and businesses here in Rhode Island.
The event not only allows students to meet Rhode Island industries, but also government agencies, and educational organizations. Because of the pandemic, this event has moved 100% to a virtual platform this year instead of in-person at the Rhode Island Convention Center (RICC). The online event has been customized to give students the overall perception that the event is still taking place at the RICC.
When is JA Inspire Virtual?
The online event will launch on March 7th with access available through June 7th. Live days will occur on Wednesday, June 1st, and Thursday, June 2nd, 2022.
Who attends JA Inspire Virtual?
This event has been designed for the 8th-grade student population (13-14 years old) and educators from RI middle schools. However, in 2022, the event is open to registering high schools to benefit the maximum number of students.
Is there a guide for putting together a virtual booth?
Yes, please see here.
As an Exhibitor, how can I engage the students with a virtual booth?
Students will form their first impression of your business (and perhaps your industry), based on the materials you post to your virtual booth. The more visual your materials, the better! However, lovely images also need the additional component of educational information, so be sure to pack the job descriptions and links with more information about your industry.
Video tours of your organization and visual models of products, pdfs of catalogs and brochures or games about your business will motivate students to use the Q&A option to ask more questions of those staffing your booth.
We recommend using materials that are not heavy in text, but rather ones that use bullet points and links to additional information. Students can download any documents you post to their digital backpack to continue reading later as well. This will allow students to be exposed to a vast amount of information throughout their experience at the career exploration event without being overwhelmed. Anytime an image can be used to illustrate something in your industry, it is recommended to use it.
If you have the time to create an industry term crossword or word search. This can be a fun takeaway for students to put into their digital backpacks.
If you normally provide giveaways you may consider providing students with coupons or gift card downloads for iTunes or fast food.
What are some of the questions students may ask me or what kind of information should my booth provide?
What kind of skills do I need to work at your business?
→ soft skills -- teamwork, responsibility, initiative, leadership
→ technical skills -- math, information technology, etc.
Are there any educational requirements for the job? (diploma, degree, etc.
How much money do positions in your field make?
→ Offer an annual salary or hourly range roles.
How do I set up my virtual exhibit booth?
After your organization registers to participate, your contact person will receive login credentials to build a Vfair booth. It is important to build your virtual booth in order of the steps presented.
Standard booth sizes are up to four panels and oversized booths are 5-7 image panels. The size of your booth is determined by your sponsorship selection. To see an overview of building your booth click here.
If you do not have enough information to fill a standard booth that includes four panels, please use a smaller booth.
We recommend before you begin building your booth, determine what materials you would like to upload and organize them by topic. Files can include documents and images or links to YouTube and Vimeo videos. When you upload, the files will appear on your page in the order they are uploaded. The files, after upload, will be renamed as a vFairs file. Please highlight the file and rename it something which will be easy to identify an example would be files loaded and renamed like this:
Surgeon careers, Job description
Surgeon careers, Education requirements
Surgeon careers, A day in the life"
Phlebotomist, Job descriptions
Phlebotomist, Education
Phlebotomist, A day in the life
Will there be a chat or Q&A feature?
Yes. There will be a Q&A feature at each individual booth. You can decide if you want to enable it and if you do then we ask for someone from your company be available via email during the two live days to answer questions that students may ask. You will be able to approve the questions before they get posted to ensure they are appropriate.
Do I have to remove my booth after the event?
Students will be able to visit online booths beyond the two-day event. After a period of time, the fair will close and booths will be disabled. We expect that booths will be available for future years should your organization register to exhibit again for virtual presentation to accompany the event when we return to the in-person format.
Who do I contact with additional questions?
Contact Cassi Steenblok, Development Manager at cassi.steenblok@ja.org or 401-331-3850 ext. 18 for questions regarding exhibiting. Contact Erin Cheschi, Director of Programs and Community Partnerships at erin.cheschi@ja.org or 401-331-3850 ext. 16 for questions regarding curriculum.