TEEN GRID -- University and college professors in the teen grid are preparing for what may be the world's first virtual college fair this weekend.

The first annual teen grid college fair is being held on Eye4You Alliance island, Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. SLT, or Pacific Standard Time.

The project came about from a student that wanted more information on colleges, financial aid, and how to fill out applications. Several other teens had similar questions, and the fair was born.

The layout for the fair consists of booths where representatives display posters, stream videos, t-shirts, create flipbooks and other handouts for prospective students. Teachers from several colleges went to great lengths to get permission to use their college's logo in Second Life. Anthony Curtis (known as Stone Semyorka in SL) of the University of North Carolina in Pembroke says students in Second Life have an advantage over others."We know that through Second Life we will find the most highly-motived, curious, engaged students anywhere.”

Eye4You, a partnership between the Alliance Library System and the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, is working with Buddy Sprocket and Jeremy Kabumpo to set up SLoodle for speakers that aren’t on the teen grid. Representatives from Amazon, Squirrelverse publishing, NASA, Johnson and Wales, and Linden Lab will be speaking with the teens on various topics including human potential, technology careers, and Second Life skills related to real life skills are some of the topics. Birdie Newborn, executive director at Beach College in California is participating via SLoodle. She says if she were a teen, she’d “welcome any opportunity to find out what’s what. ” She adds, "[The fair] offers teens another choice for finding out information about colleges.”

Hilary Mason, known as Ann Enigma in Second Life, is an assistant professor of New Media and Computer Science and directs the Immersive Media Lab at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. "This is my first virtual college fair, and I'm excited about it. I'll be showcasing the work that our group has done in SL and talking about careers in
technology. I see this as an opportunity to share some of my own experiences and passions and encourage teen to pursue theirs." Mason says she will use text and voice to talk to students.

The students have been instrumental in putting the college fair together, from setting up the booths and promoting the event to organizing a group of greeters to be present on the island during the fair. Alice Burgess from the University of Kentucky created examples of items for colleges and worked with college representatives in setting up a presence at their booth. A machinima made by Yohan Althouse about the college fair can be seen