This document provides a summary of an internship where the individual was tasked with restructuring the ePortfolio program at Westminster College. Through surveys and interviews, the intern found that students did not find the current ePortfolio program helpful. The intern proposes splitting the ePortfolio into two parts - an initial course requirement and a later career-focused portfolio. The intern also recommends allowing more flexibility in portfolio format and incorporating the career center. The goal is to create portfolios that better meet student and employer needs.

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Westminster Network
Professional ePortfolio Intern
Johnnie V Ethington

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTERNSHIP SUMMARY………………………………………………......3
1.2 INTERNSHIP ROLES AND TASKS………………………………………...3
1.3 TASK LIMITATIONS………………………………………………………..3
2. TASK DISCUSSION, EXPERIENCE, AND COMPLETION PROCESS
2.1 PROVIDE E-MAIL DATABASE……………………………………………4
2.2 RESEARCH AND STRATEGIZE BEST PRACTICES FOR EPORTFOLIO
REVISIONS IN THE UPCOMING YEAR…………………………………..4
2.2.1 FEEDBACK SURVEY……………………………………………….5
2.2.2 FACULTY INTERVIEWS…………………………………………...6
2.3 RESEARCH BEST PRACTICES IN TRANSITIONING ACADEMIC
EPORTFOLIO TO PROFESSIONSAL………………………………………4
2.3.1 RESEARCH DELEGATION…………………………………………6
2.4 DEVELOP HOW-TO SERIES FOR STUDENTS BUILDING THEIR
EPORTFOLIO………………………………………………………………...7
2.5 MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STUDENTS TO SERVE ON AN
EPORTFOLIO ADVISORY BOARD………………………………………..9
3. PROJECT PROPOSAL PLAN/ADVICE FOR IMPLEMENTATION…………11
4. CONCLUSION AND ACKOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………….14
5. APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………...15

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INTRODUCTION
In the spring of 2015, I was brought into a newly founded, Westminster College initiative
called the Westminster Network. As defined by one of my team members, Emma Gillett,
the Westminster Network is an interconnected community in which members engage in
lifelong learning, mentorship, and personal and professional growth with the slogan
“Once you’re in, you’re in for life.” My role in this was to spearhead the restructuring of
the current ePortfolio program at Westminster College as well as assist my team in any of
their departments. Within this program I was responsible for the following tasks:
 Provide e-mail database
 Research and strategize best practices for ePortfolio revisions in the upcoming year
 Research best practices in transitioning academic ePortfolio to professional
 Develop how-to series for students building their ePortfolio
 Make recommendations for students to serve on ePortfolio advisory board
And I was faced with the following limitations:
 The current media used by Westminster for the ePortfolios (Foliotek) is being
dropped
 The current ePortfolio director, Kerri Shaffer, was let go along with many other
Westminster staff
 The current Westminster president and provost have both resigned
TASK EXECUTION

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Now I will walk you through my process of executing the listed tasks above while
dealing with the limitations discussed above. Then I will move on to analyze the alumni,
faculty, and student feedback before finishing off the paper with a project proposal plan
and suggested implementation tactics that incorporate said results.
Task I
In order to provide an e-mail database I was supposed to compile and post Linda Muir’s
600+ e-mail database consisting of alumni, faculty, involved community members,
students, and successful entrepreneurs and business persons because I work for her as
well. I approached Linda Muir and was informed this was impossible. In order to get the
information listed on the databases, she had made promises to those participants that their
information would remain completely confidential. So I informed the rest of my team of
my unfortunate news through a discussion board on our Canvas group. I told them that I
couldn’t publish this list, but that they could easily reach out to me or Linda in the future
with a specific need and we could help them in different ways including sending out a
survey or request for them, etc. In the end, no one ever reached out since the individuals
in the Westminster Network had a large enough reach to accomplish what they needed to
on their own.
Task II and III
While researching and strategizing was an ongoing process I generally worked on
generating student and faculty feedback on our program and how we currently transition
our portfolios from academic to professional. I enlisted Lilly, the Westminster Network

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research intern, to help me in outside research on other universities’ programs and
transitioning methods.
Survey
For my portion, I created a Survey Monkey survey. I wrote multiple questions and revised
it with my group twice before sending it out. In order to get a large amount of results
from a large variety of students, alumni, and faculty I made a list of 5 professors that
work in each department Westminster offers, pulled from Linda’s database, and reached
out to upper management of the college for a wider reach. The questions I’ve generated
and results are below in Appendix I. I realized that this survey reached a good variety of
people with the exception of second year students. If another survey were conducted in
the future this group should be targeted. Beyond that, about 98% of survey takers are
aware of the current ePortfolio program and about 95% have even participated in it while
only 23% of the student body think the ePortfolio is helpful for students. This shows that
the ineffectiveness of the current program is not that the school can’t reach the student
body, but that the program itself isn’t helping the targeted group. This also poses a
challenge for a change initiative since we have already failed 77% of the student body.
When asked for suggested improvements on the ePortfolio program, survey taker
responses varied from, “Use LinkedIn, Google Drive, a blog, a website, anything free and
current,” to “make it less redundant for those in majors that already require a portfolio,
and it needs to be specialized to your major” to “I felt like my hard effort was wasted
when no one from the college even really read it but rather just checked it off of a to-do
list.” Furthermore, roughly 77% of survey takers stated that they have not or will not use
the ePortfolio system after graduation, while 15% skipped the question all together. So,

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basically, 8% of the student body is actually invested in the process of the ePortfolio.
However, positive feedback suggested that the ePortfolio has great intentions. Survey
takers said that not only is, “it a great organizer to show work,” but “it helps to reflect on
the work that is done” as well. This shows that students aren’t against the idea of creating
a portfolio they simply don’t like the program we have right now.
Interviews
Then I conducted two interviews of staff members who are in charge of their
department’s specific portfolio programs and turn out incredibly successful results. The
first was Kim Zarkin from the Communications department and the second was Shamby
Polychronis from the Education department. Ironically, the answers I received from them
were incredibly similar to each other and perfectly coincided with the results of the
survey. The interview questions along with their responses are included in Appendix II
and Appendix III. Some of the similarities I found in their programs were that they were
career oriented while incorporated academic knowledge, they were flexible to the
students, their chosen career paths, and their favored medium choice, they aimed to equip
students with all skills required to obtain a job, they gave students a hard copy, they
provided advice and constructive criticism, and they had a clear vision for their students.
All of their suggested improvements for Westminster’s ePortfolio program pertained to
the elements their own program had, but the ePortfolio lacked. As you can see most of
what their programs have would solves most of the problems expressed in the survey.
Additional Research
Furthermore, the research results I obtained from Lilly were helpful in certain ways, but
didn’t quite pertain to our school. What I found was that most schools didn’t have

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portfolio programs to begin with. This is confirmed by the results of the survey
mentioned above. Transfer students were asked if their previous school had a portfolio
program and only 5% said yes. Meaning, that Westminster College was showcasing
innovation and creativity with the benefit of their student body in mind by creating a
portfolio program in the first place. Based on the survey takers descriptive responses
when asked to describe their previous schools’ program I concluded that they were very
similar to ours. Beyond that, all of the school’s in Lilly’s research also had similar
programs to our ePortfolio. However, all of these universities were realizing the same
thing Westminster College is now: the portfolios are completely ineffective unless you
tailor it the students, explain to them how beneficial they are, and incentivize them to
designate time and effort to put towards a portfolio. Any student can paste a short
description along with an artifact into a school database, but students are not being
informed on the significant effect a quality portfolio can have in an interview especially
since it is such a new concept/asset schools are pursuing. On top of that, they are not
being adequately incentivized to take the time from their busy lives to put effort and care
into these portfolios. Surprisingly this is a huge task. Beyond that, I concluded that a lot
of the programs other universities had wouldn’t work at Westminster for the following
reasons:
1. Most of them were failures at their own schools
2. Most of them were much larger schools with much more student and alumni
involvement
3. Westminster is incredibly unique and we need a program that represents that
Task IV

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In order to develop a how-to series I needed to look into what already exists and
Westminster College and find out what is missing. So, I looked at our ePortfolio webpage
on Westminster College’s website. The website outlines the history of how our program
came to be, what an ePortfolio is, what the ePortfolio program aims to do, the limitations
and requirements of the ePortfolio, the breakdown of the three stages of the ePortfolio,
and a few how-to videos on executing a portfolio. I found that what students were being
told and what was actually happening were two very different things. This coincides with
the results I collected form my staff interviews. To expand, the biggest disparities I found
were:
 On the website, it states you can use any media you want for your ePortfolio as
long as you link it to Foliotek. However, this was not adequately advertised. This
thought is reinforced by the student responses in the survey. Not to mention, as far
as receiving credit for your portfolio students are told to post the link to their
virtual portfolio on Foliotek to Canvas. This validates the confusion students have
that Foliotek is their only option.
 The website states that for two out of three scenarios a student would be faced
with post-graduation the individual wouldn’t have to pay for their portfolio.
However, the two situations would result in either the student not using his/her
portfolio, or the student not being able to update his/her portfolio, which would
quickly result in them not using it. Not to mention, the low price ($20/year) to use
Foliotek post-graduation is not advertised to the student body adequately and is
due to the poor quality of Foliotek’s portfolios (as seen by the results in the
survey).

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 The website continues to reiterate that the portfolio is for student benefit while
brushing over the fact that Westminster College needs it for accreditation
purposes as well. As we can see in the results of the survey, students do not
believe it is beneficial to them, and the vision and overall message of who the
portfolio actually helps and how is very murky (this is also solidified by the
responses from my interviews).
 The website states that an important team of faculty will look over the portfolios
and provide feedback. Looking back, I wish I would have included a question
regarding this on the survey, but from a personal standpoint I know I have never
once received feedback on my portfolio.
 The website states that the first phase of the portfolio (the competency and
midpoint portfolios) that you do in your first two years at Westminster is to prove
you have learned the basic college-wide learning goals, while the final phase of
the portfolio is to showcase you major learning goals. Although this sounds good
on paper, it instills a mentality that the portfolio does not have to be taken
seriously and has nothing to do with their final career goals from the very
beginning of freshman year.
 The website has how-to videos that aim to help students throughout their portfolio
process. However, this only appeals to one type of learner. As a liberal arts
college, we should implement other styles as well.
 The website claims that the portfolio will help students in a multitude of different
ways, but don’t showcase real examples, making it hard for students to believe it.

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Not to mention, the lack of available examples leave students in the dark on how
to design their own portfolios.
Task V
Initially, I began to look into a student advisory board. However, I realized that the team
of students I work with in the Westminster Network were already acting as one. They had
collaborated with me and helped me throughout the whole process. Not to mention they
were varied and involved enough to adequately represent the student body as a whole. So,
I decided to take a different direction with it. I chose to create an advisory group called
The Community Advisory Group that consists of:
 Successful business members in the Salt Lake area
 With a history of involvement at Westminster College and an eagerness to
continue that involvement.
 Participating in a career that is encompassed by the same fields of study that
Westminster College offers
I was provided with a list of people that fit our criteria by one of our supervisors,
Annalisa Holcombe and it is presented below:
1. Arnold Machinery
2. Overstock.com
3. Discover Bank
4. Mountain America
5. Phillips Edison

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6. CHG
7. Goldman Sachs
8. HireVue
9. RBS
10. Wells Fargo
11. Nelson Labs
12. EBay
13. Adobe
14. IHC
15. St. Marks
16. Fidelity
The bolded ones I decided would appeal to the majority of departments and have high
levels of participation within our school. However, I do believe this list needs to be
expanded upon.
Due to my desire to expand this list and because I think the portfolio program needs to
change and implement the project plan I will propose later, I have not reached out to
them yet. However, their intended role would be to look over students’ portfolios and
provide feedback. If we delegate adequately this will be an incredible resource and may
possibly result in job offers for graduating seniors or at the very least give the students
valuable feedback from individuals that are already successful in their chosen career path,
while not overloading the volunteers.
PROJECT PROPOSAL

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Finally, I have prepared a project plan for restructuring the ePortfolio as well as
recommendations and steps that need to be taken for the student that takes over my
position next year.
1. Split the current ePortfolio into two separate requirements
a. The first requirement will simply be an added, required course on Canvas,
just like Title IV. It will encompass the current resistance and midpoint
portfolios. This will allow Westminster College to have proof that their
students are learning the college-wide learning goals for their accreditation
requirements while eliminating the confusion on what the portfolio is
actually used for and whom it benefits.
b. The second portion will be the actual ePortfolio, which will not become a
requirement until the student reaches 60 credits. This typically occurs
when they are in their third year and also coincides with the requirement
to declare a major. This allows for us to not only include transfer students
in this incredible resource, but it waits for students to have a clear idea of
their future goals, what kind of career path they want, and what kind of
employer they will be targeting in their portfolios.
2. Eliminate a required media to use for the final portfolio
a. The portfolio needs to be tailored to the student in order for it to work.
b. Students know what media they are most comfortable with and they
should be allowed to use it. Not only will this improve the quality of the
portfolios, but also it will spark creativity and make the portfolios much
more individualized.

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c. Not to mention, Westminster College has a variety of majors that go
through various departments. Each major and department has different
requirements and goals that the student will be able to fulfill with this new
media choice. Plus, within these differences, employers that pertain to
each major have different requirements and the students know that. In
order to make an effective and useful portfolio that sets them apart from
the crowd, students need to have the freedom to create a portfolio that will
appeal to the employers and career they are working towards.
d. This will not add to the workload of the team that checks the students’
portfolios at the end. Students will simply submit a link to their portfolio
on Canvas that this team can follow and explore their portfolios.
e. This will cut down on the training time and amount of questions faculty in
the ePortfolio studio are faced with from students and almost eliminate the
need for an ePortfolio director (which is conveniently no longer a filled
position at Westminster College).
3. Incorporate the Career Resource Center
a. The survey shows half of the student body visits the Career Resource
Center by choice during their academic careers. This is a great outlet to
use to help the students, give feedback, advice, etc. and we should be
taking advantage of this.
b. Elle is the Westminster Network mentoring intern and has discussed an
event called Application Season, follow up with her for further
information. However, the Center should put on one of the events featured

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in Elle’s series event where they show and help students transition their
portfolios into a career portfolio. Then they know the process and can
potentially create more themselves as needed.
c. Provide students with one free hardcopy of their portfolio at graduation as
a token of appreciation of their work and exemplification of their learning
at the college.
4. Anyone in a program/major where they’re department already requires a portfolio
is exempt. There’s no reason to make students do something twice and this is
contributing to negative view students have on the ePortfolio (as shown in the
survey responses).
5. Make it Exciting!
a. Film short interviews or stories of alumni speaking about their positive
experiences with the ePortfolio or a portfolio in general and how it helped
them post-graduation. Post these on the school website, show them at
orientation, and make them mandatory to watch by October 1st
of junior
year. This will make students believe in the effects a portfolio can have
and incentivize students to put effort into their own.
6. Expand on and reach out to the advisory group I outlined above to create a
network of successful people that will provide constructive criticism and advice
on students’ portfolios as they are submitted.
7. Introduce this new portfolio requirement at orientation and when the student
declares a major

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CONCLUSION
In conclusion, my role within the Westminster Network as the ePortfolio Professional
Intern held many responsibilities and limitations that I have discussed. I was able to
generate student, faculty, and alumni opinions, suggestions and feedback on the
ePortfolio program. From there I created an extensive project plan proposal that meets the
school’s needs, but more importantly allows Westminster College’s students to not only
have a leg up on the competition in the job market, but to have access to an incredible
resource. This plan will not increase the workload on any staff members, but will give the
student body an immense benefit and hand in their future. To the student that takes over
my position next year, I hope you will believe in and fight for this program as much as I
did. To my supervisors, I appreciate the trust and support you provided me with
throughout this whole experience. Thank you.

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APPENDIX I

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Responses:
The program was an individual portfolio/website consisting of classes I took and
assignments for each class. Along with the assignments I had to provide what I learned
from them.
At the end of each semester, you would post a sample of your best work from that
particular class onto an eportfolio website and attach a short description along with the
work.

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Responses:
It’s simply another thing I have to do…another hoop I have to jump through to graduate.
I’m a Comm. Major and we have a required Portfolio in class. It’s been much more
useful to me than ePortfolio has ever been.
I think it is a nice idea, but it is not feasible to use this program as a storage tool for
documents related to job applications, because Google Docs does the same thing.
It is not helpful because it is extra work that we have to do on top of schoolwork. For
communication majors, portfolios are essential but it is better to make it a personal
portfolio to show to employers after graduation.
It is far more affective to just have students keep a Google drive file with current
information. It's easier to access and distribute. Eportfolio was honestly a huge waste of
time and the only time I used it was in school when it was required.
It is helpful at school. However, if we did work that can be used for job interviews we
have to pay for it. Alumni should have access to it without paying.
It was never asked for in interviews, which was what we were told as justification for
spending so much time on it. The frustration of using the system (which I will honestly
probably never access again) was unnecessary stress on top of a rigorous graduate
program.
I am on the fence about my feelings. Since doing it, I have not been asked to show it by
any employer. I could have volunteered the information but most in person interviews
were quick and fast and didn't have time to look through an eportfolio. It seemed like a
ton of work for hardly any application past doing it for a class.
It felt like just a hoop to jump through to graduate and not something that was
meaningful. I did not use it in getting a job and felt my hard effort was wasted when no
one from the college really read it but rather just checked off a to-do list. Making it
something applicable to either the job world or of a vital piece of the final presentation
process.
It was nice to have very thing in one place but I have never used nor needed to use my
portfolio after graduating.

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I think it should be a tool that students can utilize, but it should not be required to
graduate. The eportfolios are just another thing to worry about and I feel like they are a
waste of time for students who are not interested.
Perhaps using LinkedIn instead of ePortfolio would be much more beneficial. It's a
website that is very well known and it's free.
Make a class to teach us how to make a real resume. What job am I going to apply to that
cares about what I did my freshmen year in class? Also you can't say you didn't learn one
of the college wide learning goals or else your ePortfolio will not count. This makes it so
you have to just lie and say you learned to college learning goal even though you didn't.
That is like saying evaluate me as a person but only tell me what I want to hear. There is
no room for improvement or constructive criticism.
Some students have no intention of using it after graduation. Some students are more
focused on their resume, because that's what businesses look for. Perhaps connect some
sort of lesson to the eportfolio, that it helps you reflect on your time in college and really
identify your strengths. Or offer a mandatory resume class instead.
However, most first and second year students have absolutely no clue what to do with it,
or how to set one up. I have had multiple sessions where they explain what the ePortfolio
is, instead try actually teaching students to use an ePortfolio.
Time due dates better
I have yet to have an employer or instance where e-portfolio has been mentioned or used.
LinkedIn and resumes are much more important.
It's not important or helpful at all. No employer has ever asked to see my portfolio, they
want a resume. A short and concise list of things I can do, things I have done. As it
currently stands, with the system Westminster has.... there needs to be a class for you to
take for the Eportfolio, every one I talk to including myself is very confused about the
whole entire thing.
It seems a little redundant for students who already have to create a portfolio for their
major to have to create an eportfolio. My portfolio as a Communication major will be
more applicable, and I would like to delegate my time towards completing that. Though,
if the eportfolio can't be eliminated completely, there should be more correspondence
with students. I have no idea where I should be at, what I should be doing in order to
complete it, or even how for that matter. I want to know when I can come in for help and
when it is due. I want to have a deep understanding of what is expected of me to
complete this extra project. I want to have demonstrations in my courses about how to do
it, when deadlines are, and what needs to be completed by each deadline. This is
something that each LE course could delegate an hour to in a class period couldn't they?

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Jobs typically just ask for cover letters and resumes, unless you're applying for a creative
position. I don't imagine employers reading my old business plans for a fake project.
I will never use this post graduation as a bruins student. Eportfolio is completely
unnecessary and useless in regards to being a nursing major. It makes sense for
communication majors because they have to show case their work. Having Eportfolio be
optional would make the most sense.
It cost us money to use it after graduation
Get rid of it.
It SHOULD NOT be mandatory for students to use/do it.
ePortfolio has done nothing more than create additional, unnecessary work for students. I
understand the idea of tying together Westminster's college-wide learning goals;
however, I find it pretty unrealistic that future employers will give a damn about an essay
I wrote sophomore year and how it fulfills one of the learning goals. The requirement for
sophomores was something absurd, like 5 separate artifacts with accompanying essays. I
think there is too much effort being put towards something that I know the vast majority
of the student body loathes.
Completely remove this stupid program, it serves no purpose to the whole student body
and has been one major waste of money. Stupid and inconsiderate programs like this are
what are driving the school down hill and making students transfer.
It’s a lot of extra work, extra hassle, and time, and I do not believe that employers will
even care about it. I think its kind of a waste of time
I think most students don't really know much about the program, other than the fact that it
is a graduation requirement (which is scary considering it is so poorly organized and
advertised).
I think in theory this is excellent for students. But as a communication major it is utterly
redundant, our major requires us to take a separate portfolio class for credit with our
advisory professors within our major. I believe portfolios and the reflective process are
important yes, but ePortfolio doesn't pertain to me and should be put in effect for students
who are not already working on a portfolio for a grade and credit.
I think the eportfolio program is more helpful to Westminster as an institution, as the
reflections of students show how well the school is educating their students, and how
much students are getting out of their classes. I think it would be more practical, and
more appreciated, if all majors were required to take a portfolio class much like the
Comm. 490 course, in which they have to go through all of their work and put together a
portfolio that makes them eligible for employment.

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Because most classes are generated around application of college-wide learning goals,
ePortfolio seems redundant. Many students complete the minimum ePortfolio
requirement as if it were a class assignment, then never return to it. Each major already
has a capstone assignment meant to serve students in their careers.
It's extra work that we don't need--especially for communication majors who have to take
an entire portfolio class. Students are aware of the assignments that they have done. If
they choose to keep them for future projects, that's their choice. We shouldn't be forced to
do it on top of everything else we have on our plate. Also, the fact that we have to pay for
our portfolio after we graduate is absurd.
Responses:
Only for School of Education as a way to start thinking in depth about INTASC
standards. However, the digital format is not necessary in my mind. In SLC schools,
we're allowed to have hard copy files, which I think is similar. Uploading was a hassle
and making a Weebly website would be more cost-effective both for the college and for
students/alums going forward.
It is great organizer to show work.
It helps to organize documents in one area. Good to direct people to for evidence of work.
It is useful, however, if someone does ask me, "What did you do in college?" Then I
could show them that I made this cool eportfolio but tell them that I have not really
touched since then.
I like how they consistently check back in on the students to make sure that the
underlying college goals are being achieved. I never had that in high school and that was
probably a downfall. They couldn't tell whether every student was achieving them
competently.
It is a good concept because it is a place to gather all of your work and showcase it,
whether it is for graduate school or potential jobs/internships.
It’s a good idea in theory.
I think building a portfolio of work is helpful. It helps to reflect on the work that is done
and how you are working to exemplify the college learning goals.

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It creates a domain for our work so we don't have to do it later.
I think the concept is great but the current platform sucks. If they could have a platform
that allows you to really make what you want of it and not write silly essays that would
be more useful.

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Responses:
For prospective employers
It has had no impact on my career whatsoever.
It will help me reflect back on previous work and help me make further progress as I go
on.

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Responses:
The ePortfolio now is not something I’d show to a future employer. It’s embarrassing.
The fact that there are other programs that are easier to use, more generally accepted, and
free.
The seemingly pointless work of creating one.
No use.
It did not apply to getting a job and I was not asked to show it other than in the process of
graduating.
I haven't needed to use it.
Paying for it was not the only deterrent. Like I said earlier what employer cares about
what school work I did in college and how I was able to bullshit how it taught me a
learning goal. The only good thing that would be useful for is if I wanted to be a
politician then I would probably use my ePortfolio so I can show them how much bullshit
I can produce.
I am looking at a career in the field of business, it's about who and what you know. Not
how this program, they have never used, shows you to be.
I have a portfolio I create as a requirement for my major that includes more about my
experience at Westminster, the knowledge I gained, and the talent I have. The eportfolio
program seems redundant for me.
It's pointless for my major.
There are also more effective ways to show what you have accomplished
It's an awful, meaningless, overly regulated, pointless portfolio with time constraints and
red tape that make it impossible to have a good final product

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Responses:
I needed to hand in internship paperwork and ask about Peace Corps recruiting.
Resume input and review
Internship advice
To conduct job interviews and ask about job fairs.
To help with job search. Fantastic for education majors (I did my MAT and M.Ed. there)
but NOT for Arts and Sciences, my undergrad degree program.
Required
They facilitated interviews.
Find internship opportunities.
Interview practice
Resume and cover letter help. They have been of great assistance, but I have never seen
anything about the eportfolio in the office.
For cover letter help. They told me I was super on top of writing them and that I didn't
need them.
Internships...
For an assignment for a major and career exploration class.
To seek out internship information.
*Help with writing resumes * help with registering for internship credit * help with
applying for jobs
To inquire about internship opportunities.
Internship advice

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APPENDIX II
Kim Zarkin
1. Can you tell me a short summary or a little bit about your Communications
Department’s portfolio program?
a. They incorporated a portfolio about two decades ago, up until about 6 or 7
years ago it was a print portfolio and now it’s online. This year it is now
required to do both.
b. 20-25 students graduate a year in this program, while 15-20
communications students are in an internship this year
c. There are a huge variety of jobs that people are going into, so the
communications portfolios adapt and have the flexibility to incorporate
those. There is a personal branding session, resume and cover letter
workshops, how-to do an elevator pitch, job interview practices, and the
final project where each student has to pick a real job listing and make a
resume, portfolio, and cover letter tailored to that—teaches the students
how to market themselves in a certain way
d. This program has a more limited, tailored scope because it doesn’t focus
on school learning goals, but more permanent, more personal, and more
relevant skills.
2. How have you generated excitement and participation?
a. This program is a requirement in order to graduate with a degree in the
Communications department, however, students can tell immediately how

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helpful it will be and why we’re doing it and put a lot of passion into their
work.
3. What are the most important aspects to your program?
a. Listed above
4. How do you make your portfolio accessible for the students post-graduation?
a. They choose the media so they can access it as they choose. Plus, they
leave with a hard copy.
5. Do you have mandatory milestones or check-ins?
a. No milestones, they just have to save stuff as they go, and the deadline is
to be finished within the semester course.
6. How do you transition your portfolio from an academic one to a career one?
a. It is solely focused as a career portfolio
7. What would you say is responsible for your program’s success?
a. The effectiveness of every step in the program
b. The amount of quality control we pour into the portfolios
8. Are you familiar with the Westminster ePortfolio?
a. Yes.
b. If so, do you think it is effective?
i. No
ii. If not, why and how would you improve it?
1. Decision statement and commitment behind one vision on
what the ePortfolio is trying to achieve, can’t be both
accreditation and career oriented. Sends a confusing

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message to the students, they feel they are being lied to,
and shut down.
a. Make a mission statement or vision for what the
actual ePortfolio is trying to achieve.
2. “Every student would do better at being able to connect
what you learn in college to the workplace – we need to
help students learn how to talk about their skills”
3. “Instead of having us build a portfolio on a less than
helpful software why not have us build our own websites?
Word spaces, wikis, webspace.”
9. Does your program require your students to have an internship in order to
graduate?
a. Yes, but I believe only the communications and business departments
make that a requirement.
b. {Interviewer’s Side note: All students required to have an internship are
required to take an internship class through the school in order to get
credit. With this class you have to develop an ePortfolio. This is redundant
for the students in a program that already requires them to create a
portfolio, but an incredible tool to use to reach those students that aren’t.]

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APPENDIX III
Shamby Polychronis
1. Can you tell me a short summary or a little bit about your Education Department’s
portfolio program.
a. It is all focused on integrating the skills you’ve learned throughout your
academic career into and the skills you need for your desired career into
one portfolio that is completely tailored to your desired employer.
2. How have you generated excitement and participation?
a. It’s mandatory, but students are generally really excited to create
something that exudes quality and usefulness post-graduation
3. What are the most important aspects to your program?
a. Self-evaluation!!! You learn to develop artifacts, communicate your
personal strengths, and notice and seize opportunities for advancement
b. Advice. We are here to help the students.
4. How do you make your portfolio accessible for the students post-graduation?
a. For the education department every portfolio the students create is a hard
copy. From there they can simply make copies.
b. For the Westminster ePortfolio all we can do is encourage the students to
save it as a pdf, that is if they don’t want to pay for Foliotek post-
graduation, which most don’t. But the major problem with this is that once
you save it, it stops being a flexible document. Meaning, you can’t update
it, so within the first year it becomes irrelevant.
5. Do you have mandatory milestones or check-ins?

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a. I don’t normally see students until their junior year, when we begin to
work on their portfolio
b. Then, we have presentations at the end of the year
6. How do you transition your portfolio from an academic one to a career one?
a. It is a seamless transition because the education department portfolio
requirements use the same 10 requirements that other schools do for
hiring. So we’re solely focused on career portfolios.
b. The harder transition is implementing what they learned in freshman and
sophomore classes to their portfolio and career
7. What would you say is responsible for your program’s success?
8. Are you familiar with the Westminster ePortfolio?
a. Yes, of course
b. If so, do you think it is effective?
i. No.
ii. If not, why and how would you improve it?
1. Differentiate goals, be honest about what you need from the
students and staff and how it will be effective and useful
2. Something needs to be developed that will help the
ePortfolio and department specific portfolios mesh and
become cohesive.
3. Students need to be taught that including pieces that
showcase failure can be positive as long as they are also
taught how to explain what they learned from it.

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4. There needs to be a class if we continue to use Foliotek or
the current ePortfolio program in general
5. There needs to a universal message and one vision! And
adjunct staff need to be included in that.