Portfolios (and Tracking Strategies)

[1] Background and Purpose:

A Portfolio is the student’s collection of resources and documents that illustrate his or her service, academic, and leadership experience over the course of the Bonner Program. Whether contained in a file, scrapbook, or electronically, the portfolio allows the student to capture and share with others relevant details about his or her learning. The portfolio also becomes something that can be shared with peers, staff, friends, family and prospective employers.

In addition to serving as a great resource for the student’s self-reflection and assessment, the portfolio is a great way to establish simple tracking of student performance and participation within the program. Through the portfolio process, students can track what training and enrichment, meaningful service work, trips, and other events they have participated in and how they believe these experiences have shaped them. While many campuses do not yet have portfolios, staff members have been collecting many documents for the student files that are the foundation for portfolios. Reviewing the portfolio (or the file contents) in preparation for milestone events (like One-to-One Meetings and preparation for the Senior Presentation of Learning) can also be very helpful.

The Portfolio process is only underway at a few campuses (Guilford and Warren Wilson). Therefore, the benchmarks below reflect best thinking about how to develop a simple portfolio and what it can contain.

• Bonner Program Application (essay)
• Goals for service and program (perhaps in form of Community Learning Agreement, if not completed otherwise)
• Reflections from service and program (essays written, renewal, letter to self)
• Self-evaluations and Reflection (journal pieces, essays, etc.)
• Service Site and Program Staff Evaluations (forms, letters, thank you notes, etc.)
• Listing of Training and Enrichment attended (use a simple form to be updated regularly)
• Letters of reference or recommendation (from staff, agencies, other students, etc.)
• Resume (as developed)
• Photos
• Examples of work and projects (documents and papers written, photos, etc.)
• Other significant memorabilia

• Create a formal time, for example during a Class Meeting, annual Retreat, or other meeting for students to review the contents of their portfolio (or file that will become a portfolio). Give them simple guidelines and prompting questions in order to add to it (e.g., in the form of reflections) or have them create a list of things to add (e.g., photos, work examples) and follow up with it during an upcoming meeting (or One-to-One).
• Have a few simple forms that students can regularly update that allow them to list training, enrichment, relevant courses or other meaningful activities. See the samples provided in this document.
• Integrate the Portfolio creation and maintenance process with some meaningful enrichment activities, like a workshop introducing the concept of vocation. See the Vocation Handbook for several relevant, interesting workshops. In this way, present the portfolio process as a meaningful way for students to keep track on, reflect on, and take stock about their own work and growth, and what it may mean for their future calling and direction.
• Integrate creativity into the process. Bring in art supplies during a time when students can assemble a scrapbook with their portfolio/file contents. Bring in a guest artist or computer design wizard (or be one yourself!) to give students ideas about using their creativity in assembling their portfolio.

• Give students an overview of the portfolio process, coupled with a vocation workshop or other relevant perspective. Give students the checklist of what are things to keep. Have a few seniors create examples and share them with students.
• If you are doubling student files as the portfolio contents, figure out how students can have a version of their own (minus the contents that are exclusive to your files). A key difference of the portfolio is to empower the students to see themselves as responsible for keeping track of meaningful reminders of their Bonner experience. The portfolio is more than a cumulative file; it is a way for the Bonner student to tell his or her story and to also reflect on his or her growth and learning.
• Review the portfolio contents at least once per year in preparation for a formal One-to-One Meeting with the student. From reviewing this, along with CLAs, Site Evaluations, and other important paperwork, a staff member can have a broad sense of the student’s performance, participation, and experience to draw on in conversation.

• While not excluding the more tangible elements (e.g., a scrapbook, an art project) from a student portfolio, using electronic portfolios allows a student to keep a living record of his or her work while also developing necessary academic skills (like writing, using a computer, and building a website) Guilford College, for example, has an electronic portfolio process that allows students to build a “homepage” for themselves. The homepage contains their personal statement, skills and competencies (which tie into training, enrichment and experience), service story (essay), resume, and contact information.

[4] Campus Examples and Resources:

See examples in the Supporting Resources Section:

• Guilford E-Portfolio Description (PDF)

• Guilford
• Warren Wilson, which has adopted a simple-to-do strategy for incorporating portfolio-related questions into annual meetings with students.