GRADUATION PORTFOLIO


WHY THE PORTFOLIO?
The graduating senior portfolio is a core assessment tool used by the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. We take one last look at your body of mass communications products. Did you learn what we asked you to learn? Do you think about composition, spelling and grammar the way we hope you do? Can you express yourself clearly? Do you think logically? Do you strive to write well every time you write?

The materials you submit are reviewed by the faculty and rated employing the attached rubric. Results are tabulated and used to identify weaknesses in the teaching and learning process. We may alter course offerings or restructure course content and instruction based on portfolio reviews. Your portfolios help us know how we’re doing.


CONTENT
• A statement of your career goals, minimum 250 words

• A statement of your expected final overall and journalism GPA

• A list of all professionally related experience (paid or unpaid

• A list of all memberships in all student related and professionally related organizations

• A list of all awards and scholarships won

• A 500-word essay about the role of the media in the twenty first century as it relates to your major within the school, i.e., advertising majors write about the role of advertising in twenty first century mass media, broadcasters write about broadcast, etc.

• A 200-word reflection on your work in the school and how competent you believe you are in the school’s learning outcomes or “Six Degrees of Education” (see attached)

• A copy of the capstone paper in JMC 440 (Ethics) without grades or markings

• Documentation of three samples of your internship experience that could be: Samples of projects you created (story clips, press releases, layouts, scripts, project outlines, features, news stories, headlines, stories edited, video tapes, photography, ads, posters, brochures, etc.) including a statement that identifies what you contributed to each sample if you were not responsible for the entire piece, and/or evidence of work that did not produce a tangible product, such as call sheets and the results of your calls, photos of promotional activities and events, etc.

• Two or three samples of work from the specific major (could include packages, stories, documentary, news release, fact sheets, pitch letter, visual graphics etc.) that are different submissions than the internship examples. Include a statement that identifies the class for which the work was created and the context of the assignment.

For any broadcast samples, production scripts should be included. You must account for all items on the list. For example, if you did not receive any awards, state no awards won. Short statements or lists may be combined on to one sheet as long as you maintain the sequence of materials as they are listed above.


APPEARANCE
In the School of Journalism and Mass Communications we boast about graduating professionals. Your portfolio should reflect that. Looks count. Clean, organized and error free are essential.

Portfolio materials may be submitted on paper in a three-ring binder. The preferred form is electronic submission via DVD. Digital files should be PDF or MP3. DVD Studio Pro, iDVD and Dreamweaver can help in assembling your digital files. Regardless of the use of paper or electronic format all portfolios must have:

• A table of contents clearly identifying each section of the portfolio

• Tabs or links clearly identifying each section of the portfolio

• Your name and graduation month and year on the spine (or front cover if there is no spine) of your binder or DVD cover.


DEADLINE
All required items must be submitted in good order on the Friday before the last day of class of the semester you plan to graduate. Failure to submit all the portfolio items will result in your name not being included on the official graduation list.


SAMPLES

Here is an example of how to layout a table of contents in iDVD:




Here is an example of the Statement of Career Goals link from the DVD main menu. Because you cannot embed a PDF into the DVD menu screen, please include a reference to what file on the DVD the document can be found.



Here is an example of the GPA link from the DVD main menu. This information can be typed into the DVD submenu.



The document files can be located in a separate folder on your DVD. Please give them clear names that are referenced in the DVD.