The Honors Portfolio

Each student in the Honors Program is required to maintain an Honors Portfolio. You will begin placing items in it as part of your very first Honors class (1110), and will continue to add to it until graduation. It will therefore be a record of your experiences, achievements, and personal and intellectual growth during your years in the program.

The Honors Portfolio is a collection of items, primarily of your choosing, that documents your striving to attain the various goals of the Honors Program. These goals reflect our belief that academic excellence, as indicated by course grades, is only one component of the liberally educated person. You might think of the portfolio as a celebration of your individuality. No two people are alike, but each person is a unique combination of aptitudes, interests, activities, and achievements. Your portfolio is your opportunity to display what you feel are your greatest strengths and achievements.

The exact contents of the portfolio will vary from person to person, and in fact creative individuality is encouraged. The following items are a required minimum that should be in every portfolio:

1. A preliminary essay that will be assigned at the very beginning of the Introduction to Honors course (1110). This will provide you with a benchmark against which you can measure subsequent personal and intellectual development.

2. An Honors curriculum checklist, which you should keep up to date by recording the completion of each required component. In this way you take responsibility for monitoring your own progress toward graduating with Honors.

3. A copy of the syllabus from each Honors course you take.

4. A copy of your most recent transcript.

5. At least one item that you produce in each of the Honors classes you take. This should be an example of what you regard as your best or most important work in the course; it may not necessarily be the assignments on which the instructor gave you the best grade. Try to be selective. Putting too much into your portfolio–every paper, assignment, test and quiz–can detract from its usefulness as much as not enough. The process of making a selection will compel you to think about the course, and the work you have done in it.

6. On the basis of this reflection, you should include for each course a short (1-2 pages) reflection on the class. Needless to say, this is best done at the time that you complete the course, not years later. Please note that this is not meant to be an evaluation of the instructor, but rather a self-reflective discussion of how the readings, assignments, and class activities contributed to your own understanding and development.

7. Evidence of participation in service projects. This could take the form of a journal or log, for example, or a written evaluation of the benefits of the experience both to yourself and to those you work with.

8. Evidence of attendance at cultural activities, such as programs, ticket stubs, etc. In the case of an event that made a strong impact on you, you might write down your thoughts about its significance.

Beyond these minimal requirements, use your imagination to include anything you wish. As a practical guide, you should refer frequently to the list of the goals of the Honors Program, and add anything that will serve as evidence that you have attained–or tried to attain–these goals. You might also want to include copies of any special recognitions you might receive: awards, acknowledgment of volunteer activities, news articles about you, letters of recommendation, presentations on or off campus, etc. Later in your college career, you should include any standardized test scores, as well as a copy of your resume or c.v.

A secured place will be provided in the Honors Center where the portfolios will be kept. When you wish to look at your portfolio or add something to it, a member of the Honors staff will make it available to you. This will ensure that it does not get lost or misplaced, particularly in those cases where there are interruptions of long duration in a student’s college career.

At the time of commencement, the contents of your portfolio will be an important factor in the determination of whether you have met the goals of the program, and are entitled to have the successful completion of the Honors Program recognized on your final transcript. It also serves as a means for you and the Honors staff to monitor your progress along the way. Deficiencies can be brought to your attention while there is still ample time for your to remedy them.

Just as importantly, this is your portfolio, a means of representing yourself to people outside the university. You will take it with you when you graduate, and it will continue to be an important resource when you write personal resumes and apply for jobs or postgraduate programs. Do not rely on your ability to remember things you did years in the past when you sit down to write such documents.

Finally, the Honors Program will use the portfolios, and the stories of personal growth that they tell, as one means to assess what success we are having in achieving our goals. A comparison of early and later work, as well as your reflective comments on that work will be our most valuable source of information for improving and enhancing the program for students in the future.