Exit portfolios, a senior’s last challenge

The portfolios that Seton Hill University (SHU) students must compile before graduation varies by their chosen academic program of study. SHU has a university wide portfolio program with specified requirements for all students. In cooperation with this portfolio, each individual academic division adds requirements for their specific majors which must be fulfilled for approval for graduation in that major.
The reason behind the differences is so students will have information contained in their portfolio specific to their field. With different material, different evaluative methods are invoked in the various academic divisions.


By Diana Geleskie,
Staff Writer
The portfolios that Seton Hill University (SHU) students must compile before graduation varies by their chosen academic program of study. SHU has a university wide portfolio program with specified requirements for all students. In cooperation with this portfolio, each individual academic division adds requirements for their specific majors which must be fulfilled for approval for graduation in that major.
The reason behind the differences is so students will have information contained in their portfolio specific to their field. With different material, different evaluative methods are invoked in the various academic divisions.
Within the Humanities Division, English majors present and defend their final portfolios for members of the English faculty while history and political science majors portfolios must be submitted and approved without a panel presentation.
Different academic majors also call for differing content within the portfolio itself. This is required in order to best ensure students have accomplished projects pertinent to their intended degree.
Within the Art Program, each student must include within their portfolio details of their senior exhibit. Mary Kay Neff, director of SHU’s Art Program, outlined the components of the senior exhibit. Students� senior exhibits are displayed in SHU’s Harlan Gallery. All aspects of the exhibit is planned by the student whose work is featured. The artwork is representative of a culmination of the work they have accomplished at SHU.
The senior portfolio for theater majors requires a list of shows and the positions held in all the productions the student participated in.
�In the Theater Department, the more shows we are part of, the better. But that comes at a cost. The more shows you are in, the more time you spend in rehearsal, doing things over and over and discovering new things each time. It’s very taxing to have such large sections of your day cordoned off for one thing and one thing only,� said Caitlin Marietti, a senior in the Theater Program.
SHU’s Physician Assistant (PA) program takes another approach on the portfolio through �Senior Seminar.� All SHU students are required to take �Senior Seminar� in order to fulfill their core requirements.
According to Julian Fiorina, a sophomore in the PA program, �Our senior seminar takes place during J-Term of our junior year so that the following year is focused on our professional studies.� All the various methods of senior portfolio evaluation are intended to ensure that students have received the qualifications needed to continue on after graduation.
�The majors are so different. I don’tknow if you can compare them,� Neff said.
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