As we’ve pre­vi­ous­ly cov­ered, a port­fo­lio is a pic­ture of you.  It is a short col­lec­tion of works and records that reveal you as a stu­dent, a par­tic­i­pant, and a per­son.  A port­fo­lio answers the ques­tion: “Who are you really?”

What sort of thing do you include in a portfolio? 

Any­thing that you think iden­ti­fies you. 

As a stu­dent, you’d include a tran­script, course descrip­tions, the grad­ing pol­i­cy which was used to deter­mine grades, and any aca­d­e­m­ic awards or schol­ar­ships that you’ve been given. 

As a par­tic­i­pant, you include a record of sports, clubs, vol­un­teer hours com­plet­ed, church activ­i­ties, and a resume of your job history. 

As a per­son, you include any­thing that you’d like to high­light about your­self.  If you’re an artist, maybe include a sam­ple of your art­work. If you’re a sci­en­tist include a sci­ence project that you are espe­cial­ly proud of. This is the part of the port­fo­lio that shows the read­er what kind of a per­son you are, so include what you want. 

With a love­ly col­lec­tion at your fin­ger­tips you are always ready to give a response about where you’ve been and where are you going.   

Our tool­box con­tains use­ful tem­plates for cre­at­ing a sim­ple yet thor­ough port­fo­lio and it’s free with a free account! 

A few caveats to creating and using a portfolio: 

First, only share a port­fo­lio with a col­lege if they request it.  Let them know that you have a port­fo­lio com­plet­ed if they’d like to view it, but don’t force it on them. 

Sec­ond, remem­ber, most peo­ple only have a few sec­onds to a minute to look at your port­fo­lio. Try to keep it brief but brilliant. 

Third, be spe­cif­ic about what you put in the port­fo­lio, if you don’t love it, cut it. 

So, what’s the secret to creating a great portfolio?

Start ear­ly, print tem­plates, and add infor­ma­tion often. In a way cre­at­ing a sol­id port­fo­lio is like eat­ing an ele­phant, it’s best when tak­en in small chunks.