Virginia Wesleyan College - PORTfolio Program

PORTfolio Program

The PORTfolio Program is a selective four-year curricular innovation that allows students to extend and apply their in-class education through progressive learning experiences and off-campus opportunities. The program is open to any incoming first year student and can supplement any major by engaging the student in reflection, reaction and adjustment of her/his personal and educational and career goals. PORTfolio students chronicle their journey, self-discovery, experiences, skills and growth continually through their four years by developing an electronic portfolio posted on the web. An integrated set of specially designed liberal arts seminars, Winter Session courses, co-curricular activities and experiential learning opportunities, offer our students a distinctive path to connect the best of a liberal education with real-world applications. PORTfolio is one of the most exciting new developments in higher education in many years and this unique program is only available at Virginia Wesleyan College.

Realizing that today's students will spend all of their working lives in the new millennium, the PORTfolio Program prepares students for long term success by emphasizing the vital ties between the liberal arts and the world. It shows students that the liberal arts are both enriching in terms of personal development and enabling in terms of future careers. Our focus is to share the liberal arts perspectives on the world and encourage the ability to question, deal with change, solve problems, and utilize critical thinking, working independently or in a group. The curriculum of the PORTfolio Program is designed so that participants will explore themselves—their analytical, practical and creative intelligences as well as their strengths in leadership and scholarship. They will explore the community (in the broadest sense of the word), the history and tradition of the liberal arts and the independent American college. The program also provides opportunities for the perfecting of oral, written and technological communication skills.