Bridgewater State College
Portfolio of Excellence Program

What is Portfolio of Excellence?

Portfolio of Excellence (POE) is a mentoring program that helps you to make good choices that will set you up for success both academically and personally during your college experience. POE will also help you to think about the relationship between what you do now, at BSC, and the life you want to have after you graduate. By the end of POE, you'll have a portfolio of stuff you can use to start a solid resume and demonstrate your talents to future employers or graduate schools.

Also, it's free.
It won't take up a ton of your time.
It will be fun and helpful.

You are invited: this coming fall semester, to be excellent.

Why be Excellent?

Too often we hear graduating students say things like "I have nothing to put on my resume," or "I wish I had gotten more involved sooner" or, perhaps worst of all, "I wish I had known about that opportunity before my last semester I graduated." POE is designed so that you never have to think or say any of those things.

Some of the things this program will help you to do would be things that you would want and plan to do anyway (get a 3.0 for the semester). It might get you to do things you should do but maybe wouldn't because it seems like a hassle (get academic help for a touch class before it becomes a crisis, get an on campus job). It might also get you to do things you'd want to do if you could figure out how to make the time (play intramural soccer, volunteer to help at Special Olympics, try out for jazz band). And finally it should help you to take advantage of things that, without this program, you might not know even exist on this campus (a bible study group, the Physics club, travel to Belize).

Do I have to achieve excellence all by myself, or is there help along the way?

A big part of the program is getting to work with mentors who can help you be successful. You will meet with students participating in POE grouped together based on your academic, personal and career goals. You'll get to know a BSC staff or faculty member as a mentor, as well as a current and successful BSC student as a peer mentor. You'll meet, talk with all these folks, write and reflect on your options for participating in campus life and working towards academic success.

How much time does excellence actually take?

How often you meet as a group will depend on how much you group likes to meet. And you will do a lot of "meeting" online through blogs and your POE portfolio. This program is not designed to cause you more work. We know that most BSC students work a lot of hours and in general lead very busy lives. But we also know this: sometimes BSC students are so wrapped up in their part time jobs and hectic lives that they fail to really do much more than show up for class in their four years.

Instead of making more work for you we hope POE will help you be more efficient and adventurous about your first few semesters at the college. What we mean is, we hope that the chance to talk with faculty and staff who know the campus and other students at BSC who have had highly successful college experiences, will help you make good choices about how you spend your time at BSC, choices that contribute to the kind of college career you want to have and the kind of life you want to have after you graduate.

Is the portfolio part of Portfolios of Excellence really excellent?

You will keep track of your activities by documenting them through the college's IN Network - all students have access to IN. Your goal-setting, reflections, outstanding student work and writing and whatever else you want to collect will be housed electronically in your own special POE website. You will have access to your portfolio for your entire college career and after you graduate for use at any time to help you apply for internships while you are in school, perhaps for use in a graduate school application, or as a part of your materials as you apply to a first job after college. So, yes, it really is that excellent.

Am I really excellent enough for a program called Portfolio of Excellence?

The folks that put this program together feel relatively certain that you are excellent enough, and we've tried to design a program to help show you not only how excellent you are, but how excellent you can be.

I think I'd be excellent. How do I sign up?

To apply to participate in Portfolio of Excellence, fill out the interest form on IN, our Involvement Network, by clicking on this link: Apply Here

Once there, you will be asked to either log-in if you already have an account or to sign up for one using your BSC email account, if you do not already have an IN account. Once you complete the appropriate step, you will be taken to the interest form which consists of 5 short questions. If you have any questions, please contact Erica Veiga (eveiga@bridgew.edu) or Erik Fisher (efisher@bridgew.edu) at 508-531-1273.

PLEASE NOTE: We will only be able to work with 100 students in this first year of the program. We realize this is a very busy time for you, but if you are interested, please don't delay in signing up. The program will be closed by the time you arrive on campus.

Last Modified: August 4, 2009