By Jane Harper

By the time most students graduate from college, they've probably listened to hundreds of hours of lectures, taken countless tests, written dozens of essays, and nodded off in class at least a few times.

But, it's unlikely that very many of them spent much time learning outside of the classroom while earning their degrees.

That is, not unless they were involved in a program like the PORTfolio Project at Virginia Wesleyan College.

This project, which began in the fall of 1998 with its inaugural class of 24 freshmen, is an ambitious new effort that seeks to connect the lessons of the college classroom to the world outside the campus.

It does that by having the students take a series of specialized seminars to enhance their thinking skills, sending them on numerous filed trips, and having them spend time "shadowing" professionals working in careers related to the students' interests. The students also are required to perform one semester-long internship or spend time studying abroad.

In addition, they must keep an electronic PORTfolio on the World Wide Web in which they document and reflect on the work they have done toward their degrees and the experiences they have had. In the end, it will serve as a sort of resume for them.

"We expect these students to have a real advantage when they finish their education," said Dr. Lawrence Hultgren, director of the PORTfolio project and a long-time philosophy professor at the College. "It will enable them to have an edge in the job market and when going on to graduate school."

The program was created by a group of faculty and staff from throughout the College after several brainstorming sessions, Hultgren said. What they came up with was a very unique program. "Several schools out there have bits and pieces of what we're doing, but no one else has put it together the way we have," he said.

The first class of students is a diverse group who were hand-picked by the PORTfolio Committee. All were very involved in their high schools and communities. And all have shown leadership potential.

PORTfolio is not a major. Instead, the specialized classes and activities that students participate in are counted as elective courses.

Some of the skills the PORTfolio program will seek to teach the students are how to problem solve, communicate more effectively, think more broadly, read critically and analytically, and work well with others. "These are the real liberal arts skills," Hultgren said.

And since many students start college unsure of what they want to major in or what they want to do after graduation, the PORTfolio program is designed to help them better identify their strengths so that they can pick the best field of study or career for them. They also are sent out into the community beginning in their freshman year when they must spend at least 25 hours in an externship--an experience in which they are placed with professionals working in a field that the student is interested in.

The students have a long list of "community partners"--businesses and organizations that have agreed to work with the students--from which to choose their externships. The initial list was developed by the PORTfolio Committee, with input from the College's Board of Trustees. The list of partners was expanded after talking with the students, said Deborah Hicks, career services director at Virginia Wesleyan, who has played a major role in the project. The list likely will be expanded over time to meet the students' needs, she said.

What the students do during their externships varies. One student who is interested in newspaper reporting, for instance, spent her time watching a reporter at work and attended meetings with the editors. Another student spent his externship at the Chrysler Museum of Art, where he toured the facility, did some research and learned how to write a grant proposal. Both were amazed by how much they learned and how much they didn't know.

By putting them in the professional community early on, students get a chance to see if they really are interested in a particular career, or whether they should rule it out before they've spent a lot of time on the wrong major, Hicks said.

They's what happened to Melissa Cummings, a member of the first PORTfolio class from Buffalo, N.Y. Cummings--who has spent years working with children of all ages and is fluent in Spanish--was convinced that the best career path for her was to become a bilingual education teacher. But an externship at a Chesapeake middle school quickly changed her mind.

"It really made me realize I don't want to go into education," Cummings said. "I didn't feel as comfortable as I thought I would. I really like kids, but just not in a school setting."

Cummings still plans to major in Spanish, but is now considering taking additional courses in international business or politics instead of education. And while she didn't really enjoy her externship experience, she's grateful for it.

"What if I had taken a ton of (education) classes and gotten really into it an gone into the field and totally hated it?" Cummings said. "I would have wasted so many credits."

In addition to sending the students out to gain experiences outside the classroom, PORTfolio professors also have them come back to the classroom to discuss those experiences with the rest of their classmates so that they can all learn from it.

The professors frequently seek the student's input, which Cummings really likes.

"They don't talk at us, which is something that really irritates me," Cummings said. "They sit at the desk with us and everyone has an equal opportunity to speak. The professors have made a distinct point of letting us know that they were learning too since this is all new, and I really liked that."

Since the project is new, there likely will be some changes made along the way, Hultgren said. But so far, they are very pleased with how it is going, he said.

"We're pretty much on track with where we want to be," he said. "But it will take getting a class through all four years before we can evaluate it fully."

Excerpts from the January Term journals of PORTfolio Externs

Sara Simms, Virginia Marine Science Museum
"Most of the people I worked with today were either still in college majoring in biology, or already had their degree and were entering vet school. It is a hands-on job, and you have to be willing to get wet and dirty. I can't wait until tomorrow!"

Jim Baker, Chrysler Museum of Art
"I spent the morning in the library doing some research on Winslow Homer. I love it! I couldn't have picked a better [externship site]."

Sara Jones, Virginia Zoological Park
"I wasn't thrilled to come back to school two weeks early, but I"m glad I did. I really enjoyed the zoo, the animals and all the people I met there. I hope I get the opportunity to further what I learned there. I don't know how my second January Term can ever measure up!"

Community Partners

"PORTfolio seems to me to be one of the smartest and most inventive college programs I have encountered...providing fresh solutions to unique educational challenges of our time."