9 Mile Falls School District Lak

College/Career/Counseling Center

Lakeside High School Professional Portfolio Guidelines
Oral Presentation Rubric Question Guide

Your Professional Portfolio is all about your future and your plans.

As part of your transition from Lakeside to your post-secondary life, you are required to compile your Professional Portfolio. In short, your portfolio is a thorough look at your academics, your activities in and out of school, your career information, and your plan for your future. You want the Senior Celebration Committee to see your accomplishments while in high school, your personality, and your specific plans for the future.

It is important that your portfolio be professional in appearance because you will use this for the committee and may use it for interviews or college admissions. It is a great place to gather all the important documents about yourself and your future.

We strongly encourage you to be organized with dividers, title pages, and/or table-of-contents pages. You also can use your creativity to make your portfolio pleasing to the eye. It is very helpful to have page protectors for your portfolio to protect your important documents and maintain a professional appearance. It also prevents the need for a three-hole punch.

Evaluation Scale: Each section of your portfolio will be graded on a five-point scale in the areas of professional appearance, completeness, ease of understanding, and proper use of conventions (spelling, grammar, etc.) The table below gives an overview of each grade. Remember, each section of your portfolio should be:

Professional
Complete
Easy to Understand
Free of errors

0	2	3	4	5
Section Missing	Standard not met. Three or more elements missing or areas of concern. Incomplete and/or not professional.	Minimum standard met. Two or more areas or concern or missing elements.	Standard met. One area of concern or some missing elements	Standard exceeded. Professional appearance, thorough and complete, easy to understand, proper conventions.

Remember that you are showcasing yourself to a panel that probably does not know you. You will want to present your past as well as a very specific plan for your future. You will want to show your academic life, your activities in and out of school, and your specific post-secondary plans for the next five years.

Professional Portfolio Sections and Guidelines

Sections	Standards, Guidelines, Criteria, Suggestions
*Introduction*
Cover Letter	Professional format, introduces you and your portfolio to the Senior Celebration Committee, highlights the areas of which you are most proud. Do this last after compiling your portfolio.
*Academics*
Grades	Minimum Standard: Unofficial Transcript Additional Items: Exceptional Report Cards, Academic Honors, Academic Scholarships, Academic Certificates, Academic Achievements, One-Page Essay on Favorite Classes
Test Scores	Minimum Standard: WASL Test Results Additional Items: SAT, ACT, PSAT, ASVAB, Outstanding Classroom Test
Best Work	Select a paper, project, or item from a course to demonstrate your best academic work so far in high school. If too large to fit in notebook, use photos and write a one-page essay why you chose it.
Academic Work	Select your best research paper or project to demonstrate your ability to do in-depth academic work. This should be different than your Best Work above.
*Activities*
In-School Activities and Leadership	Minimum Standard: Introduction Paragraph with List of in-school activities. Additional Items: Letters, Certificates, Awards, Special Recognition, Thank You Notes, Programs, Medals, Honors for Extra-curricular and Co-curricular activities, One-Page Essay on Lessons Learned From Activities, Why You Feel They Are Important.
Hobbies/Interests	Minimum Standard: List of Hobbies and Interests Additional Items: Essay on Favorite Activity, Autobiography Essay, Essay on Personal Traits and How They Will Help Your Future.
Best Work	Select a project, award or item that represents your best work in the area of activities and interests.
*Career Documents*
Resume	Resume should be professional and include three references with phone numbers. If no room for references, then list “Available Upon Request” and then list on separate page with names, addresses, and phone numbers.
Letter of Recommendation 1	Letters should be professional, dated, and signed by an adult who knows you well and is not related to you.
Letter of Recommendation 2	Letters should be professional, dated, and signed by an adult who knows you well and is not related to you.
*Five-Year Plan*
Essay (x 2)	Minimum Standard: One-Page Essay communicating your plans for five years after high school: work, school, community college, tech school, military or any combination of the above. Additional Items: More complete essay (2 pg maximum) with specific details like which school, planned major of study, specific on-the-job training, specific area of training in the military, planned major, how will you finance your education, why you chose this area, etc

Applications	Minimum Standard: Completed application for first plans after LHS. Additional Items: Applications for all institutions being considered after high school (all potential colleges, military, or jobs). If college application requires essays, then include them also (great practice).
Financial Plan	Minimum Standard: Detailed monthly budget for the first Sept and Oct after high school. Include all income sources such as parents, scholarships, jobs. Include all expenses such as tuition, books, room and board, cell ph. See template for more details. Additional Items: If in school after LHS, present a plan on how you will pay for your education. What will your schooling and living expenses be for each year? How will you pay for it? You can use Excel or Word or both. This is probably best done with worksheets with narrative explanation.
One-Year Month Specific Plan	Starting with next month, what are your personal, academic, and career goals? List by month. Don’t forget to include PSAT, SAT, ACT tests, Financial Aid forms, scholarship application, college applications, dorm applications. Entering college requires a lot of planning! See the Career Center for more details or the school website.
Five-Year Specific Plan	Year by year, note your goals and plans. This can be done with a bulleted list under each year. Include career, school, and personal goals.
*Presentation Plans*
Presentation Outline	This one or two page document simply outlines your plan for your presentation to the Senior Celebration Committee. If you have time to develop your PowerPoint, then just print from outline mode. What areas are you going to emphasize? What makes you most proud? What do you want the committee to clearly know about your future?
Presentation Visual	Your presentation should have a visual along with your notebook. Your visual must be something in your notebook and presentation that you want to showcase. If your item is too big to bring to your presentation, consider photographs presented with your PowerPoint. This does not have to be an academic item. It could be from your interests, activities, career, or your future plans.
*Portfolio Appearance*
Notebook	Well organized (table of contents and/or divider tabs, title pages), professional appearance, easy to understand, well labeled, creative. Your personality shows and your work is neatly presented.

Grade is determined by adding up your points from each section. Notice that your Five-Year Essay is worth 2 times other sections. See the grading sheet. 100 pts total.