Your Portfolio

Field Experience · what to collect, and how it's scored

Your portfolio is one third of your capstone grade. It is the physical, visible proof of what you actually did this semester — the thing a guest can pick up, look at, and ask you about.

There is no required list. That's on purpose.

A welding student and an accounting student should not be handing in the same portfolio. If we gave you a checklist of eight items, you would go find eight items — and the portfolio would be about the checklist instead of about your work.

So instead of a list, you get a standard: bring evidence of what you actually did, enough of it to show range, organized well enough that a stranger understands it, and be able to explain every piece. How you meet that standard is your call.

That freedom is also the hard part. "Collect anything" is harder than "collect these eight things," so the rest of this page exists to make it concrete — the five questions your portfolio has to answer, the rubric we score it against, and real examples from every career cluster to get you thinking.

Start collecting in week one, not week fourteen

This is the single most important sentence on this page. You cannot build this portfolio at the end. The photo you didn't take, the draft you didn't save, the project that got thrown out in October — those are gone. Take five minutes every Friday to save something from that week, even if you're not sure you'll use it. Students who do this have too much to choose from. Students who don't spend the last week apologizing for an empty table.

The Five Questions Your Portfolio Has to Answer

If a guest at your station could get answers to these five things just by looking, your portfolio is doing its job.

Question 1

What did you actually do here?

Not what the company does — what you did. Something you made, fixed, wrote, built, organized, or contributed to. The single most common portfolio failure is a beautiful display about the organization with no evidence of the student in it.

Question 2

Can you show more than one kind of thing?

One artifact repeated four times isn't range. Aim to show at least two or three different types of contribution — technical work and communication, or a routine task and a one-off project, or something from your first weeks alongside something from your last.

Question 3

Can you prove you grew?

The most convincing artifact in any portfolio is a before and after. Your first attempt at something next to your tenth. Your pre-assessment next to your post-assessment. A draft with your supervisor's corrections next to the final version. Growth you can point at beats growth you claim.

Question 4

Would a stranger understand it without you?

Label everything. What it is, when you did it, what your role was — one line each. At the trade show you will be talking to one guest while two more look at your table; the labels are what work for you while your mouth is busy.

Question 5

Are you allowed to show it?

Ask your supervisor before you photograph, copy, or display anything. Ask early, not the week of. Some workplaces will say no to almost everything — if that's yours, tell your teacher in October so we can find another way to document your work.

How It's Scored

Five criteria, each on the course scale: 4 Excellent · 3.5 Approaching Excellent · 3 Meets · 2 Does Not Meet · 1 Well Below Standard. Your portfolio score is the average, rounded to the nearest half-step.

Criterion	4Excellent	3Meets	2Does Not Meet	1Well Below
Evidence of Real WorkArtifacts from the job	Every artifact is something you made, did, or contributed to. A stranger sees the work itself, not a description of it.	Most artifacts come from actual placement work rather than course assignments.	Mostly course deliverables — resume, reflections, assignments — with little from the job.	No evidence of placement work at all.
RangeMore than one kind of thing	Several distinct kinds of contribution, including something that shows change over time.	More than one type of contribution shown.	One kind of artifact repeated, or one project standing in for the whole semester.	A single item.
CurationOrganized & labeled	Deliberately sequenced and labeled so it reads on its own. Clear why each piece earned its place.	Organized and labeled well enough to follow with light explanation.	Unlabeled or unordered — a pile of artifacts rather than a portfolio.	No organization; you can't find things when asked.
OwnershipCan you account for it	Explain any piece unprompted — what it is, your exact role, what you'd do differently. Distinguish your contribution from the team's without overclaiming.	Explain what each artifact is and what you did on it.	Struggle to explain items, or overstate your role.	Can't explain the contents.
ProfessionalismPermission & discretion	Permission clearly obtained, confidential material properly handled or excluded, clean enough to hand an employer as-is.	Nothing confidential; permission obtained for photos; neat presentation.	Sloppy presentation, or unclear whether permission was obtained.	Includes confidential or identifying information that shouldn't be there.

What a 3 actually looks like — because "meets" is the target

Four or five artifacts that genuinely came from your placement, showing at least two kinds of work, each labeled with a line explaining what it is, arranged in an order that makes sense, and you can talk about all of them. That is a 3, and a 3 is a good grade in this course. The 4s go to students who show growth over time and curate deliberately — not to students who simply brought more stuff.

The one rule with no flexibility: confidentiality

Patient names or health information. Client financials. Student records. Anything covered by a non-disclosure agreement or a privacy law. Anything with someone else's personal information visible in the background of a photo.

None of it goes in your portfolio. Not blurred, not "just the one page," not "nobody will recognize them."
Including confidential material is an automatic 1 on Professionalism, and the artifact is removed before the event.
When you're unsure, the answer is always the same: ask your supervisor first. Nobody has ever gotten in trouble for asking.
You can almost always document the work without the data — a blank version of the form, a screenshot with fields emptied, a photo of your hands and the equipment instead of the screen.

Artifact Ideas by Career Cluster

These are ideas, not requirements — nothing on this page is a checklist. Find your cluster, read the list, and let it prompt you toward what your specific placement produces. If something great isn't listed here, bring it. And read a cluster or two that isn't yours; some of the best ideas transfer.

Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources

Artifacts that work well

A photo series of a routine you owned — feeding, planting, animal care, equipment checks — shot the same way over several weeks so the progression is visible
Logs and records you actually kept — growth records, feed schedules, temperature or moisture logs, maintenance sheets
Calculations you produced — feed rations, fertilizer or seed rates, yield estimates, cost per unit
Before and after of a physical project — a repaired fence, a cleaned enclosure, a planted bed, a rebuilt piece of equipment
A short video of you performing a technical task — often more convincing than any photo
Certifications or safety training completed on site

Strongest move for this clusterThe same shot on week 2 and week 14. Physical, outdoor work changes visibly over a semester, and almost nobody thinks to document it early.

Arts & Communication

Artifacts that work well

Published work — an article, social post, poster, program, flyer, or broadcast segment that actually went out, with the date it ran
The brief and your response to it — what the client or supervisor asked for next to what you delivered. This shows you can work to a spec, which is most of the job
Revision history — version 1, the feedback, and the final. The strongest artifact in this cluster is almost always your worst draft next to your best
Audio or video you shot, edited, or produced — with your role stated clearly, since most media work is collaborative
Design files or printed proofs with your markup visible
Analytics or reach numbers if your work was published somewhere measurable

Strongest move for this clusterBe precise about your role. "I edited this 4-minute segment; the shooting was our videographer's" reads as more professional than implying you did everything, and adults notice.

Finance & Business Services

Artifacts that work well

A spreadsheet or tracker you built — with real numbers replaced by sample data. The structure is what you're showing, not the figures
A process you documented so someone else could do it — a written procedure, a checklist, a training sheet. This is genuinely valuable work and students undervalue it
Customer-facing material you wrote — an email template, a scripted phone response, a FAQ, signage
A workflow you improved — the old way, the new way, and why. Even a small one
A summary or report you produced for someone who had to make a decision from it
Photos of you doing the actual job — at the counter, in a meeting, at the register. Office work photographs poorly, which is exactly why it stands out when you bother

Strongest move for this clusterAnonymize and bring the real thing anyway. A blank version of the form you filled out 200 times tells the story better than describing it.

Health Sciences & Technology

Artifacts that work well

Room, tray, or lab setup you performed — photograph the prepared space, never a patient or a chart
A checklist or protocol you followed daily, ideally with the refinements you made to it
Patient- or client-education material you helped prepare — blank handouts, aftercare instructions, signage
A written account of a procedure you observed — what happened, what surprised you, what you'd need to learn to do it. This is the honest portfolio answer for placements where you legitimately cannot document anything
Certifications, trainings, or clearances earned on site — CPR, HIPAA training, equipment sign-offs
Supply, inventory, or sterilization logs you maintained

Strongest move for this clusterYour constraint is real: privacy law will block most of what you'd want to show. Lead with what you can document — setup, protocols, your own written observations — and say plainly at your station why there are no patient-facing artifacts. Handling that limit professionally is itself evidence of health-care judgment.

Human & Public Services

Artifacts that work well

A lesson, activity, or session you planned and ran — the plan itself, plus what you'd change
Materials you made for the people you served — worksheets, visual aids, flyers, signage, schedules
Event or program documentation — photos of a program you supported, with permission and no identifiable minors
A written observation of a hard moment and how the adults around you handled it. In this cluster, judgment is the skill, and this is how you show it
Feedback from someone you worked with — a supervising teacher, a coach, a coordinator — in writing
Blank versions of intake, attendance, or tracking forms you used

Strongest move for this clusterPhotograph the room, the materials, and the setup — not the people. Permission for images of children or clients is usually a firm no, and the work is still very visible without them.

Information Technology

Artifacts that work well

Code, scripts, or automations you wrote — printed with comments, or on a laptop you can scroll through at your station
A ticket log — problems that came in, what you diagnosed, what fixed it. This is the clearest possible evidence of independent problem-solving
Before and after screenshots of something you configured, cleaned up, or repaired
A network, system, or wiring diagram you drew or updated
A build or imaging process you documented step by step
Hardware you assembled or repaired — bring it if you can, photograph it if you can't

Strongest move for this clusterBring a device and show the work live — but also print two or three pages. Wi-Fi in a lobby fails, batteries die, and a portfolio that only exists on a screen can vanish ten minutes before doors open.

Manufacturing, Engineering & Trades

Artifacts that work well

A part you made. Bring the actual object if you're allowed — nothing on any table beats a physical thing you produced
Prints or CAD drawings you worked from or created, with your revisions marked
Quality measurements you recorded — tolerance checks, inspection sheets, test results
A build documented in three stages — start, middle, finished. Trades work photographs better than almost anything else in this program; use that
Your first attempt next to your best attempt at the same operation. This is the single most persuasive artifact in this cluster
Machines or tools you were cleared to operate, and any safety certification earned

Strongest move for this clusterThe first weld next to the twentieth weld. Nobody who sees that needs you to explain what you learned.

Enterprise If you run your own business or work for Bulldog Media

Everything above applies, with one addition: bring evidence that someone outside of school valued your work. A paid invoice, a client message approving a deliverable, a signed agreement, sales or engagement numbers, a repeat customer. For Bulldog Media, the finished broadcast or graphic plus the production timeline you worked to. Your portfolio has an advantage over the placement students' — you have outcomes, not just tasks — so lead with those.

What Doesn't Count

These show up every year. None of them are evidence of your work, and a portfolio built mostly out of them scores a 2.

The syllabus, your timesheet, or blank course handouts. These prove you were enrolled, not that you worked.
A photo of the building or the company sign. That's evidence the business exists.
The company's own brochures or marketing. Someone else made those.
A generic "what I learned" paragraph with no artifact attached to it.
Anything you can't explain. If you can't say what it is and what you did on it, leave it home — a guest will ask, and it will cost you on Ownership.
Anything confidential. See above. This is the one that has consequences beyond your grade.

Your resume, elevator pitch video, and pre/post skills assessment are the exception — those are course products, but they belong at your station because guests genuinely want them. Just don't let them be the portfolio.

If your placement makes documentation genuinely hard

Some of you will land somewhere that says no to photos, no to copies, no to bringing anything home. That is a real situation, not an excuse, and it is solvable if you raise it in October instead of December. Tell your teacher early and we'll build an alternative — usually your own written documentation of processes and observations, a supervisor-verified description of your responsibilities, and artifacts you recreate yourself from scratch. What we cannot fix is finding out about it the week of the capstone.