Internship Portfolio Guidelines

ESSP 394

Your Portfolio will contain evidence for your Core Learning Outcomes and for your Individual Learning Outcomes. This evidence will be used to assess the quality of your work using criteria stated in the Core Learning Outcomes ( and in your Student-Mentor Learning Agreement. You need to submit a portfolio to your mentor (do not include your journal in this portfolio) and an identical copy to me no later than 5:00 p.m. Wednesday 20 December (note: I will be keeping your portfolio so you should also make a copy for yourself). If I am not in my office (room S309), put your portfolio in the box labeled “Portfolios” outside my door.

Your portfolio needs to be well-organized (follow the order described below), bound (either stapled or in a binder), and easy to review (e.g. tabs that identify each section). Here is what you need to include in your portfolio:

  1. A cover letter addressed to your mentor summarizing what is contained in the portfolio and a personal statement thanking the agency and your mentor, describing how the internship helped in your academic and professional development, and anything else you would like to state.
  2. A copy of your signed Learning Agreement.
  3. Evidence that you produced for the Core Learning Outcomes:
  4. Evidence for Core Outcome #1 (Analyze the relationships between the work you are doing for the organization, the “big-picture” policy issues that drive the work of the organization, and the key stakeholders affected by the organization) is a 3 to 5 page paper that integrates your analysis of what you did for your internship with the mission and big picture/policy issues of the organization, and that includes the key stakeholders impacting or being impacted by the organization.
  5. Evidence for Core Outcome #2 (Analyze your career and work environment preferences, and your professional and personal goals in relation to your internship experience) is your journal. Please submit your journal just to me (i.e. do not include it in the portfolio you submit to your mentor) electronically as a Word file (just send me your latest journal entries since the last entries you sent me).
  6. Evidence for Core Outcome #3 (Demonstrate an internship code of conduct) includes your signed Performance Assessment (self and mentor assessment) prefaced by a written reflection about the discussion you had with your mentor.
  7. Evidence for Core Outcome #4 (Deliver a PowerPoint oral presentation that explains and illustrates the linkages between your internship activities and the organization’s mission, policies and stakeholders, and the insights gained from your internship experience) includes a printout of your PowerPoint slides from your oral internship presentation.
  8. Evidence that you produced to meet your Individual Learning Outcomes:
  9. Please preface each of your Individual Outcomes with a statement that creates a context and that provides the reader with a framework for the evidence. For example, you might have created a spreadsheet, performed a GIS analysis, developed a website, produced a guide, etc. to meet your outcome. Please include a preface page telling the reader why it was important to produce this evidence (i.e. create a context).
  10. Some of your evidence may be difficult to put into a portfolio (e.g. it may be in the form of a website, or a data base, or an oral presentation, etc.). In these cases put a sample in your portfolio along with a preface statement.
  11. If your evidence includes a “mentor signoff” of participation or demonstration (e.g. oral presentations, teaching, husbandry, etc.) please prepare a statement describing what you did (you should prepare this statement in collaboration with your mentor) and include a signature and date line for your mentor to sign. Have your mentor sign this statement before you include it in your Portfolio.