Portfolios for learning and more brought to you by the Mahara team at Catalyst IT. Host Kristina Hoeppner talks with portfolio practitioners, researchers, learning designers, students, and others about their portfolio story.
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Starlight (José) Lain-Straus is an Education Studies bachelor student at Dominican University of California. He's also a peer mentor, supporting students when they join Dominican.
In this episode, Starlight shares how the portfolio has helped them to see all their accomplishments since joining Dominican and how it became impactful for their further education.
This episode is the second of five interviews with portfolio authors from Dominican University of California whom I was privileged to meet in preparation for and during the first AAEEBL ePortfolio Retreat that was held at Dominican on 18 October 2024.
Production information Production: Catalyst IT Host: Kristina Hoeppner Artwork: Evonne Cheung Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward
Introduction
When were you introduced to portfolios?
What does your role as peer mentor entail?
Why do you continue updating your portfolio?
What are the benefits of creating a portfolio?
Q&A: 3 words to describe portfolio work
Q&A: A tip for learning designers and educators
Q&A: A tip for portfolio authors
Kristina Hoeppner:
Welcome to'Create. Share. Engage.' This is the podcast about portfolios for learning and more for educators, learning designers, and managers keen on integrating portfolios with their education and professional development practices. 'Create. Share. Engage.' is brought to you by the Mahara team at Catalyst IT. My name is Kristina Hoeppner. Today I'm speaking with Starlight (José) Lain-Straus. Starlight is a student at Dominican University of California, so their interview is part of the mini series with students from Dominican and how they use portfolios. This is the second interview, and you can listen to the previous one with Solena Ornelas in our back catalogue. Christina Mayes, the manager of the Fletcher Jones Digital Portfolio Lab at Dominican and co-organiser of the first AAEEBL ePortfolio Retreat, suggested we have a chat. So here we are. It's nice meeting you, Starlight.
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Nice to meet you too, Kristina.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Starlight, can you please tell me a bit about yourself? What do you study?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
I am a junior at Dominican University of California. I'm an Education Studies major with a minor in Community Action and Social Change, as well as I am a peer mentor here on campus, a student athlete on the men's cross country and track team, and I'm as well PRIDE Club's president.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Starlight, why did you pick Dominican University of California?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Since being in a small private school with 15 students, 14 students in the classroom, it was useful for me to have that one-to-one teacher connection, and that's what I was exploring throughout my colleges, throughout my junior year, is finding a college where it was small, but close knit. Over the summer, we went on multiple trips of east coast, west coast, central coast, and I settled on Dominican through cross country. I wanted to continue my running career as well as I was looking for a small liberal arts college where I could feel at home, where I could get really good support, and I found that through Dominican. I explored it for several months. We were supposed to come to Dominican in January of 2022, but our visit day was cancelled because of COVID because it was still going around during that time. So we just did a virtual visit day that they had, and right after that, I saw myself at Dominican, and I committed that day. And then in March, we went to visit the College, me and my father, Kim, and we explored it, we took a campus tour, I met the cross country and track team, and it felt right to me. It felt like at home, I could see myself on campus walking around. I think that's a big aspect of what my college experience was, is walking on campus and picturing myself, 'Do I see myself there?' and I saw myself on Dominican.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Today, our conversation is not about your student athlete activity so much, but rather the portfolio that you have created and that you're working on. When did you create that? Or did you already have a different one before that?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
I never really had a digital portfolio until coming to Dominican and being an education major, automatically, our first requirement in our programme and throughout our programme here is we have to have a digital portfolio. So right when I was in my 'Intro to teaching' class with Kathy Ferrando, we learned how to create a digital portfolio, and we started off by creating it, so I got right into it automatically.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Did you also take 'Navigating college' then that course that is offered to all incoming students?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Yes, I did take 'Navigating college'. I think in that class, I had a lot more experience with the digital portfolio realm just because of my education classes requiring me to have a more sophisticated portfolio. So I had a little bit of leverage on that.
Kristina Hoeppner:
So you've been creating pretty much two portfolios from the start of your college experience then. Which one do you keep up with? Or is it both of them?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
I keep up with the one that I use for education. I'm always updating it, which is weird to say sometimes, just because not many people work on it, but I'm always constantly going through it when I have the time just to be like, 'Oh, this needs changing up. This needs adding something in to make it more centred to who I am as a Dominican student.'
Kristina Hoeppner:
Is that your public portfolio or is that a separate one?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
That is my public portfolio.
Kristina Hoeppner:
That's also the one that we are going to link to so that everybody can take a look at it themselves. You're a peer mentor at Dominican. What does that role entail for you?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
As a peer mentor, I'm in a leadership role where I'm reaching out to a group of mentees that I have that are incoming freshmen or transfers, and I'm basically their support throughout the whole year of their experience at Dominican, as well as going forward until I graduate. We schedule check-ins with them during the midterm weeks to see how they're feeling and figuring out any ways that I as a peer mentor can support them more, and I think that's very important.
Kristina Hoeppner:
How do you support these students then? Do you have regular office hours with them?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
I have a Google Calendar set up that is also linked into my digital portfolio. A few weeks ago, I sent out a text to my specific group of mentees and said, 'Hey all, if you can schedule a one-on-one meeting with me, please. It'll be brief, it's not going to be long. I just want to check in to see how you're doing, and how I can support you.' Through those two weeks, I met with almost everyone on my list, and for me, that was way different than last year's experience because I am in a co-facilitating role in th'Navigating college' class, whereas last year, I was more on the digital portfolio side, which is not as much as the interactions with students part, it's more asynchronous feedback, which is very useful for students to get. But taking on this new role this semester as a'Navigating college' peer mentor, it has given me a lot of experience with working with college students as a education major, so I have that aspect.
Kristina Hoeppner:
So you've been a peer mentor portfolio last year, and now you're a peer mentor without the specific focus on portfolio. If you think back about your experience as peer mentor portfolio, how did you help other students? Was it primarily through that asynchronous feedback that you gave them on their portfolios?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
It was primarily through asynchronous feedback, unless someone scheduled a Zoom meeting with me, and then they'd share their portfolio with me, and I take a look at it, and I'd give them suggestions on what they could add that I think would benefit them as well as I gave them a lot of positive feedback. I think it's all about positive feedback. It's a lot of suggestions to help them create their portfolio and continue to expand it.
Kristina Hoeppner:
So you can even bring in some of your teaching experience in that engagement with his students.
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Yes.
Kristina Hoeppner:
So thinking back at the two portfolios that you've created, the one for'Navigating college' and then the one for your education class, and you also being an education major, therefore, in a way, I think needing to look behind the scenes of the portfolio to get the idea, the pedagogy around portfolios. Why do you continue updating your portfolio? Is that just a requirement for education? Or do you also see a bigger reason for yourself in that?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
It is a requirement to continuously be updating it, but also setting aside that requirement, for me, it's wanting to make my digital portfolio as personable and reflective of who I am as a student at Dominican, and going forward and showing people like my family, showing my friends, showing Christina Mayes, in particular, who I am, what experience I have, where are the aspects that I can improve on and continue on throughout my career here at Dominican.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Did you receive any feedback from your family once they've looked at your portfolio?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
From my family, I received a lot of feedback because I am not the strongest writer. So of course, there was always writing mistakes, and my two dads, Kim and Jack, they helped me improve that they gave me suggestions,'Oh, I like this. Maybe you can add something here to make it more personable.' My friends, they didn't give as much feedback. They were just there to look at it and give me suggestions, 'Maybe this could be tweaked, or I like this,' but not as much as my family did.
Kristina Hoeppner:
You're now in your third year of keeping your portfolio. How has your portfolio changed over time?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
It's changed really drastically. I didn't have as much leadership experience two years ago as a freshman, and now looking at my digital portfolio in my junior year, I'm like, 'Oh, I'm now on PRIDE, I'm on PSAAC, I'm on ASDU, I'm a peer mentor.' Those are some things that are on my digital portfolio now that if I look back, I don't think that would ever happen. I've done a lot since coming on to campus. I think that is my purpose for continuing to update my portfolio is to show people, showcase it to incoming freshmen or just anyone in general. This is my portfolio. No, it's not gonna look like yours. And that's something that we emphasise throughout my'Navigating college' class that I co-facilitate with is just because Princess and I have our digital portfolios and they look like that doesn't mean your first year it's going to look at the end of the year like ours. It's a work in progress, and it's always going to be a work in progress because you're always going to be wanting to update it, as well as making sure that you are adding things that are personable to you and getting feedback from just anyone, professors, friends.
Kristina Hoeppner:
So if you were to summarise the benefits of portfolios for the students, what would you say?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Impactful. I think it's very impactful just getting support from peer mentors, professors, friends, family. It's very impactful because it allows you to be and to showcase who you are as a student here at Dominican, who you are as a student outside of Dominican, and where you see yourself in four years, five years.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Do you think you'll keep up maintaining your portfolio and updating it?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
I think I will continue to update it, not as much as I'm doing here at Dominican, but definitely I'll be updating it.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Is there anything that you currently can do with your portfolio but would like to do?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
I don't think so. I like all the aspects, all the requirements. Some of them can be a little tricky, but after you think for a while, it becomes better.
Kristina Hoeppner:
So now to our quick answer questions, Starlight, which already indicates the end of our conversation today. And so the first question is, which words or short phrases do you use to describe portfolio work?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Impactful, motivating, and useful.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Fantastic. Thank you. What tip do you have for learning designers, instructional designers, or also your instructors who create portfolio activities for students like you?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Positive feedback, impactful feedback will be helpful.
Kristina Hoeppner:
And now, what advice do you have for fellow students, for portfolio authors?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Be yourself when you create your portfolio. Make it to centralise who you are as a person in today's society, no matter what. Don't be afraid of hitting roadblocks when creating your digital portfolio. That always happens, and as a human, we always run into blocks in our road, but always continually just be yourself.
Kristina Hoeppner:
How would you overcome those roadblocks? Do you have some strategies?
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Reach out for help. Ask for help from family, friends, professors, mentors.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Thank you so much, Starlight, for sharing how you're working with portfolios. Thank you so much for your time.
Starlight Lain-Straus:
Thank you.
Kristina Hoeppner:
Now over to our listeners. What do you want to try in your own portfolio practice? This was 'Create. Share. Engage.' with Starlight Lain-Straus. Head to our website, podcast.mahara.org, where you can find resources and the transcript for this episode. This podcast is produced by Catalyst IT, and I'm your host, Kristina Hoeppner, Project Lead and Product Manager of the portfolio platform Mahara. Our next episode will air in two weeks, and it will be with another Dominican University of California student. So make sure you check out our mini series, which started with an interview with former student Solena Ornelas and will continue in two weeks time. I hope you'll listen again and tell a colleague about our podcast so they can subscribe. Until then, create, share, and engage.
