Kristina Hoeppner: 0:05

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 Arturo Flores, Jr. Arturo is a student at Dominican University of California, where we are chatting in person. Arturo is one of the students to whom Christina Mayes, the Manager of the Fletcher Jones Digital Portfolio Lab introduced me. This interview is part of the Dominican mini series in which we are hearing from several students about their experience creating and maintaining portfolios. It is great to be talking with you today, Arturo.

Arturo Flores: 0:54

Thank you very much for having me.

Kristina Hoeppner: 0:55

Can you please tell me a little bit about yourself? What do you study?

Arturo Flores: 0:58

The past four years, I've been studying Psychology. Midst way of that I found a spark, an interest in history, and so I decided to add that on to Psychology. So now I'm a double major, and there's a deeper connection behind history and psychology in terms of how we are as a human race and why it is what we do, historical figures, landmarks, geological places, and they're all tied to history and psychology as well. So it's kind of what I do here in terms of studying and the faculty and staff and the size of the classes and everything in general is just so great[laughs], and it allowed me to expand my knowledge to a deeper level.

Kristina Hoeppner: 1:31

Why did you choose Dominican?

Arturo Flores: 1:33

Before attending Dominican, I heard about it. The outreach was very communicative, they've always called me certain times of the night. The student ambassadors, they've always reached out. They made me feel home. So compared to other universities and CSU's I got accepted to I didn't tour Dominican. I didn't know where it was at. I didn't know anything about the university.

Kristina Hoeppner: 1:50

Oh, wow, you really jumped in there.

Arturo Flores: 1:52

Yeah, I really. My parents didn't like it, but look at it now, looking at how many things I'm involved in and how the setting is here in both academically and naturally. It's a beautiful fit. It's a perfect family. That's kind of like our motto here. We're a small family. The classroom sizes, financial aid, all suited everything. And also it wasn't too far, not too close to home for me. It was a chance for me to allow me to be able to get away from home and try to figure out my true self, figure out what it is I want. I want to expand myself and everything I'm involved in, I feel like I did a very good job.

Kristina Hoeppner: 2:22

You're doing a good job advertising Dominican University [both laugh]. You are also a student ambassador.

Arturo Flores: 2:27

Yes, exactly. It's funny because that's what got me to come to Dominican, and now I'm putting myself in the shoes that got me here and do the same thing.

Kristina Hoeppner: 2:34

Yeah, so the ambassadors that you had talked to have done a fantastic job because they got you here on campus.

Arturo Flores: 2:40

Yes, exactly.

Kristina Hoeppner: 2:41

Before we started recording, you were telling me about all your on campus jobs. So what are those?

Arturo Flores: 2:46

The first one, as briefly mentioned, the student ambassador. And so I do outreach. I talk to prospective students. I work with Campus Visit Days. Pretty much my main goal is the student aspect of the admissions counsellors. We want to relate more to students in terms of the process of transitioning from high school to college, either that's a very scary time for most students, and so we want to ease that process, give tours, call prospective students. That's a list of the student ambassador aspect. Overall, it's a fun experience here, adds on to my experience at Dominican as well because as I walk campus I see a lot of people go, 'Oh, I gave you a tour.' It's like a lot of connection building and conversation starters. They tell me, like, if it wasn't for me giving them a tour, then they probably wouldn't have attended Dominican. And so it puts a smile on my face and allows me to build the culture here at Dominican. That's one of the jobs I do. The other one I have and am involved in is the Rec Sports Basketball Club. So here at Dominican, we have a variety of club athletic sports or recreational sports, I should say. And I'm specifically in charge of basketball. How I came about that? Freshman year - it's a new setting, new environment, I didn't know anybody, I didn't know how to fit in, but I saw Rec Basketball was my go to. When growing up, I played in high school. And growing up in general, I played sports throughout, and basketball, I've seen that. So I just showed up consistently for my first two years, and then eventually my junior year when the previous guy in charge was graduating, so he needed a replacement., and he'd seen I was constantly there that opened a new door for me for opportunity, and I got a position. And to this day, I still try to continue on a path to help get first years involved in how to find their own space. Pretty much to getting paid to play sports. So it's kind of like my dream, in a way, not the way I wanted to go out, but it's an experience. And so that's how Rec Basketball came about. It opened my name to get out there in terms of the athletic department, so again, created a new window of opportunity for me. Another thing is the peer mentoring. There's a deep story behind that too. I briefly describe it. College kind of took a toll on me in the first year, and I felt a little lost. One of my previous art teachers noticed it physically and reported me to Naomi. Once I got appointed to Naomi, she then allowed me to get adjusted with both academics, clubs, resources, pretty much everything I didn't know about Dominican, and allowed me to strive and become more positive and be more active on campus, leading to my positions in both ambassadors and rec basketball. Later on, she suggested I take the mentoring class, and ever since then, that's my second year, and so I've been also, not only recruiting first year Dominican students, but also once they get into Dominican, I'm able to continue that mentoring stage. It also contributes to my major in psychology because it's inspired me what I want to do in terms of mentoring or counselling. That's a direct way to help students. And so that's how I got involved in the peer mentoring. That's pretty much my story here at Dominican.

Kristina Hoeppner: 5:20

That's awesome, Arturo, that you can work on campus and then also bring the skills in that you're studying and that you're learning in all of your classes. We'll be focusing a bit more on that peer mentoring side and your portfolio. Before I forget, you did mention that there was a class for peer mentors?

Arturo Flores: 5:36

Yeah.

Kristina Hoeppner: 5:37

How does that work?

Arturo Flores: 5:38

It's usually a one unit class, and usually how the one units work here, it's either a very late Friday and a very long Saturday, and then after that, that weekend, you're done. Pretty much the layout is when Naomi, she's usually in charge of class, and she usually has a lot of different integrative coaches come in and talk about what it is like to be a peer mentor and how it is to work with integrative coaches. Christina came in and gave us a segment on digital portfolios because, as peer mentors, there's a handful that work specifically with her with digital portfolios, and the rest work with everybody else.

Kristina Hoeppner: 6:05

Are you one of those portfolio peer mentors?

Arturo Flores: 6:07

I am not, but I have worked a lot with Christina, too. We also had Stacy Poe, she's in charge of the diversity, equity, inclusion come in, and pretty much all the integrative coaches came in and had a little segment teaching us what it's like to be a part of the Student Success Center. And after that class, they conducted an interview, seeing if we were wanting to continue or actually want to go through with being a peer mentor. And after the interview, you'd be notified if you got it or not, and that's easy the basic layout and how the process to being a peer mentor came across. You just take a simple one year class, do the project where you mentor, very hands on; a lot of communication because as being a mentor and a mentee, you have to communicate one on one. You go through the various possible pros and cons throughout college. You know things about room mate situations, class situations, usually encounters that first year students usually come across. That's what we emphasised on in the class.

Kristina Hoeppner: 6:57

How did you get involved in creating your portfolio or when did you create your first portfolio?

Arturo Flores: 7:04

I would like to recall it goes back to my first year. There is an English class that we take here at Dominican. I believe it was 'Effective communication'. And a part of that, there was a separate project where we had to create a portfolio. With that,I can't remember exactly the topic of the project, but I just remember the basis of creating a digital website. Initially, I did it for the project, but then once I got more into the peer mentoring side, found out that it goes deeper than that, and Christina helped me expand it more and make it more about me. It's a great reflection of myself, and not just me, but for anybody who opens to do it. Initially, it started off for a class project, but then it expanded way more, and now it's great tool to represent myself for people who don't know me.

Kristina Hoeppner: 7:45

Is that also why you're keeping up with it, that you have that window for other people to see some of you online before they meet you?

Arturo Flores: 7:52

Yes, not only that, for people to get an idea of who I am, but it also allows me to keep up with what I have done myself. I kind of use it as a reference tool. I needed to update it recently just because a lot's been going on. Whenever I do go over it and I review it, it's like a trip down memory lane. Just because it's midway of senior year, just looking back at the courses I've taken, there's a lot of stuff that I tend to forget. Looking at my digital portfolio, it was just a great trip down memory lane. And then also it gives like a perspective when people who may not know me personally or may not know of me, they look at that like it's a great representation of my accomplishments, personality. When I present my digital portfolio, a theme that comes across as vulnerability. Me being able to express myself, and that theme that come across on a digital portfolio just means I'm doing the right thing.

Kristina Hoeppner: 8:35

How did you come up with the structure of your portfolio?

Arturo Flores: 8:38

Initially, I've struggled creating it, but thanks to Christina Mayes and everybody she works with in the digital portfolio aspect, we have sample portfolios in terms of overall on how you would initially want to lay it out, but then I ended up finding out in terms of my majors, there are previous DU students who have graduated and already did their portfolio for the past four years. I looked at theirs to get an idea and how I want to set up my portfolio. It allowed me to not really take their ideas, but use it and put my own spiel on it. That's how I was able to format my digital portfolio. But then also, when I did one on ones with Christina Mayes about my digital portfolio, we just went over it and was able to put things together. She helped me add a couple things, revise a couple things. We pretty much have guidelines and pointers to where it is, how to format it, whether it's previous students, whether it's some questions to think about, some topics you can take, and put your own spill on it. That's how I came about in terms of organising my digital portfolio.

Kristina Hoeppner: 9:36

How often do you update it?

Arturo Flores: 9:37

I was actually going to update it this weekend, just with senior projects this year, I've been so busy. A couple of times a semester, at least, just because at the end of every semester, what I personally like to do is just update my classes, so the classes I take each semester, and then also add in some new internships I'm doing, some new projects that I've done in the past year since the last time I updated. Because there's always a lot of things happening each semester.

Kristina Hoeppner: 9:58

Do you think you'll keep up with the portfolio?

Arturo Flores: 10:00

Yes, I feel like it would be a necessity just because after I graduate here, my goal is to eventually go to grad school, and my digital portfolio would be a great addition to my résumé or what I've done in undergrad. At the moment, my thought is to take a gap year. I feel like that'll give me time to build up and more things to add to my portfolio and allow me get more experience in terms of what it is I want to go study for grad school, whether it is for work, either is on a good team, and then those experience could be very beneficial that keep adding on to my digital portfolio. The portfolio, it's going to be a reminder for here. My goal is to when I graduate is working in school settings, and maybe spread that knowledge into the future generations of what it is I will be working with.

Kristina Hoeppner: 10:37

Where do you then see the benefits for students to create their portfolios?

Arturo Flores: 10:42

Honestly, it's very beneficial. It's a way for students to express themselves. Like I mentioned earlier, the term vulnerability. I felt like I was very vulnerable. But then also some other peer mentors and some other students, there's always some sort of deeper connection and some motivation on why it is what we do. I was able to get an understanding of the person based off in a digital portfolio. I'd say it's very important to have one, and just because it allows you to express some successes, some roadblocks, but overall, it's the digital expression of yourself.

Kristina Hoeppner: 11:10

With so many students here at Dominican creating portfolios, can you discover those portfolios of other students?

Arturo Flores: 11:16

Yeah, I believe we have a specific thing.'Navigating college' is one of them, which is part of the peer mentoring aspect. So pretty much all the integrative coaches have a 'Navigating college' course. So there's specific segments in which the peer mentors and the integrative coaches create a spreadsheet for the first year students and also for previous students.

Kristina Hoeppner: 11:35

Nice. What would you like to be able to do with portfolios that you currently can't, Arturo?

Arturo Flores: 11:40

If I were to summarise it so far, in terms of my experience, I feel like there's already a lot to do. There's no limitations in terms of digital portfolios just because there's no limitations to us. We're the ones creating it as individuals, we know ourselves more than anybody else does. So I feel like if I want to do anything, I just want to keep updating it, just because everything happens so fast. I think here at Dominican, the tools and sources for digital portfolios are just one click and one message away. What I would like to see with digital portfolios is to make it more known campus wide. Awareness, I would say. Other than that, I think the services here are great. It's easy to find it, easy to know how to format it, especially when it comes to certain majors, when it comes to certain questions, it's all there. If I were to add on to digital portfolios, it'd just be awareness, making people aware how impactful it can be later on.

Kristina Hoeppner: 12:30

Is that then awareness amongst other instructors so they incorporate some more reflective activities into your courses?

Arturo Flores: 12:38

Usually,'Navigating college' is easy, where they put the main emphasis on digital portfolios. I know some English classes also do it. I've also created a Google site or a portfolio for an eco psychology project where I looked at a certain topic and I created certain tabs, put information based on it, too. So I actually - back to earlier the personal portfolios - I actually do have a couple. Although I put in an emphasis, even if it's not like a mandatory assignment or subject, at least a suggestion.

Kristina Hoeppner: 13:04

Yeah because the portfolio everywhere is then also not good and needs to be a bit targeted...

Arturo Flores: 13:08

Yes.

Kristina Hoeppner: 13:09

... what we use it for. We are already coming to our last three quick answer round questions, Arturo. Time has flown by...

Arturo Flores: 13:15

Yes it has.

Kristina Hoeppner: 13:16

... and so the first one is, which words or short phrases do you use to describe portfolio work, either to yourself or to your family maybe even who might not have seen something like that or to your friends or even to one of your prospective Dominican students?

Arturo Flores: 13:32

It's funny you mention prospective students because every time I give a tour, I come through here, and I describe what it is a digital portfolio. I would say couple phrases. I would emphasise 'you' as an individual, the person I'm talking to because it literally is pretty much like a reflection of you. Whether it's personally, whether it's academically, it's a highlight of what you have done. 'Highlight' would probably be the next word. So 'you','highlight', then also probably'job' in the sense of with you and highlighting the things you've done, it's a job to put that on there, all in there.'Recognition' could be another one. So it's centring on the individual.

Kristina Hoeppner: 14:06

Thank you. What tip do you have for educators, be that the instructors that you're having or learning designers or educational designers, what tip do you have for them when they are creating portfolio activities?

Arturo Flores: 14:19

I would say to understand the students because all students are different. We all come from different backgrounds. The. diversity in terms of this new generation or pretty much the new wave of students every year is very diverse. And so I would say that portfolios and how an instructor should probably approach it is to understand the student first. Initially, when I first introduced my portfolio to Christina, she was a little confused, and there's a couple of things that we had to tweak a little bit and stuff like that. But when I explained why I added it and allowed her to create a sense of who I am as a person other than just the guy you see walking in at the library and do classes and etc., it goes beyond just a portfolio. It goes more into finding out what it is the student wants, how the student is, and how to express that digitally with such minimum content. And so my main suggestion is, as a professor is introducing the project or doing a one-on-one, like me and Christina has, get a feel of what it is they want. As they're talking about the project or instructing it, just relate to the student, from my experience. It was a lot of tweaks of some information in here and there. Overall, I think how I felt after my experience was I felt heard. I feel like a lot of students feel that's what they need to feel in order to express themselves and actually feel passionate about wanting to continue to update the digital portfolio, not just because you're with a one-on-one with the instructor, but also just because of the connection. As I'm editing my digital portfolio, I think of that experience with the instructor, just because it's a higher up faculty in college, it's rare to have that one on one connection like we do here at Dominican. I bragging about Dominican, but if students feel connected with their professor, it just shows us that they truly care. And so I feel like that would be a neat success.

Kristina Hoeppner: 15:56

And now on the other side, what advice do you have for portfolio authors or your fellow students?

Arturo Flores: 16:01

Continue to update it, even if it's little by little, it doesn't have to be done right away, because again, once you first start it, it's going to continue with you for your next four years. Even if you don't feel like it, do it. That goes with everything. But also, digital portfolios are definitely something a reflective tool that can be beneficial for either as you're getting close to walking the stage and then even as you're doing those walking going up to the big moment. So continue to update it. Continue to add on all your successes, big or little. It's a great reflection tool, and it allows you to think deeper than what you expect.

Kristina Hoeppner: 16:32

Thank you so much for sharing these tips, Arturo, and also telling me a little bit about your journey along the way here at Dominican, giving us the whole sales pitch. So I hope at least one person will consider Dominican after having heard you here because at least so far, what I've seen of the environment and the surrounding it's a fabulous place to be studying and having the experiences also on that small campus that you're having here. So thank you.

Arturo Flores: 16:57

Of course.

Kristina Hoeppner: 16:59

Now over to our listeners. What do you want to try in your own portfolio practice? This was 'Create. Share. Engage.' with Arturo Flores, Jr. 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 will be the last one in this mini series with students and staff from Dominican University of California. I hope you'll listen again and tell a colleague about our podcast so they can subscribe. Until then, create, share, and engage.