It’s a busy time for Marline Francois ’03, a double major in psychology and human development. Like most seniors, she is writing cover letters, compiling résumés, sending recommendations and sample work to prospective employers. Hassle? Not for Francois, an extensive user of the e-Portfolio, the online personal archive developed by the college’s Office of Career Enhancing Life Skills (CELS) two years ago.
The e-Portfolio, an online tool that allows students to keep a record of past academic, co-curricular, and professional achievements, is also intended to facilitate the process of job and internship applications. “It’s just a great way to organize yourself,” says Francois.
“It does the work for you. Instead of me constantly badgering my CELS counselor for help, it tells me step by step how to do everything. It has all the links to internships and job resources.”
Last summer, Francois received a $3,000 grant from CELS for an internship at Gray & Rice Public Relations at Boston. When she later had to prepare a report for her counselor and for prospective employers, she referred to her e-Portfolio. “I can go online and see all the progress I made in my eight-week internship over the summer. I see all my old notes on the projects I was working on. It makes doing your résumé really easy because you realize: Wow, I did all that stuff?”
Francois says prospective employers, to whom she has allowed access to her e-Portfolio, have found it extremely convenient. “They can go online, log on and view everything I have done. It’s less of a hassle for them. And you have control over the information you want them to see. It’s very secure and very safe.”
Francois, a Bronx, NY native, is currently working on her thesis, “Acculturation, Self-Esteem, and Body Image Among Women of African Descent,” under the instruction of Professor of Psychology Joan Chrisler. She hopes to find a job as a researcher upon graduation and eventually get her Master’s in social work.
Ranked among the most selective private liberal arts colleges in the nation, Connecticut College has an enrollment of approximately 1,850 men and women from 44 states, the District of Columbia, and 55 countries. The college is particularly known for interdisciplinary studies, innovative international programs, paid internships, and a wide range of student-faculty research opportunities. Founded in 1911, the college operates under an 80-year-old honor code and has no Greek system. The scenic 750-acre campus is managed as an arboretum and overlooks Long Island Sound. For more information, see www.conncoll.edu. Connecticut College is located at 270 Mohegan Ave., New London.
See the e-Portfolio demonstration. |
