An employer receives an application. In many work places, the first stage for screening the candidate is a quick Google search.

Ryan Hoover, professor of English Writing and Rhetroric, ENGW, realized this growing trend and wanted to help students at  St. Edward’s University transition into life after education. 

In 2011, Hoover and other ENGW professors put together a specialized portfolio site powered by WordPress and transitioned from the traditional paper portfolio required for graduation to an electronic one. 

SEU Folios is now a hub of writing students portfolios, but faculty from other majors are starting to show interest. This semester the Religious Studies department adopted SEU Folios. Other majors may implement it into its curriculum for next semester.

“It’s a great program because when people Google your name, SEU Folios is one of the first things to pop up,” senior ENGW major Whitney McCaskill said. “You can have all of your academic work in one organized place for employers to see.”

Hoover believes that this program is more beneficial than other professional social networking sites like LinkedIn.

 “It is a presence that you control,” said Hoover.

Students cannot modify the appearance of other networking sites to the extent of SEU Folios. Hoover said there is no limit to the content or appearance of the portfolio.

“It creates a beautiful image of who the student is,” Hoover said.

Currently, St. Edward’s owns the copyrights for the technology, but it is working out a deal to sell the program to other universities. The National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education has offered to promote the profile system. Sam Houston State University has already shown interest in implementing the portfolio system in classrooms.

Hoover’s original goal was to give students an online presence that could be used for academic and outside purposes. Now, students are using SEU Folios in ways he never anticipated. 

Sophomore Willa Goldberg is using her portfolio to document her study abroad experience in Durban, South Africa. McCaskill used the coding skills she learned and the organization of her work to get the rights for her own website.

English Writing and Rhetoric students create their profiles sophomore year in document design. Students are encouraged to put their best piece of work from every ENGW class into their portfolio. Students culminate their two-year project in a career preparation course. Along the way, classes such as Technical and Business Communication have requirements for the portfolio in their curriculum.

“The portfolios give students a change to assemble their work strategically,” ENGW professor Moriah McCracken said. “It certainly wasn’t the way it was when I was an English major and everything was in a filing cabinet, but the world doesn’t work that way anymore.”