Hello all!
So this upcoming week I am preparing for my final portfolio review of my time here at UAT. What is a portfolio review you ask? Throughout your time here at UAT you will have accumulated a large amount of projects, documents, and pieces of work that can be applied to your portfolio. If you're aren't familiar with a portfolio, it is an assortment of work that you have done that show your skills and abilities. A portfolio can be done for every degree that UAT offers. Even a Network Security student can display the documentation that went into the projects that they worked on. While on all of these projects you have gained skills or got to experience working with other people.
So what is a portfolio review? It is a presentation that you do in front of subject matter experts to show off what is on your portfolio to get their opinion of your work. This is sometimes and mostly done when artist’s go in for a job interview. Before the interview the employer will review the portfolio to consider the applicant for the position. Sometimes reviews are done by colleagues. This is very much like at the UAT Tech Trek events where we invite industry professionals to UAT to speak with students and sit with them one on one to give them helpful advice and tips to better their portfolio after looking at it. Here at UAT our final portfolio reviews are presented in front of subject matter experts. These experts are usually the professors of the degree. For instance, I am a Game Art and Animation student, therefore my professors would be Professor Understiller, or Professor Portillo. There will be two of the degree specific professors in the review to grade the content as well as one or 2 general education professors to grade based on presentation skills.
So what exactly are they grading? Each one of UAT’s degrees have 6 objectives in which the student must show skills in by the time they graduate. Think of it as, when you graduate, having work for these objectives shows you’ve learned everything you need to learn in your degree. Now each of these objectives are specific and unique to each degree. As a Game Art student my objectives greatly differ to those of a Network security major. Each class that you take here at UAT is created with the intent to fulfill one or two of the objectives. This means that in every class that you have here at UAT you will be able to have a portfolio piece. At the end of your career here at UAT you should have a bunch of finals, midterms, assignments, and out of class work that can qualify for your portfolio.
To give you an example, my first objective as a Game Art student is to show that you know and have skills in basic drawing. This means understanding line, value, stroke, color, and all that stuff. For this objective I have 4 or 5 projects that really show my skill in this. The 2 projects that I am highlighting are my concept art class final and my digital illustration final. Both of which you can see above and below or see on my website here.
Portfolio review is one of the graduation requirements for UAT. It’s not something you should stress about if you are a diligent, and hardworking student. It takes place during your last Student Innovation Project class. In this class we’ve spent the last 9 weeks preparing for this presentation and the professor has given every student individual feedback and has sat with each and every one of us to ensure that our portfolios are looking good and ready to pass the review. Of course our professor for this class won’t be sitting in on the presentation for grading but they are there every step of the way.
After this I am on my way to the Student Innovation Project Fair which is a presentation of my Innovation Project, UAT’s second graduation requirement. This is something a lot of interested students have questions about so I encourage you to stay tuned because I’ll be doing a blog, very similar to this one, on the SIP fair.
That’s all for today!
Karina
