Underground Greens 2024 Project

      Bottom line? I created this ePortfolio as part of my thesis for my MS Information Design and Technology program at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. I was looking for a way to provide evidence of all of my personal, professional, and academic work and share my story in an entertaining and effective way, and creating a professional ePortfolio fit the bill! Keep scrolling to check out examples of my artifacts, presented as projects or click on the project section. I plan to post a reflection about creating this ePortfolio, but I'm not done reflecting yet! I still have tons of projects and reflections to add to this site, so keep checking back for new project posts!

     Current expectations in the academic and professional world require that students and professionals present themselves as more than the culmination of the traditional indicators that signal a path to a successful career; those expectations now require a holistic-illustration of skills, intention, critical thinking, and the ability to create and share knowledge in the most effective way possible.  I am creating this professional ePortfolio to meet those expectations.

    While there are multiple types of ePortfolios, my goal is to create a professional ePortfolio, which has been defined as “a living website that displays a student’s skills or experiences through the presentation of artifacts (i.e., specific examples of learning and/or experiences), and through reflective statements that communicate to an audience outside of the university how the artifacts support professional goals”, while utilizing the framework of “Professional Identity: Combining development and learning theories, professional identity can be described as how we perceive ourselves, occupation, and career, along with explaining “self” to others (Meizrow, 2000; Wegner, 1998)” (Cordie et al., p.18).   

     I'm a small farm owner, a food security advocate, and, in May of 2022, I graduated with a 4.0 GPA from the MS Information Design and Technology Program at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, along with multiple transcripts and degrees in different disciplines from Davis & Elkins College (Theater), SUNY Morrisville College (Agriculture AAS: 3.62 GPA), Mohawk Valley Community College (Business AAS: 4.0 GPA), and SUNY Polytechnic Institute (Interdisciplinary Studies BA: 3.95 GPA). So, with such a complex background, how do I explain my value to future employers, potential investors, or farm clients? 

   The problem is that I can't fit all that personal, professional, and academic experience into a resume to accurately describe my journey, my successes, my failures, my professional identity, my experiences, my story, my narrative, or my current goals.  More importantly, there's no place on a resume to reflect in writing about how all of those experiences affected me...how I learned or changed or grew.  So, for now, I am going to be embrace the task of creating a professional ePortfolio, in an attempt to clearly communicate my professional identity.

   My goal is to write, create, design, publish, and maintain my own digital narrative on this living website that describes my personal, professional, and academic journey through the development of this professional ePortfolio. The idea of a living website is that it can be updated as often as necessary to keep my reflections current.

   Through projects posted as digital artifacts and my own reflections, I hope to build my digital, professional identity/brand, document academic achievements, and illustrate the connections between coursework and my professional endeavors, especially in light of the fact that my academic and professional experiences span decades and disciplines. I believe creating this professional ePortfolio will serve my professional goals of building a successful farm business, satisfy my personal goals of becoming a better food security advocate, and help to secure a position in teaching in the future.