Jesse Lliguichuzhca and a screenshot of his ePortfolio

I was honored upon learning that my ePortfolio had been nominated to be showcased at the Fall 2019 ePortfolio Student Showcase. I had customized and added quite a bit of my academic achievements to ePortfolio since the first days of my First Year Seminar lab course. Aesthetically, I had chosen a simple color scheme of black and gold for my profile as those represented my favorite colors. I had also input information that I felt was brief yet to the point, “no fluff” as some professors would say. After confirming my spot in the showcase, I met with ePortfolio staff member Marwa Answar to go over my ePortfolio profile as well as discuss the topics that would be highlighted during the presentation. After a few days of preparation, I was more then ready to present my e-portfolio at the showcase. 

I was nervous at first for fear that my words may come out all jumbled. Eventually those nerves dissipated during the initial few seconds of our first round of presentations, as I started telling the audience about my academic story through the digital pages of my ePortfolio. It was especially awesome seeing my supervisors from the Education and Language Acquisition (ELA) department, as well as the Peer Advisor Academy, in the audience viewing me in action and hearing about my journey as an Education student.

Being able to share my achievements and dreams with the rest of the campus was a very empowering feeling, especially in front of the President of LaGuardia, Dr. Paul Arcario. At the end of viewing my presentation, Dr. Arcario went up to me and shook my hand which was another honor for me.

The ePortfolio crew was amazing to work with, as they went the extra mile to accommodate us presenters and make us feel comfortable. The event was an eye-opening experience in terms of how important a vessel ePortfolio can be in regard to displaying my academic milestones for the world to see. I even learned that it’s possible to connect my ePortfolio to a LinkedIn account in order to reach a broader audience and potential employers.

The event was also personally developing in terms of harnessing my public speaking skills. As an education major, speaking and presentation is a huge component in being an educator, and the showcase was a great opportunity to exhibit those skills. With all that said, I absolutely plan on continuing to utilize my ePortfolio in the future for things such as my fieldwork observations as well as capstone projects. I also hope the content displayed will inspire future incoming freshmen to make use of this great resource.