Over the course of the Spring 2025 semester, Grinnell College’s Digital Liberal Arts Collaborative (DLAC) and the Arts, Media & Communications Career Community in the Center for Careers, Life, and Service (CLS) led an inaugural 3-part workshop series to provide arts and humanities students with the skills necessary to create their own portfolio websites. Portfolios are beneficial tools for self-reflection, as well as competitive assets for internships, jobs, and graduate school applications. The workshop series began with discussion of the value of sharing one’s work, provided time for students to draft their professional biographies, and then covered the nuts and bolts of how to build a portfolio in WordPress. DLAC facilitated student learning using the Elementor plugin and provided a base template for each student as a starting point. Through this workshop series, 30 students learned why and how to start sharing their own voices on the open web – and two campus offices made a valuable connection, allowing us to support each other’s work. We will now offer this workshop series on a regular basis. Join us to learn more about our approach, share your own thoughts on cross-departmental collaboration at your institution, and learn best practices for engaging students in the creation of academic and professional portfolio websites!
