The Senior Portfolio Expo was hosted by Liberty University’s Digital Media & Journalism (DMAJ) department Tuesday, April 28 from 3:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. in the Green Hall Art Gallery.
The expo served as an opportunity for graduating seniors enrolled in senior portfolio to share their projects with fellow students as well as professors. Throughout the course, seniors worked on projects that reflect their future career goals and prepare them for the workforce.
Fifty-one students were tasked with presenting a poster board detailing their project with pictures and physical copies of their work. In addition to the board, seniors also prepared a one-minute pitch describing their project and how it will benefit their future careers.
DMAJ Instructor Toni Perry said she designed this event to showcase her student’s final projects. She believes this new event will allow seniors to step out of their comfort zone and prepare them for the job market.
“The students are putting so much effort into their projects that we wanted to give them a forum where underclassmen and professors would have the opportunity to work with them on this and see all of the hard work they’ve put into their projects,” Perry said.
Perry hopes students feel prepared for their life post-graduation and believes this final expo could be the push many students need to get them ready.
“It’s the entire class, not just the expo, but with the expo they do get the opportunity that they are using their projects as an element to demonstrate their skills, so it does help them practice, and it helps them to refine their pitch to future employers,” Perry said.
Several professors from the DMAJ department showed their support by attending the expo. Assistant Professor Richard Previte said seeing his current and former students’ final projects made him proud.
“It makes me very proud to see the students going through the process of being a freshman all the way to graduating, and I can see how they have grown and matured not only professionally but spiritually and academically, and it’s very rewarding as a teacher to see the fruit of our labors,” Previte said.
Senior Brynne Smith produced a magazine titled “Why Creatives Create.” Smith wrote, designed and took photographs for the magazine, and this process helped prepare her for her dream job of being a photojournalist for National Geographic.
“I think a lot of creatives get overshadowed by what they create, so this gives them the opportunity to tell their story,” Smith said. “It talks about the fact that we are made in God’s image, and we have the intrinsic desire to create.”
Smith shared that originally, she didn’t realize how long the process of creating a magazine would be.
“I kind of thought that making a magazine would be a little bit of an easier route — it was not the easier route,” Smith said. “There were so many extra steps to it that I just didn’t think about, but it was great practice, because I got to see what making a magazine was like.”
Smith said she is thankful for the senior portfolio class and expo and the journey that it has been to build the foundation for her future career at Liberty.
Although this expo was the first of its kind for the DMAJ department, Perry hopes this start will develop into a greater opportunity for professional growth for many seniors to come.
Twitchell is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion.