Glenville State College Presidential Scholars Program.
Witte, Alison ; Taylor, Philip
Glenville State College established a new honors program in the
fall of 2000. The Presidential Scholars Program (PSP) was developed to
reflect the Renaissance of Shared Values, a conceptual framework of
values identified to guide Glenville State College in its mission to
serve the State of West Virginia. Each of these values, Civility,
Freedom, Tolerance, Responsibility, Excellence, Fairness, and Integrity,
is taken as a focus for one semester in a variety of class activities:
readings, discussions, field trips, and finally, a relevant service
project. The continual goal is that the PSP student be able to
articulate a personal definition of the value, internalize it, and carry
out a service project that reflects commitment to the total Renaissance
of Shared Values.
Students are assigned develop an Electronic Portfolio in which they
record their reactions to assignments and class discussions. Ideally,
the portfolio also includes biographical background and descriptions of
their service projects. The portfolio is not graded but serves as a tool
for intellectual growth.
The requirement for an Electronic Portfolio has been a limited
success. The coordinators have found that although students are
comfortable with developing the Electronic Portfolio on a semester
basis, the concept of a long term record of their personal and
intellectual growth is new to them. Several students are still
uncomfortable with submitting their work by e-mail or on disk, prefering
to print out their portfolios. In addition, these academically focused
students seem to attach less value to a project which does not result in
immediate feedback measured by a grade. However, the coordinators hope
that eventually the portfolios of students in the Presidential Scholars
Program will be available on the college web site.
Glenville State College has embraced the concept of Portfolio
Evaluation for all students. The coordinators expect that as the program
develops, students in the Presidential Scholars Program will be able to
present an impressive portfolio on graduation, electronically available,
reflecting depth in course work and a fundamental commitment to values.
The authors can be reached at:
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