Peter Pekalski
E-Portfolio Scholars Reflection
My Name is Peter Michael Pekalski, I am a Media Studies major here at
LaGuardia and I will soon be graduating with the class of 2010. My first experience with
eportfolio was in Fall 2009, when I took Fundamentals of Professional Advancement.
Successfully completing an eportfolio was a requirement for that class, and although we
were presented with the opportunity to use already made templates to construct our
eportfolios, I wanted the challenge of making a custom built eportfolio. Though I
successfully completed that eportfolio, the process was a challenge as I had to design a
variety of templates before choosing a final one.
To me, an eportfolio is a chance to invite people into your world by sharing your
academic achievements and giving them a look at what you want to achieve in the future.
As for my future, I intend for graphic design to play a pivotal role and that is why my
eportfolio could not just be about the projects and works that I planned to display, but the
eportfolio layout itself had to be an achievement. A lot of students see the eportfolio as a
burden but I see it as another useful stepping stone to help me sharpen my design
aesthetics.
My favorite resulting pages of my eportfolio are the links page, and course pages.
I am very motivated by admiring the work of others and so, having the chance to share
some of the artists that inspire me through the links page was a great opportunity. As for
the course pages, I was really shocked at how much I had accomplished in each course I
had taken. Specifically, Mass Media Evolution, and LIB 200 were two courses that I feel
display my work in both art and academics. My magazine assignment for Mass Media
Evolution not only impressed my professor, but boosted my confidence in my design
technique. The work I was able to accomplish in LIB 200 impressed me, because the
course was a Capstone course, which was also writing intensive. Though I enjoy writing,
I was fearful of the strict guidelines and criteria required for this course. I now realize
how much I enjoyed LIB 200, because of my professor’s choice to focus on identity. The
project I feel represents my overall effort in the course the most is, the final research
paper. We not only had to write an essay about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but we also
had to pull quotes from the text and scholarly articles, and analyze them. Because of the
complexity of the writing assignment, I am very pleased with the result.
Placing my work in the eportfolio was and still is a bit tedious. Even though
schoolwork is considered to be a part of a person’s professional life, there are still
projects that reveal certain intimacies about students. It takes a lot of courage to put the
more personal pieces into an eportfolio and I’m glad to have been able to do it. I am
thrilled with the opportunity to share my work, ideas, and passions with other people.
Going through the selection process really made me reflect on my time here at LaGuardia
and my progress as a writer, artist, and thinker. I’ve noticed overall that I see a lot of my
work as still being in progress, and trying to improve on the pieces to get them ready for
the showcase made me realize that I like looking for ways to improve on things that may
already be exceptional to some, while attempting to learn new things. I still consider my
eportfolio to be a work in progress, and I intend to continue working on ways to improve
it or even just alter the layout.
What I admire most about my eportfolio is the design. Even though the
assignments that I put into the eportfolio hopefully say a lot about me, I want the design
to speak volumes about my style, ideas, and personality in terms of aesthetic and
technique.
Overall I really enjoyed creating both eportfolios, and participating in the
eportfolio scholars program. There were tough times where I did not know the exact path
that I wanted to go, yet I feel as though my eportfolio can stand on its own and present
overall, a LaGuardia student who desires to create and inspire.