Pupils With Portfolios Get Labor Lesson

Jamie Guidry, age 13. Career Objective? Veterinarian. Experience? Bandaging her cat’s injured leg, spraying her cat and dog for fleas. Hobbies? Watching Christian Slater movies, playing with pets and writing stories.

As a seventh-grader at E.O. Green Junior High School, Jamie may not have the years of experience to open shop as a veterinarian. But she already has practice cranking out a resume.

This year the 1,057-student campus in Oxnard began requiring its pupils to pull together a portfolio that includes a resume as well as samples of their work: an essay about Mount Vesuvius, a 100% on a math test, a card indicating their one-mile running time for a physical education class.

“I think I like doing it just so I can show them what I want to do when I grow up and how I’m qualified,” Jamie said of the new program.

Jamie was one of 35 students who volunteered to submit to mock interviews, held in the school cafeteria.

Dressed for business, 18 educators and representatives of community groups paired up with students at desks divided by screens intended to create an office cubicle atmosphere.

Alisa Washington, a visitor from Oxnard’s Soroptimist Club, had the opportunity to peruse several portfolios and ask a few questions.

“I find that when I go to high schools, they’re not goal-oriented,” Washington said. “They’re just thinking of making it to 12th grade. . . . They need to have that goal, that vision and dream. This gives them an opportunity to find out who they are. It also lets them know that the community leaders care.”

Eighth-grader Dominador Mendrez, an aspiring surgeon, made sure to include relevant material in his portfolio: a 100% on his quiz identifying parts of a dissected cow eye. Alexis Davis, who wants to become a fashion designer, inserted her 3-by-5-inch handmade book of famous Civil War women.

“You do work and projects, you throw them away,” said teacher Geraldine Troutman. “[The portfolios] make them reflect on what they have learned during their time at E.O. Green School.”