Prompts+for+Portfolio+Essays

Prompts for Portfolio Essays -- Each essay is to be a minimum of 500 words in length --

The written component of your portfolio should exhibit the highest level of professionalism and should be free of errors. Therefore, all essays must be word-processed, using proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation.


 * Essay 1: Academics**

Consider your four years of high school. Reflect on your study habits, your inquisitiveness, your devotion to your studies, your academic triumphs and failures, your readiness for college and future challenges. What have you discovered about yourself as a learner, and how will that affect your success in college? In your career?


 * Essay 2: Technology**

Given the integral nature of technology in our society, how have your experiences in high school helped you to participate in a society centered on information and technology?


 * Essay 3: Communication Skills**

Communication includes both the delivery (speaking, gesturing) and the receipt (listening) of information and ideas. Discuss the importance of communication in your personal growth. Which experiences from your high school career helped you to develop your skills? Think back to a situation in which the communication between individuals was ineffective or harmful. Analyze the effect your communication style had on the situation. What have you learned from the incident and how will you apply it to future situations?


 * Essay 4: Appreciation of Art and the Creative Process**

Looking back on your four years of high school, focus on several significant instances when you have participated in the creative process. How have these experiences shaped your understanding of the aesthetic and cultural importance of art and the creative process? How will this understanding enrich your experiences in college and in your chosen career? How will you continue to participate in the creative process in your adult life?


 * Essay 5: Community Responsibility**

What is community? What do the terms diversity, collaboration, commonality, and service have to do with community? How have you contributed to your school and community through service and/or efforts to create positive change? How has that interaction evolved in you during your time here? How will your ideas about community affect your future?


 * Essay 6: Creative and Complex Thinking**

Describe at least two academic assignments, units of study, or activities that required you to think intensely. These examples should come from different years of your high school career. How have you grown in your ability to analyze and synthesize ideas?


 * Essay 7: Preparation and Plans for the Future**

How has your internship experience affected your plan for "post-ISA?" What learning will you take from your internship experience, no matter the "outcome" of the actual internship? Which of your high school experiences link directly to your future endeavors? Based on these experiences, how were your plans for the future confirmed or altered?


 * Essay 8: Travel**

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness"—Mark Twain. Given the range of travel opportunities during your time at ISA, describe some of the events that had the greatest impact on you. What lessons did you learn about your attitudes regarding travel? How have new experiences challenged your prejudices? What attitudes will you carry that were influenced by trips taken, or not taken, while you were a student here?


 * Essay 9: Global Citizenship**

Evaluate your development as an international citizen during your time at ISA. How have your experiences shaped your cultural knowledge, tolerance, diplomacy, and communication skills? What experiences do you wish you had explored more extensively to make you a more "worldly" person? How do you plan to utilize these skills in the future?


 * Essay 10: The Big Reflection**

Trace the development of your identity: Who were you when you started high school, and who are you now? Evaluate your progress as a student: How have you changed, developed, and matured as a learner during your time at ISA? What do you value and celebrate most about your experience during high school? If you could change anything about your experience, what would it be? How can you prevent feeling the same sense of regret again in college, or later in life?