Welcome to the Graduate Center for Gerontology’s Student Portfolio System. This system enables students to develop a comprehensive personal dossier, to monitor their progress through the program and to provide comment and feedback on the program. It also provides a comprehensive tracking and evaluation tool that will allow Gerontology faculty to provide ongoing assessment of student progress and accomplishment in moving toward programmatic and personal goals, based on a set of pedagogically grounded criteria. These assessment criteria are as follows:

Professional Growth:
1) Scholarly and Professional Independence
2) Critical and Integrative Thinking
3) Methodological Competence
4) Intellectual Risk Taking/Creativity
5) Gerontological Knowledge Base
6) Scholarly Communication
7) Identification with Gerontology

Personal Growth:
1) Involvement/Commitment
2) Emotional Well-Being/Stress Management
3) Physical Health
4) Time Management

This tool will be administered on 7 occasions: 1) upon entry into the program; 2) after completion of GRN600 and GRN612 (at the end of the first semester); 3) following completion of GRN620 (at the end of the second semester); 4) after completion of GRN785 (usually following the fourth semester); 5) immediately following each student’s qualifying examinations and advancement to candidacy; 6) following the doctoral dissertation defense; and 7) 2 years post-graduation.

At each evaluation point, students will be required to submit an updated version of their portfolio and will be provided with feedback on their progress with respect to the 11 assessment criteria. This feedback will be in the form of discussions with their advisor, the Director of Graduate Studies and/or others deemed by the DGS to be appropriate for such consultation. At each point of assessment, scores on each criterion will be entered into the student’s file, in order to develop a profile of progress. You will be able to view and update your portfolio at any time.