The StuDENT EXPERIENCE

Portal’s offerings are composed of three interrelated pillars that are foundational to the student experience: Personal, Practice, and Professional. Through authentic engagements and relevant skill-based content, students develop durable skills, real work experience, and a sense of purpose to ensure a successful launch into life and career after high school.

Together, these pillars create a holistic learning experience where students have the autonomy to personalize their learning by selecting projects and focusing on areas of interest.

Personal
Self Discovery

  • Life design

  • Strengths finding

  • Career exposure and workshops

Practice
Skill Building

  • Project-based learning

  • Industry credentials

  • Durable skills

Professional
Career Experience

  • Project consults

  • Mentoring

  • Job shadows

  • Internships

What do students gain?

✦ Develop Purpose Mindset
Students align their personal interests, abilities, and potential for impact with workforce opportunities and pathways.

✦ Curate Creative Confidence
Students develop key skills, including creative problem-solving, thinking outside the box, and experimentation, empowering them to tackle tough problems and excel, innovate, and adapt effectively in the ever-evolving world of work.

✦ Build Professional Networks and Skills
Students engage in authentic work by delivering to real clients or audiences, in turn developing in-demand workforce skills and gaining valuable insights through feedback from professionals.

Students cultivate relationships with diverse individuals through professional engagements.

Students in Action

We know that young people have the ability to do real work, add value to society, and are seeking a sense of purpose and opportunity.

Portal builds personalized and experiential career learning programming around students’ interests– from mentoring to shadows to real projects and entrepreneurship– with in-demand skills built in. And we do it directly with employers from the start.

Project Consults—The multi-week deep dive design challenges are based on REAL problems that a company or professional is facing. Students develop creative confidence and skills, while employers walk away with project leadership and insight or prototypes with a student’s lens. We define creative confidence as a combination of key durable skills put into practice: design thinking, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and entrepreneurship, which students learn across a series of workshops and projects.

Students Gain: Self Knowledge

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Original Portfolio

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Creative Confidence

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Social Capital

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Industry Awareness

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Entrepreneurial Mindset

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Students Gain: Self Knowledge ✦ Original Portfolio ✦ Creative Confidence ✦ Social Capital ✦ Industry Awareness ✦ Entrepreneurial Mindset ✦

✦ Micro Internships

Through direct work experiences with employers, students build skills and experience, understand their own strengths, interests and values, and do increasingly complex, quality work. 

✦Career Exposure

Through ongoing mentorship, a variety of career workshops, and job shadow opportunities, students are exposed to a range of industries, sectors, and roles. This informs how students' interests and strengths correlate to career opportunities.

✦ Portalfolio

Over their time in the Portal program, students compile their experiences, work products, and credentials into a Portalfolio. The body of work follows students as they apply to college or transition into the workforce, ensuring they are well-positioned to pursue the next steps of their dreams.