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Efrain Colin III

Ms. White

AP Lit

18 May 2020

Senior Portfolio Reflection

The first item on my portfolio is the Fast Food Nation Performance Assessment, this

item was the first paper that I wrote as a University High School student. Failing this paper

would prove as a reality check for how this high school would prove true the warnings voiced

from my family and staff members. Now as I type out this reflection the Fast-Food Nation paper

seems now as the initiation to the school, representing the theme of trial and error throughout the

rest of my time at this school. With this paper specifically it would take me two rewrites in order

to pass it, when I was typing the final version of the paper, I was pleased with myself and how

far I had gotten compared to the first final draft I did.

The second item on my portfolio is the freshman year Mission Statement. The mission

statement was really the first time I ever wrote down a goal of mine. The goals in the mission

statement I had talked about were focused on two aspects of my life, a student and a son.

Because this mission statement would be reviewed for an updated mission statement in junior

year, and then that updated mission statement from junior year be updated my senior year it is

important to have the sort of basis or origin of the original mission statement. It is like starting a

series of anything, to start at the beginning because whatever follows generally builds from what

happened previously. To see any sort of change in what improvements I felt that I needed to do

as time went on or if no change had occurred.

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The third item on my portfolio is now showing my sophomore year work. This item

being the Individual Research Report where I had to talk about the philosophical and artistic lens

of the Bosnia and Herzegovina genocide. Those lenses and a few others would be the key

difference between any sort of writing I did in all four years of high school. Through the

philosophical lens I would answer the “why” aspect of the genocide whereas the artistic lens it

would be to analyze art which was taught freshman year. The purpose of having this paper on my

portfolio is to show the “error” aspect of the theme “trial and error” that U.H has. The error

regarding this paper is the fact that I did not work hard or consistently enough with trying to

overcome and understand the new style of analysis AP Seminar gave via the lenses. Another

error would be that I did not ask for help when I needed to, which will be a reoccurring issue in

this reflection.

The fourth item on my portfolio is the IWA or Individual Written Argument. My

argument was to legalize prostitution in the United States, the reasoning behind this was to

promote safe sex, bring in the money from the sex workers into the economy, and the stability of

the job since prostitution has been in the United States for years. Never did I imagine myself

writing a paper with this much controversy, but I enjoyed working on it for that reason, it got me

toe the line on what I was comfortable talking/writing about. It is ironic, I enjoyed working on

the paper but in reality, I did not work on it a whole lot, the same issues with the IRR can be

applied to when I wrote my IWA. But there is an addition, the Covid 19 outbreak would occur

and after spring break the school was closed. So, with school transitioning to online and me

being responsible for how I handled my work, the IRR did not get worked on as much as it

should have.
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The fifth item on my portfolio is my Last PA of junior year, where you had to compare

the two ideas of two separate books in order to create a theme regarding both of them. The two

books that I had to deal with were The Bell Jar and Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. The first book was

talking about the journey of Esther Greenwood and her demise down the bell Jar of her

mentality, where she would have to go through certain mental health issues which would halt her

plans for her future and force her to get back in healthy shape before taking on the world again.

Whereas Eats, Shoots, and Leaves was talking about grammar. Literally just grammar and the

history of it. The connection that I found between the two books was that using communication

and the reward and coercive power leads to the understanding that humans need to create a

general moral compass and one for their own specific situation in order to know what

connections to create and hold onto for benefits instead of holding themselves back. Because of

how different the two books were, the analysis and connection between the two were a pain to

create which is showing the revelation of my mind starting to think outside of the box as I did in

sophomore year with the paper on legalization prostitution, however the bad part regarding this

paper would have been my mistake in not asking for help sooner rather than later which is a sort

of life lesson that I learned or would start to learn here at the end of junior year.

The sixth item on my portfolio is the mission statement in junior year, this mission statement

was used to review and update the improvements I wanted from myself in the freshman year

portfolio. In the mission statement I stated that I did meet the improvements I sought out to make

freshman year, those being to be a better student and son. These two aspects of my life, however,

I still wanted to improve despite already having some improvements made. These improvements

differed from the ones in freshman year because I got older and was held at a higher standard

because in theory, I knew what I was doing at that age. This mission statement shows the
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consistency that I had with wanting to improve on myself as a student and son because in my

mind those are the two main roles I have in life.

. The seventh item on my portfolio is the senior paper, the final analysis I would write for this

school. This paper can be seen as the accumulation of what I have learned as a writer throughout

my time in U.H since it tests my abilities as one. Testing to see if I can analyze, create logical

connections, create conclusions based off those two things and be able to relate all of it to

humanity. Because of all these things being tested I would need to ask for help, more help than I

had ever asked from any teacher at this point in high school. So, this paper is on my portfolio for

those two reasons, it shows my capabilities as a writer after my time in U.H and it was when I

learned that it was okay to ask for help.

The eighth item on my portfolio is the final mission statement, the one that is reflecting on the

junior mission statement which was reflecting on the freshman year mission statement. This one

I had to talk about the four human tools which are imagination, self-awareness, conscience, and

willpower and how I improved in those tools. Looking back on junior year now, from most

improved to least improved human tool goes; imagination, self-awareness and conscience

improved together, and the least improved is willpower. So to compare those answers to present

day me, I have improved willpower, self-awareness, imagination, and the least improved now

would be my conscience since as I said in my final mission statement, I felt that I already had a

good moral compass. Also in the mission statement I talked about the goals I want for my senior

year and I met all of them except for burning out that did occur multiple times. So the purpose

for having this mission statement in my portfolio is to show how I have changed from start of

senior year to the end of it through the four human tools. Showing how I will leave this school

and maybe showing how I will fare based on how confident I wrote about the human tools.
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