MultimediaCommProf

I’ve just spent some quality minutes with one of the best Web portfolios by a student journalist I’ve ever come across. The young woman’s name is Lauren Rabaino, and she’s a sophomore at Cal Polytechnical in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Everything about Ms. Rabaino’s Web site says connected! The right-side content area links to all the social services that she participates in. It’s an impressive list, and and she appears to maintain a professional, active presence in the ones I checked (Twitter and WiredJournalists).

There’s so much to like about this site. Ms. Rabaino illustrates a number things I’m encouraging our majors to do with their portfolios. First, the design immediately communicates a distinctive identity. The type, the color scheme, the graphic of converging diagonals all shout edgy, youthful energy—which Ms. Rabaino must have in abundance to keep up with all that she’s attempting to do. I’ve also advised my students to make it immediately clear who they are and what they do, which this home page does in the branding area. Ms. Rabaino also blogs regularly about the leading edge of journalism and the current state of the industry. I’m telling our majors there’s no more convincing way to demonstrate to a prospective employer that they will make innovative, professional staff members than to start a blog about what they’re learning and reading.

A few areas in the site need attention—the display of news stories is still basic and inconsistent with the rest of site and a number of the audio files in the broadcast area aren’t playing—but both the presentation and the work presented represent Ms. Rabaino as an exceptionally talented young woman. Who could resist wanting to hire her after spending even five minutes with this portfolio?