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Nicole Hipp

Personal Letter

Professor Lori Bedell

26 April 2019

The design of my e-portfolio website was directed towards my friends and family to

update them on my accomplishments and activities throughout my freshman year of college here

at Penn State. Due to my audience being close relatives and friends, I decided to design my

website slightly informal and casual. I also wanted to make the layout very easy to navigate

through to make it more accessible to my older relatives and those who just want to take a quick

look. I organized the tabs at the top of the page to alleviate confusion and created subpages under

Academics and Extra Curricular to maintain organization. I chose my Written Work to be the

first tab under Academics because I reference two of those pieces in my Media Work. I then

chose to have my Media Work because of the references that I made in the Written Work

category. My blogs were naturally included under Academics. On the main home page, I decided

to briefly describe some of the work I have done, extra curriculars, and what I plan on

accomplishing in the future because my family often asks what I would like to do after college.

In addition to my short biography, I decided to include my contact information along with my

Facebook page. My older relatives love Facebook. My favorite quote is included as well because

it means a lot to me emotionally. Although not required, I chose to include this justification letter

on my website for clarification on some of my choices. Since my family and friends will be

reading and viewing the content on this website, I wanted them to be able to understand my
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thought process when navigating throughout my E-Portfolio. I decided to place it at the very

bottom of my home page because it is an explanation to the rest of my website, but it is not as

important as my contact information or autobiography.

The simplistic colors (mostly blacks and whites) were chosen in respect to the amount of

photography that I included throughout my website. Although this is intended for an

unprofessional audience, I wanted the layout to look clean and sophisticated. It should be noted

that all the photography used throughout my E-Portfolio is my own work. I included a lot of

images because photography is one of my passions and my relatives are aware of that. My

relatives also thoroughly enjoy being updated through imagery. I chose a self-portrait for my

home page because I talk about myself there. For the headings of each section I chose a photo

and included an explanation for my reasoning behind choosing that specific photo. I chose a

slideshow to display my chosen imagery and maintained the same formatting throughout my

website. I believe the slideshow captures people’s attention and makes it easier to look at. I also

added captions for most of the pictures to explain exactly what was going.

As previously mentioned, the organization of my website was meant to be very

straightforward. All information can be accessed through the four main tabs located at the top of

the page. The two tabs with subtabs (Academics and Extra Curricular) are still very user friendly

because the main tab gives an explanation of what the subtabs will encompass. I did not want my

family and friends to have a difficult time finding any information, so I made it as simplistic as

possible.
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Even though this assignment was only required to have work from CAS 137H and 138H,

I decided to include three extra curriculars because they involve most of my time. This mixture

of academics and non-school related activities showcases all aspects of my life here at Penn State

to my family and friends. I made sure to describe and give an explanation to each activity. For

ROTC I described what my daily week looks like, for Club Swimming I explained what I did

throughout the year, and for Photography Projects I described each photo shoot.

I chose the written work that I did because they were the ones I devoted the most time to

and felt proudest about. In addition to effort, I also chose the pieces that I did because I know my

family will enjoy reading them the most. I strategically placed them on my website as well. I

placed my issue brief first because it led to my advocacy project. I included pictures with my

advocacy project because I wanted my family and friends to be able to put names to faces and

visually see what I did. I placed my paradigm shift paper last because it is the oldest and not

related to the other two pieces. The media pieces were chosen partially because they were the

only two media productions I had access to and also because these were two of my favorite

assignments to complete. I placed my Ted talk first because it relates to my paradigm shift paper

and I make a reference to it on my Written Work page.

The decision to post my podcast/This I Believe project was difficult. It is a very personal

story and I knew it would upset my family if I decided to make it public. However, after a lot of

thought, I determined that it was for the best. I have finally forgiven my parents and I have been

able to develop closer relationships with them because of that forgiveness. I have great parents

and it has taken me a long time to see the positive side of things. I am putting this piece on my

website because it is the first time I have come to terms and accepted what happened. I am not
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putting this piece on my website to shame my parents, but to acknowledge that they too have

changed for the better. Their past experiences made them into the great people they are today. I

take pride in my past and so should they.

I was not able to edit the media projects, but I did mention my mistakes in the

descriptions on my website. I did read through my written work for grammar mistakes, wording,

and suggestions made by my professors. For both pieces I did not have to change too much

besides a few grammatical errors. In the issue brief, my professor asked if I could add more

information to the concluding claim, but for sake of time I kept it as is because she said it was

still correct.

Website Link: https://nicolehipp.weebly.com

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