Personal Development Portfolio

Think how nice it would be after graduating from college to be fully articulate about who you are and where you want to go in life. Think how nice it would be to have a meaningful way to conceptualize and document your personal growth and development over the four years of college. Think how nice it would be to have tangible ways to demonstrate your accomplishments and your potential to future employers or graduate school admissions staff.

These are some of the goals behind our distinctive Personal Development Portfolio (PDP) program. The PDP program offers a framework for understanding and documenting your cumulative academic, non-academic, and social experiences while at Bridgewater. Based on Bridgewater's mission of developing the whole person, the PDP program is designed to encourage students in four dimensions of personal development:

Intellectual Growth and Discovery

Challenging your mind and discovering new ways of thinking are essential components of a liberal arts education. The key is connecting your varied academic experiences to life in ways that really matter. Are there consequences to your personal values in studying another culture in depth or studying how the human body functions? Does your understanding of history or your understanding of environmental processes challenge the way you think about political issues? Can you see direct connections between what you’re learning in the classroom and the person you are becoming or wish to become?

Citizenship and Community Responsibility

Applying your knowledge and skills in ways that improve the lives of others in your community, your country, and in the world as a whole is essential in order to be a truly educated and responsible person. To be a leader means to be keenly aware of the connections that bind us all together and the potential we all have to effect both small-scale and large-scale change.Experiences you have in the classroom, in community service projects, and in co-curricular organizations can heighten and help development your growing sense of who you are in the context of the world around you.

Ethical and Spiritual Growth

Defining your ethics, values, and beliefs is essential to becoming a well-rounded person who acts with assurance and self-knowledge.Exploring your values helps you better understand such questions as why your education is important and how you should use it. Developing in this dimension will require introspection, thoughtful questioning, and the willingness to begin defining your faith—what you believe in and why—in the overall context of your life as a whole.Your liberal arts education gives you a solid foundation as you explore and strengthen the ethics, values, and beliefs you live by.

Emotional Maturation and Physical Health

Developing a lifelong habit of physical and emotional health and understanding the connection between your mind and body is a skill that will serve you throughout your lifetime. At the same time you learn about the human mind and body in the classroom, you may be exploring your potential on the playing field or in the wellness center.Your social experiences in the dorms or across campus contribute to an ongoing sense of maturing and developing into the sort of adult you imagine yourself to be.

At Bridgewater we encourage students to explore the value of each of these facets of life. Students have direct guidance from faculty and peers in learning to integrate, and critically reflect on, each dimension of personal development, an ability that will help students lead more productive and rewarding lives after college.