Portfolio Development: Prepare for College, Careers, and Creative Growth

Prepare to be amazed as you watch your differently-wired kiddo make real friends, explore this unique content, grow under the guidance of this expert mentor, and be seen in all their glory!

Ages: 12-18

Class size: Maximum- 8 Students

Level: All

Price per Session: $47

Why Take This Course?

Is your young artist ready to take the next step in their creative journey? Whether they’re applying to prestigious art programs, seeking career opportunities, or striving for personal growth, Portfolio Development is the workshop that equips experienced artists with the tools to present their work professionally and confidently.

This course focuses on building a standout portfolio tailored to meet the expectations of universities, clients, and future opportunities in the visual arts.

  • Portfolio Development: Prepare for College, Careers, and Creative Growth

    Is your young artist ready to take the next step in their creative journey? Whether they’re applying to prestigious art programs, seeking career opportunities, or striving for personal growth, Portfolio Development is the workshop that equips experienced artists with the tools to present their work professionally and confidently.

    This course focuses on building a standout portfolio tailored to meet the expectations of universities, clients, and future opportunities in the visual arts.

    What Will Your Child Gain?

    • A Polished Portfolio:
      Students will assemble and refine their existing body of work, generating new pieces where needed, to create a cohesive, high-quality portfolio.

    • College and Career Readiness:
      Through the exploration of prompts from leading universities and professional standards, students will gain insights into what colleges and clients are looking for in a portfolio.

    • Expert Feedback and Guidance:
      Students will receive personalized critique and mentorship, ensuring their work meets the highest standards and showcases their unique voice and talent.

    • Professional Practices:
      Learn how to present work effectively, craft compelling artist statements, and tailor portfolios to specific applications and goals.

    What to Expect:

    • Exploration of Prompts:
      Students will work with prompts from real college applications and other professional scenarios, ensuring they understand and can respond to a variety of requirements.

    • Portfolio Assembly:
      Guided by their mentor, students will curate their body of work, selecting and refining pieces that best represent their skills, growth, and artistic vision.

    • Creative Growth Opportunities:
      Where gaps exist, students will create new pieces to round out their portfolio, using their own materials and familiar techniques.

    Who Should Take This Course?

    This class is ideal for experienced artists who are planning to apply to colleges offering BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) programs or seeking professional opportunities in the field of visual arts. Students should have an existing body of artwork (~2 years) and their own art supplies for creating additional pieces.

    Why Take Portfolio Development?

    This course offers more than just portfolio preparation—it provides young artists with the confidence, clarity, and skills to pursue their creative ambitions. Whether your student is aiming for a top art school, a career in the visual arts, or personal artistic achievement, this class provides the structure and support to help them succeed.

    Set your artist up for success. Enroll today and watch them build the portfolio of their dreams!

  • What Will Your Child Gain?

    • A Polished Portfolio:
      Students will assemble and refine their existing body of work, generating new pieces where needed, to create a cohesive, high-quality portfolio.

    • College and Career Readiness:
      Through the exploration of prompts from leading universities and professional standards, students will gain insights into what colleges and clients are looking for in a portfolio.

    • Expert Feedback and Guidance:
      Students will receive personalized critique and mentorship, ensuring their work meets the highest standards and showcases their unique voice and talent.

    • Professional Practices:
      Learn how to present work effectively, craft compelling artist statements, and tailor portfolios to specific applications and goals.

  • A great internet connection and a willingness to learn.

Our Promise To You

Satisfaction Guarantee: If you’re not 100% IN LOVE with your courses:

  • Payment Plan: Let us know in the first 24 hours and we’ll immediately stop all payments. After that, no worries! Tell us anytime, and we’ll stop future payments after a 30-day processing period.

  • Paid in Full: You can switch to another class of equal value or get a credit for the remaining balance for future classes.

We can offer you a 100% satisfaction guarantee because we know what we do works for hundreds of other families—and we know it will work for your family, too!

We’re taking all the risk because you’re getting over $2000 in bonuses when you sign up, and you could cancel the class and keep all the bonuses.

My promise to you.

-Mr. Sam

Mr Sam

How To Enroll

Explore Times

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What Our Parents Say…

Meet Your Mentor

Amy Bechtol

Amy Bechtol is a neurodivergent individual, educator, and activist. Six years ago she thought it would be fun to volunteer teach for a week as a break from entertainment design work, and accidentally found her passion. Amy has worked in neurodivergent and twice-exceptional education ever since, covering a wide breadth of topics from the humanities, to the sciences, to the visual arts. Her background as an entertainment designer and storyteller informs her teaching practices, finding ways to make content relevant to human experiences.

Amy loves getting to work with her students, who often share a neurology similar to her own, connecting them to curriculum in a way that is meaningful, novel, and fun. Utilizing a strength-based, talent-focused model, Amy seeks to engage learners by allowing them to connect their best, most authentic selves to the material. She believes that a state of growth is the natural state of a human mind, and it is the purpose of a classroom to facilitate that process, and allow it to be a joyful one.

Explore Other Courses Offered by Young Scholars Academy

Questions Asked By Fellow Parents

  • 4 KEY things:

    1- A focus on the positive! We don’t focus on what students aren’t doing, we support what they are and we know the rest will come. We develop strengths, interests, and relationships. We build students up so they can build a better world! And do it with the new friends they make in our program!

    2- Like-minded neurodivergent peers. Our asynchronous students need one another and YSA is a safe haven for these kiddos to connect around their asynchronies, quirks, and interests. We’re a place where they can be their authentic selves and make friends while doing so!

    3- Passionate, masterful neurodivergent mentors who have walked the walk and can authentically validate and support your child with personal experience and care AND expertise as we all have advanced masters + degrees

    4-Content your students care about taught in a way they love! We offer the courses they need to be taking, not the ones they’re required to take.

    Come by and see for yourself!

  • Please don’t confuse reactive “distance learning” and virtual enrichment programming. After all, a student who is completely fried from a boring zoom class is often quick to pick up a tablet or phone, right?

    Our courses are not at all the same animal =)

  • THIS IS A SATISFACTION GUARANTEE, so your child must attend the class in question to qualify.

    If you’re not 100% IN LOVE with your courses, here are your options:

    1- 8-Week Courses Refund requests must be received up to 24 hours after the first course begins to do one of the following options: 

    Payment plan or Paid in full- 3 options: transfer to another course of the same price, get a 100% refund credit toward a future class, or get a 75% money-back to the original payment method. 

    2-  16+ Week CoursesThe deposit made at the time of enrollment is non-refundable. Cancellation options are:

    Payment plan- Cancellation requests received up to 24 hours after the first course begins will stop any future payments. Any cancellation requests beyond that require a 30-day notice to stop the membership/billing.

    Paid in full- Cancellation requests require a 30-day notice. The remaining balance at the end of the 30-day cancellation period can be used to transfer to another class or be converted to credit toward a future class.

    Please read the description of each course before enrolling.

  • We do! We have 3 kinds:

    1- Word of mouth: 25% off- we know that the best way to reach new families is word of mouth. When you help another family enroll in a YSA class and they name you at checkout, you will get 25% off the cost of the course you’re currently enrolled in once they stay past the refund period. Note— this applies to all regular courses, BUT only applies to the first month of membership courses.

    2- Multi-sibling: 10% off- We believe in supporting whole families and we are willing to put our money where our mouth is! When you sign-up 2 or more kiddos you will receive 10% off. Note— this does not apply to our membership courses.

    3-Multi-course: 10% off- To fully serve your family, we hope to provide your child with all the courses they dream of taking! To make this more affordable, when you enroll in 3 or more classes, you will receive 10% off. Note— this does not apply to our membership courses.

  • Of course!

    As we like to say, if you’re on our site, you’re in the right place.

    Our programming is for students who are not being supported or challenged enough in school.

    If you have an asynchronous kiddo who you know has strengths and struggles, our courses are for your child.

  • 2e students experience such asynchronous development that it proves difficult to have hard age limits.

    We often evaluate students on a case by case basis =)

    Please email us and we’ll discuss: sam@youngscholarsacademy.org

  • All of our programs are 100% virtual. This allows us to bring together the twice-exceptional/neurodivergent students of the world, connect them, and nurture them!

    Your child may very well enter a 6-person class with 5 other students from 5 different states/countries!

    Cool, right?