How Plainfield Public Schools helps students showcase their potential with Xello Portfolios
For Regina M.L. Lowery, helping students in Plainfield Public Schools show their best selves is deeply personal. As a Plainfield graduate who returned to teach, serve as vice principal, and eventually lead the counseling department, she has spent decades shaping a vision for the community's youth.
Transforming the scholarship process for improved outcomes
Plainfield Public Schools serves roughly 9,000 K–12 students in a predominantly Black and Brown community in central New Jersey. In a district where many families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, equal access to career-building resources and networks has often been the hardest barrier to clear. Meanwhile, traditional post-secondary counseling models across the country have fixated on a single track: four-year college admissions.
“The average high school will have 25% who will go to college. What do we do with the others? We haven’t been doing a great job in planning that,” said Lowery.
To bridge this gap, Plainfield embraced the broader educational movement of the 4 Es: Employment, Enlistment, Enrollment, and Entrepreneurship. The district’s goal became ensuring every graduate leaves with a viable, self-directed plan. To make that happen, the district turned to Xello to overhaul its approach to student identity and career readiness.
Before Xello, applying for local scholarships meant students were making 30 photocopies of a single paper packet. When Lowery stepped into leadership, she tried moving the system to Google Docs. While it eliminated paper, the shared-drive approach remained cumbersome, rigid, and prone to formatting errors.
Lowery found the solution within Xello’s interactive Portfolios. Instead of sorting through paper files or disjointed cloud folders, students build an individualized, multimedia digital portfolio. When scholarship season opens, students send evaluators a single, custom link.
To ensure the new format took hold, the district hosted informational walkthroughs for local scholarship committees. The community reaction was immediate.
“The feedback from scholarship sponsors was unbelievable. They were blown away,” Lowery said.
The stakes became apparent quickly: students who curated dynamic portfolios began stacking awards—in one case, a single student earned 10 separate scholarships—while peers realized that how they packaged their story directly influenced their opportunities. Beyond financial aid, students began sending portfolio links to employers for part-time jobs and other opportunities.
Jacob’s story: A masterclass in digital storytelling
Lowery encourages students to treat their portfolios as a holistic reflection of their lives, uploading everything from transcripts and personal essays to resumes and sports highlight reels.
The approach proved transformative for Jacob Howard. Arriving at Plainfield High School for only his senior year, he faced the steep challenge of establishing himself with counselors and college recruiters in a matter of months.
“As Xello helped me build my portfolio for not only high school but future endeavors, Xello has also aided me in the tools and resources to apply for scholarships and receive over 10 scholarships,” explained Jacob. “These scholarships have supported my collegiate journey as I currently attend The National Treasure Morgan State University as a Freshman majoring in screenwriting and animation.”
A varsity football player, a dedicated student, and a gifted graphic artist, Jacob struggled to capture his multifaceted identity on a conventional resume. Through his Xello portfolio, he combined his game film, academic transcripts, and personal narrative with high-resolution samples of his graphic design work.
“Xello has been a massive help in my journey here and I intend to go even further thanks to my portfolio,” he added.
Lowery was impressed: “I was in tears when I saw it. Not many tools can pull all those pieces together to make that kind of impression. I kept telling him to speak to his passions, and he succeeded beyond any expectations.”
“It would be easier to list the colleges he didn’t get accepted to than the ones he did,” according to Lowery. His profile now serves as a district-wide case study in how digital presentation can level the playing field.
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The challenge
The solution
Streamlining counseling from the inside out
Xello Portfolios has also solved an operational bottleneck inside the counseling department. With caseloads stretching across six secondary schools, writing thorough, personalized letters of recommendation used to drain hours of time.
Lowery flipped the expectation. When students approach staff for college or job references, they pull up the student’s Xello Portfolio. If it’s complete with activities, goals, passions, and reflections, the counselor has an instant, rich dossier to draw from; if it isn’t, the student has clear instructions on what to update first.
Student portfolios also offer a starting point for more powerful connections with counselors. “It gives us everything we need right in front of us. It cuts out the mechanical steps so we can focus on meaningful content and having real conversations about their goals,” said Lowery.
Building a K–12 readiness culture at Plainfield Public Schools
Believing that post-secondary planning begins the moment a child enters school, Lowery extended Xello access across all K–12 grades. As of this September, every staff member in the district was trained on the platform.
At the elementary level, the rollout is already generating momentum. Younger students are enthusiastically engaging with Xello’s grade-specific lessons, and Lowery has advised educators to use the platform at every opportunity.
To build buy-in at home, the district hosts in-person and virtual family forums. Lowery also pushes high schoolers to have their portfolios ready to share with recruiters in real-time at events like HBCU college fairs.
A living dossier for a changing world
Looking ahead, Lowery wants every student to graduate with a digital dossier that tracks their evolution from kindergarten through 12th grade.
“We’re preparing kids for careers that won’t exist in 10 years, but if I tell you to share your evolution, that doesn’t matter,” she said. “My goal at the end of every year is to have all students, K-12, have something that shows their growth from that grade.”
With persistent leadership and a unified platform, Plainfield Public Schools is ensuring that every student is seen, supported, and ready for whatever comes next.
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