Chicago Portfolio School Director Calls it Quits?

By Kiran Aditham 

Yeah yeah, we know you hate any posts ad school-related, but we’ll throw a bone this time to the teachers, not the students (perhaps because we’re feeling guilty about never visiting our old ones). Anyhow, a tipster sent us what is apparently a note verbatim from one Maria Scileppi, who has spent the last 18 months as director at the Chicago Portfolio School, which has produced creatives like these over the years. Anyhow, here goes:

“This is a bittersweet moment for me. After 4.5 wonderful years at the school I’ve decided it’s time to move on so I can pursue my art and passion projects. This has absolutely been a dream job for me as its allowed me to get to know and help hundreds of talented, creative, awesome people get their dream job.

I’ve had the pleasure of watching the school evolve into a power house for design and advertising. As some of the older alumni will attest, the school has come a long in the past four and half years. When I first started I took the garbage out, we had 1.5 floors, there was just three of us working full time (Jeff, me and a book keeper). We didn’t have Digital Bootcamp, the Guest Speaker Series, The Royale Rumble, The alumni job board, the “5th quarter”, Best of Quarter, the Freshman Mixer, the Portfolio Debut and I didn’t have an office for the first two years. The quality of the student body – the dedication, the passion, the work has increased exponentially and that’s reflected in the portfolios coming out of here, the hiring rate, the awards that are won and the press that our students have gotten.

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I feel so fortunate to have had this position and look forward to passing the baton and cheering from the sidelines as the next Director moves the school forward. Jeff is meeting with lots of amazing candidates and will announce the new Director in the near future. Stay tuned!

My last day will be this Wednesday and for those of you in town, I’d love to share a hug and a beer with you.”

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