People Connections

Building a Network of Support to Reach Your Goals

People Connections is an extension activity to Values Connection that seeks to ground students in a sense of purpose as they explore the value of social capital. In Values Connection, students first connect their core personal values to their college and career goals, an exercise that helps students affirm their identity, reduce feelings of belonging uncertainty, and find purpose and relevance in their college and career goals. Instead of connecting who they are to their education and career goals, as students do in Values Connection, People Connections facilitates students’ connections to other people in support of their goals, thereby helping them in the social capital building process. Students will identify people within their existing network, as well as people they may reach out to in the future, to support them in reaching their goals. The lesson also calls for students to identify a person in their life to help them stay accountable to their next actions.

Social capital refers to “the relationships and networks you have and your ability to use these connections for information, resources, and opportunities,” E.g. career advice, emotional support, or future job interviews. Put simply, social capital is “who we know,” (Education Strategy Group). Building a network of support is an important way to support students’ sense of belonging, which is strongly tied to persistence and success (Walton & Brady, 2020). Students’ sense of belonging can be more effectively leveraged by building structural supports that scaffold connections both within and outside the classroom (Gray et al., 2018).