People Connections

The Challenge

Many students struggle to access and mobilize relationships that could support them in pursuit of their education and career goals. Social capital-building is an essential skill for establishing a network of support that can “better connect students to key individuals who can help them understand their postsecondary and career options, prepare for the requirements and expectations of their chosen occupation, and begin to build a strong occupational identity,” such as career advice, emotional support, or future job interviews (Cultivating Connections by Education Strategy Group).

*Social capital refers to “students’ access and ability to mobilize relationships that help them further their potential and goals, both as those goals emerge and as they inevitably shift over time,” (Who You Know Playbook, Christensen Institute). 

The Solution

People Connections is a free extension activity to Values Connection that seeks to ground students in a sense of purpose as they explore the value of social capital.* 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. 

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).