Developing and Enhancing the Social Networks and Networking Behavior of

First-Generation College Students of Color

Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar, Ph.D.
June 8, 2016
LinkedIn & Scribd
In this post I introduce a curriculum project designed to teach college students of color the
methods and skills entailed in constructing and enhancing their social network, both on and
off campus. This brief presentation is primarily intended for college administrators and
directors of EOP, as well as other student-support campus programs designed for firstgeneration students of color. Of course, anyone interested in this topic is welcome to read
it. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed as well. RDSS

Across professions, we increasingly see workshops and courses that address the necessity
of effective networking for reaching career goals as well as for supporting the agendas of
an organization. The term networking causes many people anxiety, many due to its
unfortunate negative connotations, particularly the idea of establishing numerous
superficial relationships with people with the opportunistic intent of getting something they
possess. In contrast, I define networking here as the cultivation of different kinds of
meaningful and genuine relationships with people situated across diverse institutional
settings; such relationships are defined by sincere and ongoing mutual support and
empowerment. For first-generation college students, relationships with dedicated faculty
members, campus program directors, administrators, and student leaders underlie the

Introducing Social Network Project

Stanton-Salazar

LinkedIn

6/8/16

individuals academic success and intellectual development. A robust network serves to

provide the individual with accumulated social capital, defined here as highly-valued
resources and forms of support necessary for achieving immediate and long-term goals.
Such a network also provides many opportunities to help and empower others, a key factor
in developing a reputation as a figure known for their true generosity and penchant for
helping people achieve their goals.
With regard to first-generation college students from working-class, racial-minority
communities, I have recently made the case that virtually no intervention or student-support
program has had the explicit objective to teach college students about social networks, how
they operate in society, and how they play an essential role in students access to valuable
resources, vital forms of support, and social ties to people in positions of influence, all of
which underlie academic success and effective preparation for post-college careers or
advanced study.
Besides academic success, learning to engage in effective networking has been shown to lead
to other benefits, including productive job searches, career planning and advancement,
informed decision making, mental health, ethnic identity development, the development of
both personal and political influence, organizational skills, and productive engagement with
people of diverse backgrounds and diverse views.
A networking curriculum designed for college students of color should be grounded in
sociological theory and social science research. Thus, students also learn how social networks
operate in society, as vehicles of power and privilege. Indeed, networks, at the group level,
often operate to sustain the reality of de facto segregation and exclusion by race, class, and
gender. Effective networking by students of color thus requires navigating across social
structures and cultural borders defined by class and racial systems of stratification and by
various forms and degrees of institutionalized exclusion; social networks can be inclusive, or
they can be closed to racialized outsiders. Students also learn that all social justice
movements in the U.S. have relied on effective networking. Access to valuable resources, the
ability to organize communities, access to power brokers and allies, and effective leadership
are all vital elements to any progressive social movement.
The curriculum currently in development entails extensive material covering a wide range of
topics related to effective networking and student empowerment. It includes social science
research, the introduction to conceptual frameworks, self-assessments by students, reading
content on the how tos of networking, classroom-based activities, and out-of-classroom
assignments. Such a curriculum can be tailored to undergraduates (first-year or seniors), MA
graduate students, or doctoral students. Given the needs and resources of the department or
university, a range of presentation formats are possible.
An accompanying document provides three narratives of how social networks can operate to
support academic goals, specifically in the lives of undergraduates, doctoral students, and
junior faculty.

Introducing Social Network Project

Stanton-Salazar

LinkedIn

6/8/16

As professor Wayne Backer writes, Success is social: It depends on our relationships

with others. All the ingredients of success that we customarily think as individual
natural talent, intelligence, education, effort, and luckare intricately intertwined with
networks. This reconsideration of success demonstrates why its useful to unlearn the
lessons of individual achievement, revising our perspectives of the world and how it
operates.
Baker, W. (2000). Achieving success through social capital: Tapping hidden
resources in your personal and business networks. University of Michigan,
Business School.
RD Stanton-Salazar, Ph.D.
WEBSITE: www.stanton-salazar.com
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com (Currently 6 posts for download.)
Available documents of unpublished work: www.scribd.com
EMAIL: rstanton-salazar@icloud.com

Introducing Social Network Project

Stanton-Salazar

LinkedIn

6/8/16