Building
Social Capital
ASU Local students lack a robust professional network to support their career ambitions. While the university has provided them with many networking opportunities it has yet to build a piece of curriculum that teaches students how to network on their own.
The Problem
The Building Social Capital project is an applied learning experience designed to help ASU Local students build confidence and agency in growing their professional networks. Rather than relying on one-off networking events, the course teaches students how to identify professionals, initiate outreach, conduct informational interviews, and reflect on their experience—skills they can carry forward long after graduation.
The Solution
This project was built using the ADDIE design process, grounding the experience in learner needs, iterative development, and continuous improvement.
Analysis
Design
Development
Implementation
Evaluation
Analysis
Networking consistently surfaced as a challenge for ASU Local students. While the program offered occasional networking events, there was no structured curriculum focused on teaching students how to build and sustain professional relationships independently. To better understand student readiness, I conducted three nationwide polls through Slack assessing network strength, outreach comfort, and LinkedIn usage.
ASU Local Poll Results
Professional Network
Info Interview Comfortability
Analysis Takeaways
92% of students entered the program with little to no professional network
78% felt uncomfortable initiating outreach
Only 22% actively used LinkedIn
It’s clear that building one’s network is important to students but it is also a significant growth area
Even though ASU Local has provided one-off networking events, they haven’t helped students feel empowered to go out and network on their own
Design
Rather than designing a networking event, I focused on designing confidence. The experience needed to reduce intimidation, provide clear structure, and give students permission to practice outreach in ways that felt relevant to their goals. I intentionally mapped the learning journey step by step, sequencing concepts and activities so students could build confidence progressively through guided practice and reflection.
As the experience came together, the learning outcomes naturally surfaced, shaped by what students needed and what would best support skill-building.
Project Learning Outcomes
Apply strategies to build and leverage social capital
Initiate and conduct informational interviews with professionals
Translate networking experiences into professional communication artifacts
Reflect on growth and confidence in professional networking
Development
In the development phase, I designed a complete set of instructional materials intended to work seamlessly across both in-person and digital environments. The experience was built to be accessible, adaptable, and consistent across ASU Local sites nationwide, ensuring students received a high-quality learning experience regardless of location.
Materials included facilitator guides, student-facing resources, digital templates, and assessment tools—each intentionally aligned to support live delivery, independent work, and asynchronous follow-up. Special attention was given to clarity, usability, and accessibility so coaches could facilitate with confidence and students could navigate the experience with ease..
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![Project Overview]()
Project Overview Handout
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Teacher Resources/Handouts
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Graphics for the Course
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Teaching Concepts
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Articulate Rise
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Conversion from In-person to e-course
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Lesson Plan
Implement
During implementation, I led a nationwide rollout by facilitating project training sessions for coaches and site directors across ASU Local. These sessions aligned facilitators on project goals, deliverables, resources, and the foundational networking concepts needed to support students effectively. I also held targeted 1:1 coaching sessions to address site-specific needs and build facilitator confidence.
Drawing on my background in teaching and coaching, I developed a set of facilitation best practices to support high-quality delivery. These included guidance on LinkedIn strategy, leveraging the ASU Foundation and Alumni networks, and coaching students through professional communication and public speaking.
As sites implemented the curriculum in person, I gathered real-time feedback from coaches and students. These insights informed refinements to both the facilitator guidance and the accompanying e-course, ensuring the experience continued to improve as it scaled.
Evaluate
Evaluation focused on learner completion, confidence, and the program’s ability to scale across sites.
Successes
The project provided a clear, structured approach for students to initiate and conduct informational interviews with confidence.
Sites were able to integrate networking into their programming without the logistical burden of organizing large-scale networking events.
Learners responded positively to the autonomy built into the experience, engaging more deeply because they could connect with professionals aligned to their individual career interests.
An unexpected outcome was peer-to-peer sharing: students began connecting classmates to professionals they had met, extending social capital beyond individual participation.
90% of students who began the project successfully completed it, indicating strong engagement and feasibility at scale.
Growth Areas
Some students disengaged after initial outreach attempts went unanswered. Earlier checkpoints to confirm interviews were scheduled would help prevent late-stage drop-off.
A small number of students interviewed existing contacts, limiting the expansion of new social capital. Future iterations could provide clearer guardrails to encourage outreach beyond existing networks.
Employer and professional feedback was not formally collected, limiting insight into student performance from the external perspective. Incorporating this feedback would strengthen iteration and skill alignment.
The quality of final presentation materials varied. Providing clearer guidance, exemplars, or a lightweight rubric for visual and communication standards would support more consistent outcomes.
As a result of its effectiveness and scalability, the ASU Local Building Social Capital Upskilling Course is now a required experience for all students prior to graduation.
