The Importance of Social Capital in my College Journey
By: Ray Liu
Tags: Social Capital, Mentorship, Mentoring

Social capital — defined as the networks of relationships we have with others — is what I believe to be one of the most important parts in shaping where I am today in life. However, it’s a component that can often be overlooked, especially when it comes to how it shapes the outcomes of students that go through our higher education system.

When I look back at my own college journey, I know that I definitely would not be where I am today without my family, friends, and mentors that helped me along the way. From applying for college to seeking academic and career success, I had support from others every step of the way. While I worked hard to build and maintain these relationships and act on the advice I received, there are also many components I could easily have taken for granted that I’m grateful for.

One of the first times I realized the importance of social capital was while I was a student at my academically rigorous and high-achieving high school. Despite the value of my education, I was a bit sheltered in an environment where it seemed that being good at studying in school was the only thing in the world. In sophomore year, I had found a volunteer webmaster opportunity with environmental nonprofit “Remineralize The Earth” through a site called VolunteerMatch. Being able to observe some of the work the Executive Director Joanna did such as attend conferences and promote partnerships with foundations and government agencies opened my eyes to the influence that relationships with others had on making change in the world.

In senior year, my high school had a guest speaker come in who had done environmental justice work, Mrs. Moreno. I felt nervous and wasn’t sure what it would lead to at the time, but my interest in environment at the time compelled me to go up to chat with her after the talk, and she gave me her business card and suggested we meet up for breakfast. She ended up telling me how important mentors were in her life, and showed me the basics of being a mentee as she became my first mentor.

College Admissions Process

When it came to the college admissions process, I was lucky enough to attend a high school that sent students to many top colleges. Although I might not have fully grasped the benefits I got from such a privilege at the time, I was able to ask questions of alums from my high school who were in their first year at colleges I was interested in applying to, and even got their help in reviewing my essays.

I was initially not even sure if I should apply to Duke, but my friend Matthew answered my questions thoroughly and convinced me to apply. I eventually got waitlisted as decisions came out. My friend Max’s dad, who had a sales background, told me to pick up the phone and call to reaffirm my interest, and to this day I still think that call made a difference in helping me get admitted off the waitlist. As I decided between my final two choices of Duke and Berkeley, I had multiple friends at each college from my high school that I could lean on for advice. And when I ultimately decided on Duke, I felt very comfortable knowing there would be about 30 other alums from my high school at Duke already.

Overall, utilizing the access to social capital that I had helped me every step of the way when it came to my college admissions process.

Duke

When I started at Duke, I knew that I already had a strong academic foundation from attending my academically rigorous high school, so I made an intentional shift to focus on meeting people and developing social capital. Little did I know that social capital would become the core asset of my navigation through undergrad.

Getting meals or coffee with interesting people of varying interests and backgrounds was one of my favorite parts of college. I kept a running list of people I wanted to meet (people passionate about entrepreneurship, education, and more), and these conversations allowed me to learn more about myself, others from all walks of life, and ultimately led to many invaluable relationships and memories. An example of an important takeaway that came from such conversations included advice from Fuqua business school student Nick to take courses from great professors over ones with just an interesting course description. He was also one of the first to question why I was pursuing an engineering degree when my interests had started to evolve away from engineering. Switching over to the Arts & Sciences school ended up being one of the best decisions I made for myself in college.

In addition, I ended up adopting the philosophy of my entrepreneur friend Joe to get a single major and take a bunch of interesting classes that would have the potential to change my life. When it came time to pick courses for each upcoming semester, I was able to lean on recommendations from upperclassmen and alumni, and all of this help led me to design and redesign my path to the realization in my junior fall semester that I could finish my degree in 3 years.

When it came to extracurriculars, one of the best pieces of advice I got as a freshman was when Duke alum Matt recommended that it’s much better to do one activity very well rather than a bunch of activities kind of well. After spending my first semester exploring activities, I was lucky enough to find Duke’s Melissa & Doug Entrepreneur Program in my freshman spring semester, an accelerator program for student entrepreneurs that helped transform a few sparks of a peer tutoring idea I had to a bonfire of passion and a real startup in PeerKonnect, which now empowers peer tutoring programs in schools across the nation with software.

Jake and Tati of the Melissa & Doug program were life-changing mentors that helped me take my first steps as an entrepreneur, and Howie became perhaps my most important mentor and supporter during my time at Duke and put me in touch with so many Duke alums that were happy to help me with PeerKonnect. The other student entrepreneurs in the Melissa & Doug cohort, most of whom were older than me, also gave me so much support when it came to not only making it through the toughest parts as a founder, but also navigating college and life.

Reflection

Throughout undergrad, I felt like I had an army of people helping me every step of the way. However, the components that led to this fortunate position for me seem very nuanced and much more complex than me simply claiming that it was just a result of my hard work seeking out opportunities. For starters, I attended a high-achieving high school that not only helped me get a strong foundation when it came to academic knowledge and human capital, but also gave me access to strong networks of people for me to seek advice from on the social capital side. I also had one or two primary mentors who showed me the importance of mentors in their lives and how to navigate such relationships. I had the privilege of attending a well-resourced college like Duke, and even then I felt like I got very special treatment in being able to be a part of the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneur Program, where I benefited in ways that frankly aren’t that easy to scale to help all students.

The question I’ve started to ask myself more and more is how we can replicate these types of college experiences for all students that go through college?

This is the same question some of the leading experts in higher education are asking. There are six essential components of a college experience encompassing categories of “relationship-rich” and “work-integrated” experiences that were a result of the largest study done on college graduates examining their life and work outcomes in relation to their college experiences (read more here). The “relationship-rich” component for me was the meaningful relationships with mentors I had, and the “work-integrated” part was founding PeerKonnect.

The sad truth though is that today, only 2% of students currently can expect to get these 6 key experiences that would double their chances of “being engaged in their work and thriving in their overall wellbeing throughout their lifetime”.

As someone lucky enough to be a part of this 2%, I feel compelled to be a part of the solution to enable others to have the experiences that made my college experience so special. Much of this motivation is also what fuels my work at PeopleGrove currently, which is one of the closest things I’ve seen to helping colleges provide these “relationship-rich” and “work-integrated” experiences effectively and at scale.

Overall, relationships with others have felt fun and enjoyable in the short-term, while leaving opportunity for those with a mutual fit and that are maintained well to blossom into much more in the long-term. When I look back at some of the first seeds I planted on my journey of uncovering the potential of social capital, they have certainly sprouted in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Specifically, one of the main mentors I now speak to every two weeks is Pamela, a Duke alum and co-founder of VolunteerMatch, the same VolunteerMatch that enabled me to find my volunteer webmaster opportunity. As for guest speaker Mrs. Moreno, I’ve gotten coffee with her every semester for the past 5 years. When I was a high school senior, she was the one to treat me for breakfast, but we made a deal that I could return the favor after my startup PeerKonnect signed 10 paying schools, which happened last year.

While my journey involves a lot of twists and turns, it’s undeniable that social capital has opened up doors to opportunities that have allowed me to find my authentic self in ways I couldn’t have imagined. In turn, I hope to strive to reach the potential my mentors have seen in me, and help others in the same way they helped me.