Growing Your Social Capital

John Alexander

1) Who they are and what their background is.

John Alexander is the executive director of the Reichert House Youth Academy in Gainesville, which is an organization that focuses on getting the youth in Gainesville on the right path.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

John Alexander will be my domain expert. He has worked in the mentorship field for quite some time now. He knows what to do and what not to do.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I met this person when I was tabling for Reading Pals at the Martin Luther King Center at a local mentorship event. He was a terrific speaker and truly believed in what he was doing.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?
This person gave me the a brief overview of the resources I may need. He simply wants me to do good. He believes in me.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
This person knows how to make a successful nonprofit mentorship program work. I will for sure use him in my network in the future.

Reverend Gerard Duncan

1) Who they are:

Pastor Duncan is a well known person within the Gainesville area who is well known for the food drives that he has. Although I am developing a mentorship program, we have a similar audience.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

Market Expert

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I actually contacted Pastor Duncan about 2 weeks ago because I was interested in helping out with his food drives. He was referred to me by Commissioner David Arreola when I told Comm. Arreola what I wanted to do while in Gainesville.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?

This person helped me by giving me experience. I've always been relatively involved in the community, but this person taught me how to do it successfully. He will certainly help me with my endeavors for I helped him with his.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Being that this person is well connected, I also can get in contact with others with similar endeavors.

Rahkiah Brown 

1) Who they are and what their background is.
Rahkiah is the woman in charge with Reading Pals, an organization with the goal of getting children in 1st-3rd grade to be on reading level.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.
Rahkiah is the supplier. Although her materials are generally for elementary schoolers, United Way is her parent company and this organization has the supplies for an effort like this.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.
I was an intern for Rahkiah last fall.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation?
This person has given me input to how to run the nonprofit successfully and has also given me supplies to do so as far as textbooks, people, and a place to work out of.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?
This person has done many favors for me and I will continue working for her in order to improve both of our organizations.


Reflect
This networking experience has been one of the more ambitious initiatives that I have been a part of. As opposed to the past, this one is more hands on. I will be building something from scratch and that will certainly be an experience .