Connections

So this weekend was the Annual Classical Association of New England (CANE) conference. It's a Friday-Saturday conference, so, on Thursday, I was explaining to my classes that I wouldn't be there.  I was off to yet another conference.

My students, especially my Juniors and Seniors, were fascinated and curious.  "How do you get all of these connections?" one of them asked me.  "You know soooo many people!" said another.

So I started telling them about how I just started going to conferences as an in-my-first-few-years teacher and talked to people.  I asked presenters about things that worked for them, talked to vendors, and met other people who were friends with people I already knew.

Part of it, I know, was me not being afraid to chat with people, even those I didn't know.  It's how I got involved with The Pericles Group.  I simply said hi, asked them about what they do, where they teach, which invariably led to some interesting connection with what you do, or someone you know, followed up with an email, and just kept in touch.   It's the same way that I became one of the co-editors for the new version of the CANE newsletter.  It all started with a simple conversation with someone I barely knew...

And it occurred to me that my students had no idea of how to network.  Come to think of it, I don't even know where I learned it.  I have a good feeling, though, that it started with my parents, both masters of the personal touch in contacting people.  My parents always stressed writing thank you notes, be it for gifts or for interviews or for people writing recommendations for me.  You get the idea.  "Be sure you personalize it," my mom once said, regarding a thank you note for an interview.  "Try to pick three things out of the conversation you had with the person and highlight them in your note.  Then, they'll know you remember them and you care." 

I tried to get this across to my students.  They were all amazed.  No one had ever told them this.  Ever.  And they hadn't remembered to write thank you notes to their college interviewers.  I felt terrible.  Why are they not learning these skills?

Sometimes, a firm handshake, friendly demeanor, and a personal email/note is all it takes.

Especially in today's world, being able to network with people who can help you market ideas is huge.  If you want to start your own company, networking with the right people and groups is crucial. 

How do we teach students these skills?  How do we model them for students?  Because, especially for today's students, it will be hard to succeed without a good, old fashioned, personal network.