#1028: Social Capital by Design: Community-University Partnerships and Pathways into Technology Education

This practice-oriented paper describes the design of a partnership between StreetCode Academy and the Stanford Institute for Diversity in the Arts, created to connect community learners in a technology education program with university students and resources through a collaborative learning model. In this endeavor, social capital was emphasized as a lever for engagement to create opportunities for relationship-building across community and institutional networks. These relationships functioned as pathways for reciprocal learning and network expansion, which supported students’ and instructors’ engagement with technical skills and their development as innovators. Preliminary findings indicate increased student interest in continued participation in technology education. Instructors and mentors also reported an increase in confidence, skill development, and sense of purpose. This paper presents design considerations for operationalizing social capital and it shows how community-university partnerships can serve as a two-way bridge for reciprocal learning and network-building to expand pathways into technology education.