1. The individual I chose to begin the chain of links is J. Michael DeAngelis. He is a former student from Penn who now works as Penn staff in the Graduate Career Services. He is a very professional and reliable individual. He has run shows with the Underground Shakespeare Company at Penn. Also because of his role with Graduate Career Services he has many important responsibilities having to connect Graduate Penn students with careers. Being connected with the Graduate students and the various graduate departments here at Penn, he is highly connected through the Penn community because of his occupation and would serve as a hub to various graduate departments. In a sense, he is like a Lois Weisberg of the Penn graduate community, because he must serve students from these departments. As in Granovetter's analysis, he works as a local bridge into several networks, tieing my relationship through a Theater Arts realm, with the professional sector of the Penn community.
2. My relationship with Michael is rather short. I know him from my most recent work this fall with the Underground Shakespeare Company, Much Ado About Nothing where he played the lead role of Benedick. The Underground Shakespeare Company is a very tight-knit community based on trust and a degree of loyalty to the company. They say that once you are part of USC, you are for life. Thus, you have input on future productions and can always rehearse for a show, even if you are not with Penn anymore. He had auditioned for the role last
Spring, while I was abroad. A sudden inconvience occured, and I was asked to pick up a supporting role in two weeks. In times of need, members help out as needed. But it was over these two weeks that I bonded with Michael.
However, although we do not have a long relationship, it is very strong because of the USC. Therefore, because of this common trust relationship through the company, I understood that Michael would be very reliable. As Granovetter states, "no strong tie is a bridge". Michael is not exactly my closest friend, and he may not be close friends with every graduate department, but he is an excellent bridge connecting these groups and there is a bond set on trust between us because of the company.
3. Because of the department Ms. Yoon works in, I know that she has a connection to Michael. Overall, I know that the Education school of Penn is a graduate school. While, I have had friends who studied through this school for classes that will allow them to receive a certificate of education to be able to teach, there is no major specifically for college students. Thus, the School of Education is primarily for graduate students. Thus, having Michael, who works with the Career Services of the graduate students, being so highly connected with this community, in particular he has worked with the Education school, he will be able to pass this folder along
through the graduate department. Thus, soley based on the structural position in the Penn community, this folder should be based along in a very professional manner. I knew that without having a person who I am connected to that is higher in the structural levels of Penn, I would probably have a much harder way of reaching Ms. Yoon. I would have to bridge the gap of the professional, graduate school level of Ms. Yoon's network with the undergraduate level of mine. It would be almost like the crossing of race of Korte and Milgram's study. Michael serves as my gatekeeper. Although I share the common characteristic of gender with Ms. Yoon, I feel it is much easier to cross directly into the professional realm earlier, especially with a reliable friend.
4. As I already stated, I believe that this path will follow through the graduate links. The folder will be primarily passed through the staff. The folder would go directly from Michael into the Graduate School of Education, from which it will be passed onto Ms. Yoon from whoever is most directly connected to her from Michael's connection. I do not believe that gender or duration at Penn will make an effect of how the folder is passed, because its primary path will be in terms of School of Education connections.
I think that person who will be the "assist" in the passing if the folder, as in he/she will be the last individual to pass the folder to Ms. Yoon, will be someone who often places students in their future education careers through Michael, and has contact with Ms. Yoon because they are both affliated with the Education department. Therefore, the relationship between the assist and the target will be one of coworkers in the same department. Like in the Milgram study, the assist would be like Jones, someone who "performs a similar function in the occupational domain". Michael breaching the gap into the education department because of his career service role, will connect him to an individual who is in the same occupational domain.
5.I believe that it will take only one more person between Michael and Ms. Yoon, because of the roles within these departments and how highly connected Michael is. Michael even mentioned to me that he has spoken with Ms. Yoon on the phone a few times while at work. I felt that this was not a close enough tie the two shared, but he said he knew an individual that could pass it to Ms. Yoon directly. I think that the folder will reach the target very soon as there is only one more link remaining. The only issue that may affect time is that Michael must go to the
Education department and give it to this next individual, which had posed an issue for me. I had to wait until the week had started again to catch Michael during working hours. But I sincerely believe that the moment that he will pass the folder, it will move rapidly through the education department, since they are in the same building.