The Map You Were Handed: Cultural Wealth and Navigating Influences

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Step 1

Before the lecture: one message about work

Everybody grew up hearing things about work. What counts as a real job. What's safe. What people like us do. Write one of yours down now, before the lecture starts shaping your answer. Whatever you write here is the honest version.

A message about work you heard growing upSay it the way it was said. "Get something with benefits." "Nobody in this family works with their hands." "You're good with people, you should be a nurse." A sentence or two. Who said it, or where it came fromA parent, a grandmother, a coach, church, the neighborhood, TV, nobody in particular. You can say "my mom" without telling me anything else about her.

Which way did it push you?

The kind of work it pointed at, if anyOptional. "Toward nursing." "Away from anything creative." Leave it blank if it didn't point anywhere.

Step 2

Six kinds of capital you may already carry

A researcher named Tara Yosso looked at what students from communities that colleges tend to overlook bring with them, and she found six kinds of strength that never make it onto a resume. For each one, write one specific example from your own life. A moment, a pattern, or a person counts. If one doesn't fit you, check the box and move on. A real sentence beats an impressive one.

Step 3

Your three strongest, connected to a career

Pick the three capitals where your example is most specific or most true. Not the ones that sound best. For each, say how it would show up as a real asset in one of your two careers. Name the career and the actual part of the job it helps with.

Pick three

Build Part 1

This builds your Cultural Wealth Inventory in the order it's graded. Read it once, then Copy and paste it into the Canvas box for that assignment.

Step 4

Two forces, checked against your own data

A force is anything that shaped which careers felt possible, expected, or off limits before you ever opened this course. Pick two. For each one, describe it, trace it to a moment, and then do the part that matters: hold it up against what you've learned about yourself and see whether it agrees with you or fights you.

Your own data, so the check is real

Your top three values from the Values LabJust the three words.

Your three letter interest codeFrom the Interest Profiler.

Pick two forces

The force that's also an asset

One of your three strongest capitals from Part 1 is also one of the forces that shaped you. Pick it, and finish one sentence that starts with "I bring". That sentence is the first line of your professional story, so write it like you'd say it to someone hiring you.

I bring...Finish it. "I bring the ability to explain a hard thing to someone who's scared, because I did that for my grandmother at every appointment for six years."

Step 5

Who's actually in your field

One table has this for almost every job in the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes who holds each occupation, by sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, every year. Open it, find the closest title to your top career, and bring four numbers back. Then write what they mean for you, which is the only part that's graded on thinking.

Open BLS Table 11: employed people by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity (opens in a new tab)

Use your browser's find (Ctrl or Command plus F) and search a word from your career title. "Nurse" finds registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing assistants. Pick the closest match. If your career isn't there, check the box below and use the nearest broader line, like "Healthcare practitioners" or "Computer and mathematical occupations".

Which career are you looking up?Your top career right now. You can look up the other one on your own later.

The occupation title exactly as the table lists it

My career wasn't listed, so I used the nearest broader line

Total employed, in thousandsThe first number column. Optional.

Percent women

Percent Black or African American

Percent Asian

Percent Hispanic or Latino

One more source, if you found oneOptional. A professional association's diversity page, a pay gap report, anything credible. Name it and say what it said in a line. The BLS table alone is enough for full credit.

Did the numbers change anything?

What these numbers mean for you, specificallyNot "the field needs more diversity." Something like: who you'd likely be in the room with, what that might cost or give you, what question it leaves you with before you decide, and whether it changed your lean toward this career. Three or four sentences.

Step 6

DEAL reflection: four stems

Same four stems as every reflection in this course. Finish each one. The fourth stem is the one that matters most this time, because it's your navigation strategy, and a strategy names a specific move.

I learned that...

The one thing this work showed you about where your career thinking came from. One idea.

I learned this when...

The moment it landed. Writing a force down, reading a number in the table, something you remembered.

This learning matters because...

Why it matters for your decision, and for you as a person. Use one idea from the lectures or from earlier in the course: community cultural wealth, the hidden curriculum, the both and frame, your interest code, your values, a thought pattern you caught.

In light of this learning, I will...

Your navigation strategy. One specific move you'll make, with the people, the numbers, or the timing in it.

A shrug with words on itI will try to balance my family's expectations with my own goals and keep an open mind.

A strategyMy parents' main worry is money. Registered nurses in Riverside start around $80,000 with steady openings. I'm going to put those two numbers in front of them before I say anything about why I want it, and I'm going to ask my aunt, who they trust, to be in the room.

Build Part 2

This builds Navigating Influences in the order it's graded: two forces, the capital you carry, the numbers for your field, and your DEAL reflection. Read it once. Then Copy and paste it into the Canvas box for that assignment.

Where this travels

The day you submit, open the Portfolio Builder and paste this into the Valuing section, and your Part 1 inventory into About Me. Two minutes now saves you an evening at the end.

Nothing here is scored. Only what you paste into Canvas is graded. Your answers save to your GUI 47 account and follow you to any device. Where you are is information, not a verdict.