“It is not that people from underrepresented backgrounds reach too high, it is that we do not reach high enough.”

~ Monica Garcia, (previously my college prep advisor​ @ Johns Hopkins Center of Talented Youth Scholars)

About Werk Your Net 

If hard work was enough, we would already live in a fair society.

However we are not there yet due to invisible systems of inequity in information, resources, and networks. As people from non-traditional backgrounds whose existences have often been questioned, we already have a long history of “hard work” and “sacrifice.” Meg Garlinghouse the Head of Social Impact at LinkedIn states, “Where you grow up, where you go to school, and where you work can give you a 12x advantage in gaining access to opportunity.”

Werk Your Net is a book created for the non-traditional person to learn how to combine our “hard work,” with the right information, resources, and networks. It challenges problematic thinking and covers questions around…

1. What does qualified even mean?

2. How do I ‘network’ without being transactional?

3. What is the difference between sacrificing and being a push over?

4. How do I balance between familial expectations and professional responsibilities?

The book also provides a step by step guide in networking which includes: how to conduct research around a person or opportunity, how to increase response rate, how to draft an email or DM, how to follow up, and how to prepare to have a genuine and meaningful conversation with anyone regardless of their personality, status, and identity.