How an AI social capital bot helped LaGuardia Community College Students land job offers through building relationships.
General description of the project
The Challenge
In today’s AI-saturated job market, professional relationships have become more critical than ever. While 70% of jobs are never posted publicly and 80% are filled through referrals, our research revealed that job seekers submit 4.4 times more applications than they have career conversations. Over one-third of students don’t believe in the value of professional connections, with first-generation and low-income learners facing the steepest barriers—from lack of confidence to limited understanding of how to reach out or what to say.
The Innovation
LaGuardia Community College partnered with Climb Together to pilot Goldi, a groundbreaking AI career coach that uses realistic voice-based role-playing to teach relationship building skills and help learners reach out to professionals to unlock job referrals. Unlike traditional AI tools that simply generate “the answer,” Goldi actively coaches learners through meaningful interactions, provides real-time personalized feedback, helps identify alumni connections on LinkedIn, and crafts authentic outreach messages. The goal for the students is to schedule five in person/zoom informational interviews or coffee chats to build the habit of practice around relationships.
Built on six years of action research and over 150 pages of curriculum, Goldi embodies best pedagogical practices: patient guidance, thoughtfully paced content, and collaborative iteration until learners truly own their development.
Evidence of Success
Summer 2025 Pilot Results (40 completers):
98% took concrete actions toward building professional connections
Confidence in authentic outreach: 41% to 100% (pre to post)
Ability to craft professional requests: 46% to 84%
Comfort discussing challenges/growth: 62% to 92%
Professional storytelling skills: 53% to 92%
Conversational adaptability: 54% to 100%
Real-World Impact: One shy fine arts student, Joy, applied these skills during a daycare job interview. The interviewer asked, “When you typically look for stuff, do you just go in cold?” Joy responded: “No, not at all. I knew that I needed to try because Indeed only takes you so far.” She engaged the interviewer with thoughtful, open-ended questions—something she “never did before”—and received a job offer on the spot.
Cost-Effectiveness
Goldi Approach:
3-4 hours of AI-coached content (12 chat sessions, 10-15 minutes each)
Minimal faculty or staff lift – simply assign Goldi as part of a course for homework
Students can access Goldi 24/7 via mobile, practicing as many times as needed without judgment. One student noted: “Goldi pulled the skills out of me. She helped me articulate things about myself that I wouldn’t have known to say. She helps me translate what my skills mean for different job contexts.”
Technologies
How Goldi Works
Multimodal AI Coaching Platform:
Voice-based interaction builds speaking confidence and trust
Socratic approach asks questions to develop students’ own thoughts rather than providing answers
Memory capability references past conversations to provide personalized, contextual coaching
Asset-oriented coaching builds from a place of positivity
Skill translation helps apply abilities to new professional contexts
SMS accountability provides nudges and reminders throughout the learning journey
12-Module Curriculum:
Answer “Tell Me About Yourself”
Accessing the hidden job market
Take the ‘Slimy’ out of Networking
Tell Your Story
Make New Connections on LinkedIn
Prepare for Your Career Chat
Practice Active Listening
Find Ways to Stay in Touch
Go Deep: Connect Beyond Small Talk
Navigate Fears Around Making an Ask
Ask for Help to Land a Job
Build a Long-Term Network
Technology Effectiveness
Pedagogical Design: Goldi doesn’t just prepare students—she guides them through realistic scenarios that translate directly to real-world networking. In one recorded interaction, a high school student named Ezra initially struggled with “Tell me about yourself.” Within 2.5 minutes of working with Goldi, he developed a concise, compelling personal narrative with visible confidence growth—a transformation rarely achieved so quickly.
Performance Metrics:
Automated pre/post surveys track 15+ competency indicators
Real-time progress tracking with visual check marks
Detailed conversation logs enable continuous improvement
Integration with LinkedIn for actionable connection-building
Scalability Demonstrated: The platform successfully delivered consistent learning outcomes across multiple cohorts with minimal variation, proving the technology’s reliability and effectiveness.
Explain project results
Impact on Students and Institution
Student Benefits
Immediate Skills Development:
98% of learners took concrete networking actions during the pilot
Students learned to ask open-ended questions, practice active listening, mention shared interests, and make professional requests
Mindset shifts: students moved from viewing networking as “slimy” to seeing it as “about trust, support, and meaningful connection”
Career Outcomes:
Increased confidence in reaching out to alumni and professionals
Practical experience translating classroom learning into workforce-ready skills
Equity Impact: First-generation and low-income students, who often lack professional networks, gained tools to level the playing field. One student reflected: “Before this lesson I thought we should never show vulnerabilities… but now I think it’s another way of connecting with people.”
Institutional Benefits
Operational Efficiency:
Minimal staff setup time required
Scalable solution enables reaching more students with same resources
Can be embedded across curriculum, not limited to career services
Faculty Integration: The program provides a pathway to partner with faculty to embed social capital development into mandatory curriculum—addressing a critical gap where most students rely exclusively on job boards.
Data-Driven Improvement: Automated tracking provides rich insights into student progress and areas needing support, enabling continuous program refinement.
Why it should be considered best practice?
1. Addresses Universal Student Need
Professional networking skills are critical across all disciplines and career paths, yet systematically undertaught—especially for underserved populations.
2. Evidence-Based Design
Built on six years of curriculum development and action research, informed by Clayton Christensen Institute findings and validated through rigorous pilot testing.
3. Scalable and Sustainable
Goldi can serve unlimited students simultaneously with consistent quality. Multiple institutions (Sinclair Community College, Merit America, Western Governors University) are already implementing.
4. Cost-Effective
Requires minimal staff time while delivering measurable outcomes. Students can practice repeatedly without additional resource investment.
5. Flexible Integration
Can be deployed through:
Career services as standalone offering
Faculty assignments within existing courses
Student success programs
Clubs and student organizations
Bridge programs and onboarding
6. Measurable Impact
Comprehensive pre/post assessment demonstrates concrete competency gains across multiple dimensions of social capital development.
7. Culturally Responsive
Meets students where they are, allowing them to practice in a safe, non-judgmental environment before high-stakes real-world interactions.
8. Complements Human Support
Doesn’t replace counselors and advisors—instead, Goldi handles skill-building and practice, freeing staff for higher-touch relationship counseling and strategic guidance.
Highlights of your proposed presentation
Proposed Session Structure (40 minutes)
Opening (5 min): Present the challenge—why AI makes professional relationships more critical than ever, supported by research data.
Case Study (7 min): Share LaGuardia’s pilot results
Live AI Demonstration (8 min): On-stage demonstration where a volunteer interacts with Goldi in real-time, showing how the coaching works. The audience witnesses the transformation within minutes.
Interactive Polling (5 min): Engage audience in live polling about their institutions’ current social capital curriculum and integration strategies.
Small Group Exercise (10 min): Participants brainstorm in pairs how to integrate AI-led coaching or alumni outreach into their existing programs. Selected groups share insights.
Lessons Learned & Q&A (5 min): Share key takeaways and actionable strategies for implementation.
Key Lessons Learned
What Worked:
Voice-based interaction created psychological safety students didn’t experience with text-only tools
Asynchronous access removed scheduling barriers while maintaining accountability
Scaffolded skill progression (12 modules) prevented overwhelm while building confidence
Real-world application focus ensured immediate transferability of skills
Unexpected Insights:
Mindset transformation was as important as skill development – students needed to overcome beliefs that networking was “slimy” or required showing weakness
Faculty partnerships are critical – embedding in curriculum ensures reach beyond self-selected career services participants
Students value the ability to practice repeatedly – unlike one-time workshops, Goldi allows unlimited practice until confidence is built
Implementation Considerations:
Students need clear expectations about time commitment (3-4 hours total)
Optimal deployment integrates Goldi throughout a semester rather than compressed timeline
Consider “Goldi champions” (faculty/staff) who can normalize usage and celebrate successes
Technical tips matter: quiet location, headphones, computer preferred over mobile for optimal experience
Challenges and Solutions:
Challenge: Students may feel awkward initially talking to AI
Solution: Brief orientation video showing real student interactions normalized the experience
Challenge: Ensuring accountability in asynchronous environment
Solution: SMS reminders and embedding as graded assignments drove completion
Challenge: Balancing automation with human connection
Solution: Position Goldi as practice tool that prepares students for meaningful conversations with advisors and alumni
Future Directions:
Exploring integration across first-year experience courses
Developing assessment rubrics for faculty to evaluate student networking competencies
Creating alumni engagement pipelines that leverage student preparation through Goldi
Studying long-term career outcomes of Goldi users vs. control groups
The Evaluation Committee will evaluate submitted proposals based on the following criteria. Each area will be rated on a scale from 1 to 5 (1= non-satisfactory; 5 =outstanding), for a maximum of 45 points.