Project Template on next line.
[College Athlete vs. Ordinary Student]
1. Objective: I propose to do a Wikipedia project on the social networks that are found in colleges, and more specifically Ohio University, and then how people respond to being put in new and unfamiliar sub-cultures and situations upon arriving to college. For example, how a person comes to a certain college because of his/her athletic ability compared to an average student who chooses this college because of their interest in the school. Also with this idea how athlete's lifestyle and their way of responding to situations (scholarships) may effect their college situation.
2. Interest: This is interesting because this project will show how college students that are involved in certain groups or organizations, specifically for this project-athletic teams have more weak-ties or know more people through teammates that will benefit them in the long run. We will look in depth at the collegiate athletic sub-culture and the weak-ties that are presented from it compared to the ordinary college student who just attended the school because of their interest in the school and are more opt to have more strong ties (but less weak ties) through residential relationships. I am also interested in how the college athlete deals with school (tutors, GPA requirements), on a more competitive or serious way than the regular college student.
3. Background reading I will read wikipedia, text book and other basic sociology texts on the following topics: weak ties compared with strong ties, conflict (how you respond to situations in the classroom), and subcultures.
1. I will also find scholarly research on the general issue of strong and weak ties.
2. I will find popular press discussions of my topic. Perhaps Wikipedia articles, blog entrys, interviews, and articles.
4. General Plan I plan, to interview my parter who is a college athlete. I will look at how weak ties are more beneficial than strong ties.
5. Collaborators I will be working with Qu_Ba_Spring_2008