With mental health serving as one of the biggest plagues on college campuses, few understand how to take advantage of the basic psychology behind increasing both happiness and meaning in their lives. In this class, we will be focusing on how to cultivate a spirit of happiness within ourselves from a psychological, social, and spiritual perspective so that students feel empowered to go out and create positive change within their communities.

This class will examine the elements of happiness from a comprehensive standpoint. We will start with a general overview of happiness, the means for achieving it, and the life advantages because of it. We will then apply the framework developed during the first part of the class to discuss the means for having fun and living happily while striving to change the world. The second part of the class will thus discuss the benefits of living with a purpose, what effective altruism looks like, how passion and perseverance are most powerful together, nonconformist living, how to fully tap into one’s motivation, and the development of expertise.

At the end of the course, students will work in groups to use the skills and concepts they’ve learned in this class to spread happiness within their community through a project of their choosing!