A recent study found that ~40% of graduate students at UC Berkeley are depressed. The study cites stress and career prospects as key drivers of dissatisfaction. In response to the growing need for socio-emotional support on campus, Sara Beckman and I created a 7-week class in Spring 2018 aimed to help graduate students from across campus gain competency in reframing the issue of ’What should I do with my life?’ Inspired by Stanford’s Designing Your Life, the course aims to provide graduate students with space to reflect on individual values as well as concrete tools for designing a fulfilling life. The complete syllabus can be found here. A main piece of feedback from the course was to build a more diverse and inclusive reading list on career navigating and personal wayfinding. I put all of our readings on a Google Doc – if you have any suggestions please reach out.

In addition to the class, Sara Beckman, Barbara Waugh, and I have also offered a series of shorter DOL workshops in conjunction with the Berkeley Institute of Design, the Global Poverty and Practice Program, the Executive MBA program at Haas, and the Blum Center for Developing Economies!

Teaching // Design Education // Emotional Learning

Partners: Blum Center for Developing Economies, Development Engineering Program at UC Berkeley, Berkeley Executive MBA Program, Life Design Lab at Stanford