Learning Program Mission We strive to engage all students as partners in learning in order to equip them with the knowledge, skills, strategies, and mindsets to thrive academically and holistically in Princeton’s distinctive liberal arts / research university setting.Moreover, in this distinctively challenging environment, our aim is to support students in developing a more productive perspective or framework for making sense of and responding to the inevitable challenges they will encounter in Princeton generally. Our aim is to acknowledge and normalize these challenges so that students see them as originating not in personal deficits but resulting from an unfamiliar and uniquely challenging environment which, simultaneously, provides great opportunities for growth if embraced with the same kind of resourcefulness, problem-solving and resilience that led to students’ previous success. FLOURISHING: Our approach to holistic flourishing is informed by positive psychology research and theory, and in particular by the well-established PERMA-V framework. PERMA is an acronym for: Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Achievement and Vitality (positive energy). True thriving, includes all of these aspects of experience and life, which is not to say thriving ONLY includes these experiences. ACADEMIC FLOURISHING: We extend the concept and framework of flourishing to the academic realm and establish as our aim the promotion of Academic Flourishing among Princeton students. This includes: Regularly experiencing POSITIVE EMOTIONS associated with your intellectual and academic endeavors, feeling such as curiosity, appreciation, hope, satisfaction, pride and joy related to academic and scholarly pursuits. Deeply ENGAGING in courses, learning, study and producing and sharing knowledge and know-how as reflected in being absorbed in tasks, concentrating deeply, and productively embracing challenges as a source of growth. Participating in mutually supportive RELATIONSHIPS and interactions with peers, instructors, mentors and others in ways in order to contribute to academic engagement, learning, meaning-making and achievement. Finding MEANING and purpose by making autonomous choices about what and how one learns, studying domains that are relevant and significant, and exploring the world and oneself and growing in ways that are significant beyond grades and other external rewards. Experiencing a sense of ACHIEVEMENT by identifying and accomplishing meaningful intellectual and academic goals, recognizing one’s own growth and improvement in knowledge, skills and other areas, and feeling a sense of positive self-regard. Cultivating and embodying VITALITLY by balancing intellectual and academic pursuits with meeting fundamental physical, emotional, spiritual and other needs essential to emotional wellbeing, and the sustained effort and engagement that lead to meaningful work and achievement which, in turn, are crucial for feeling physically and emotionally vital.
