2022_09_New_Jersey_Monthly
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taking<br />
flight<br />
Math, history and...happiness? <strong>New</strong> <strong>Jersey</strong>’s schools and colleges<br />
offer an array of unique programs and courses, from Centenary<br />
University’s brand-new Master’s in Happiness Studies to Lodi High<br />
School’s biomedical lab that looks and feels like a real hospital.<br />
You’ve probably heard of overpriced, oversold<br />
promises from self-help coaches and <strong>New</strong> Age retreats<br />
before.<br />
Yet the trailblazing Master of Arts degree in happiness<br />
studies—the first of its kind in the country— promises<br />
to be different. It’s being offered at Hackettstown’s Centenary<br />
University this fall.<br />
“I always say to students, first and foremost, ‘This is an academic<br />
program,’” says Tal Ben-Shahar, the program’s founder<br />
and a professor of happiness studies. “This is not some self-help<br />
or <strong>New</strong> Age program. It’s not just that it feels good to feel good.<br />
Increasing levels of happiness has numerous by-products.”<br />
The interdisciplinary degree is an online, 30-credit program<br />
consisting of eight classes, says Ben-Shahar, a former<br />
Harvard professor who taught the Ivy League’s two largest<br />
classes in its history, on positive psychology and the psychology<br />
of leadership. It’s geared toward anyone who feels they<br />
could benefit from the practical knowledge offered via the<br />
degree, and it can help those who wish to be more creative,<br />
productive, present and kind, he says.<br />
Students are set to study a diverse array of disciplines,<br />
from thousand-year-old philosophies such as Taoism, a<br />
belief system birthed in China and aimed at living a simple<br />
and balanced life in harmony with nature, to the modern field<br />
of positive psychology, the scientific study of what makes<br />
life worth living.<br />
The program is even going to scrutinize cinema, such as the<br />
hit film 1998 The Truman Show, a psychological science fiction<br />
satire starring Jim Carrey as a man who realizes that he has<br />
been living his entire life as part of a reality television show.<br />
“It asks, ‘How can I help myself and how can I help others<br />
increase their levels of well-being?’” Ben-Shahar says of the<br />
curriculum. “Having this knowledge can help a manager who<br />
is running a team or organization, it can help a teacher leading<br />
a classroom, it can very much help coaches and therapists, not<br />
to mention, it can help parents become better role models for<br />
their children.”<br />
The program’s partnership with Centenary University, a<br />
private 155-year-old liberal arts institution was serendipitous<br />
for both parties, says president Bruce Murphy.<br />
“Like most people, when you hear masters in Happiness<br />
Studies, you’re like, Wait a minute? What is this?” he jokes.<br />
However, Murphy says, he was impressed by its rigor and<br />
sound academic basis, studying theoreticians, scholars and<br />
philosophers all the way back to Aristotle and Confucius.<br />
Will happiness studies fall victim to the same criticism<br />
that the billion-dollar wellness industry has endured, namely<br />
that it’s taking advantage of people? Ben-Shahar admits that<br />
some of the complaints are well deserved, but he rejects the<br />
notion that pursuing happiness is either selfish or selfless.<br />
“We get our best ideas when we stop and reflect—when we<br />
ask questions—and this is exactly what we are asking of our<br />
students.” Not doing so, he believes, “is compromising our<br />
potential for making the most of our life.” —Falyn Stempler<br />
Illustration by Anna Godeassi<br />
62 SEPTEMBER <strong>2022</strong> NJMONTHLY.COM