2022_09_New_Jersey_Monthly

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