Centenary University bestowed the world’s first post-graduate degrees in “happiness studies” on 87 students from 13 countries earlier this month.
But, for most of the graduates, their study of the topic isn’t over.
Technically, the pursuit of happiness is a process without an endpoint, they say. And some say they can’t wait to return to college to get a doctorate in happiness — because the New Jersey university’s master’s degree has left them hungry to spend more years learning about bliss.
“It’s a way for us to deal with one of the biggest issues in the world, through rigorous academics,” said Dale Caldwell, president of the private university in Hackettstown, as he greeted students before their May 1 commencement. “So many young people have been dealing with emotional challenges.”
Centenary, a small liberal arts university, began the first-of-its-kind master’s degree program in happiness in 2022 and quickly got dozens of applicants willing to pay the $17,700 tuition to enroll. This year’s graduates were the first to complete the degree.
The program attracted two employees of “the Happiness Place on Earth,” as Disney calls itself, along with the head of a paramedic company and a Ukrainian psychologist who created an online resiliency course for her fellow citizens.
At Centenary, the program’s master’s candidates take 10 eight-week online courses. The classes include: “Integrative Leaders on Happiness,” which features teachings from 14 leaders; “Happiness in Literature and Film,” in which students watch a film and read a poem and a short story each week; “Wholebeing Coaching.”
The students’ final projects are called “forever projects,” because they don’t end.
“The thing with the study of happiness is that it’s not just about helping people become happier, it’s very much about resilience, hardships, difficulties and challenges,” said Tal Ben-Shahar, the program director.
Ben-Shahar previously taught two of Harvard University’s most popular courses, “Positive Psychology” and “The Psychology of Leadership.”
As they gathered before a commencement reception earlier this month, the graduates appeared overjoyed to see each other in person after spending so long in virtual classrooms.
Jovannie Casillas, 40, a former Marine from Florida, said the program taught him to become his own best friend and to apply himself more in life, even at the grocery store.
“I’ll smile, give compliments, spread myself more,” Casillas said. “If somebody drops something, I’ll pick it up for people.”
Before devoting himself to happiness studies, he said he felt depressed, unsure, and unworthy — and he was 50 pounds heavier. Now, he feels open to and at one with everything.
“Our power is to choose at any moment,” Casillas said. “Happiness is a choice, the only choice we have. It doesn’t come to you. You have to choose your happiness.”
Hatya Khanooki, 51, who is originally from Iran, said she liked how the courses focused on various aspects of life that need attention during one’s journey toward happiness: spiritual, physical, intellectual, relational and emotional.
She also said she learned how to give other humans grace and forgiveness, and she lost 20 pounds as she learned more ways to pursue happiness. Though she lost four friends to COVID, she said she was able to accept fate and, through her studies, gain understanding around the deaths.
Iris Shapira, 56, of Israel, a Chinese medicine practitioner, said she wants to give workshops and teach what she has learned in the program. One of the most useful life hacks she absorbed was a new way to fall asleep through breathing exercises – inhaling for four seconds, holding her breath for seven seconds, and exhaling for eight, each night before bed.
She also has learned to keep a journal of things she’s grateful for, and she regularly stands in a window absorbing sunlight upon waking up.
“This whole community has been a big support for me,” Shapira said.
Julia Seal, 55, an employee engagement consultant and coach from Capetown, South Africa, said she enjoyed watching the changes she and her classmates went through during the two-year program.
“It was so exciting, watching the transformations,” she said. “I think it’s transmuting. That’s the potential, if you grab it with both hands.”
Caldwell, Centenary University’s president, said he described the master’s program at a recent meeting of 40 new college leaders. Many told him they wanted to take the courses.
“It really is kind of a coup that we’re able to have this, and expand it to the Ph.D. level,” he said.
The doctoral program, which is being developed for the fall of 2025, is just one of Ben-Shahar’s goals. He hopes other universities will be inspired to start similar programs. For Centenary, which has been “flexible, fast and nimble,” he also envisions undergraduate courses and a concentration in happiness studies.
The program, and its graduates, have surpassed his expectations, he said: “It’s been an amazing journey.”
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Tina Kelley may be reached at tkelley@njadvancemedia.com.
