Greater Good

At the Greater Good Science Center, we believe that the social and emotional well-being of students and teachers is vital to creating safe and caring learning environments in which all students thrive academically and socially.

According to research, instruction in social-emotional learning:

• Increases academic achievement;
• Promotes positive attitudes toward self, school, and others;
• Reduces problem behaviors and emotional distress among students—which, in turn, reduces teacher burnout.

Speakers include, clockwise from top left: Rick Hanson, Marc Brackett, Kristin Neff, and Megan Cowan

The Center’s first Summer Institute will provide science-based information, tools, and skills to promote the social and emotional well-being of both teachers and their students. We have assembled a group of world-renowned experts, such as Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist and best-selling author of Buddha’s Brain, and Megan Cowan, co-founder and executive director of Mindful Schools, who will share their wisdom, insights, and expertise on cultivating social and emotional well-being within ourselves and our students.

Participants will engage in interactive workshops and discussions that will foster an in-depth exploration and practice of: mindfulness, self-compassion, empathy, gratitude, achieving and maintaining positive emotions, emotional literacy, and emotional balance.

Summer Institute Overview

Please click on a link below to learn more about the institute, or scroll down the page.

Program Objectives

Participants will have the opportunity to:

• Explore the latest scientific research on the benefits of cultivating social-emotional skills
• Learn research-based practices for fostering social-emotional well-being in themselves and students
• Engage with thought leaders on how to make the case for the importance of social-emotional learning in their schools and communities

Who Should Attend

Pre-K through 12th grade educators, counselors, psychologists, and school and district-level administrators interested in the social-emotional well-being of students and in creating positive school environments

What is Included

• 6 days of training
• Accommodations and all meals (except one dinner) for 5 nights, 6 days
• Web-based and printed materials
• 3 web-based group Skype coaching sessions over the year
• 1-year membership to the Greater Good Science Center
• A certificate of completion and a letter confirming clock hours of instruction

Enrollment Instructions

Applications for the Greater Good Science Center Summer Institute for Educators are due by March 31, 2013. The application form can be found at the bottom of this page. Participants will be notified of admission by April 15, 2013, via email. If enrollment is full, then applicants will automatically be placed on a waitlist. Payment is due no later than May 1, 2013. If acceptance into the program falls less than 90 days prior to program start date, payment is due upon acceptance. Registration is now closed.

Fees

• $2,200 per participant. This includes tuition, materials, room, and board (except one dinner). Participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and arrangements.
• Scholarships are available. Please see instructions at the bottom of the application form.
• Payment in full by check must be received by May 1, 2013. International participants may pay by wire transfer.

Accommodations and Meals

Housing accommodations are located at the University of California, Berkeley, Clark Kerr campus—a beautiful Spanish-style complex, highlighted by terra cotta accents, tiled fountains, and landscaped courtyards. Situated in a lovely Berkeley neighborhood, the campus is within walking distance of restaurants, shops, and the UC Berkeley main campus. For outdoor enthusiasts, there are several hiking trails with breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay directly behind the campus.

The two- and three-bedroom suites have attractive living rooms and one or two bathrooms that are shared by suite occupants. Each participant will be assigned a private room with a shared bath. Please note that because of the retreat-like nature of the institute, we are requiring locals to stay at the campus rather than commute.

Participants will dine in the Great Hall Dining Room with its richly paneled walls and coffered ceiling. Buffet menus offer a wide selection of hot entrees (including vegetarian and vegan options), a 100% organic salad bar, vegetables, soup, beverages, and desserts at each meal. All meals except one dinner are included, beginning with dinner on Friday, June 28, and ending with breakfast on Wednesday, July 3. Coffee, tea, and snacks will be available during the meeting sessions.

Transportation

Participants are required to arrange their own travel arrangements. Please do not make any arrangements until you are admitted to the program. More details will be included in the registration package.

Parking:
Parking permits are available for $14.00 per day.

Nearby airports:
Oakland International Airport
San Francisco International Airport

Transportation from the airport:
BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) + taxi
Bayporter (daytime, by reservation only)
Super Shuttle (evening, by reservation only)
Taxi

Cancellation Policy

Cancellations must be submitted via fax or email. Full refunds will be given up to 45 days prior to the start of the program. Due to program demand and pre-institute preparations, cancellations received 44-31 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of 10% of the program tuition. Cancellations received within 30 days prior to the start of the program and no-shows are subject to the full program tuition. Please note: cancellation fees are based upon the date the written request is received.

Contact Information

For more information, please email ggsceducation@berkeley.edu or call 510-642-2490.

Application

Scholarship Details
A limited number of scholarships are available through an application process to those who are in financial need. In order to be considered for a scholarship, please complete the question above and attach a letter of need explaining financial limitations from your principal or district administrator. Due to limited resources, we cannot guarantee that every application will result in a scholarship award.

Speakers

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist, founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, a member of the Greater Good Science Center’s Advisory Board, and the author of the best-selling book, Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. His Greater Good blog features posts from Just One Thing (JOT), his free newsletter offering a simple practice each week to bring you more joy, more fulfilling relationships, and more peace of mind.

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., is an associate professor in human development and culture at the University of Texas, Austin and the author of the new book Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind (William Morrow, 2011). Learn more about her work, including a test of how self-compassionate you are and exercises for boosting self-compassion, on her website, www.self-compassion.org.

Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He is also a Research Scientist in Psychology and Faculty Fellow in the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. Dr. Brackett is the author of 90 scholarly publications and developer of two university courses on Emotional Intelligence. He also is the co-creator of The RULER Approach to Social and Emotional Learning (RULER)—a CASEL SELect program. RULER fosters the development of social and emotional skills in children from kindergarten to high school as well as school leaders, teachers, staff, and families. Over 500,000 students in hundreds of schools throughout the world have benefitted from RULER. Dr. Brackett’s grant-funded research focuses on (1) the measurement of emotional intelligence (2) the role of emotions in learning, decision making, relationship quality, and mental health, and (3) the influences of RULER training on student and educator effectiveness, bullying prevention, and school climate. He is a recipient of the Joseph E. Zins Award for his research on social and emotional learning and serves on numerous Research Advisory Boards, including CASEL, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, and the Greater Good Science Center. He regularly delivers keynote addresses, consults with school systems on integrating RULER, and works with corporations on best practices for incorporating emotional intelligence. Currently, he serves as a consultant to Facebook on a large-scale research project designed to both prevent and decrease online bullying. He also holds a 5th degree black belt in Hapkido, a Korean martial art.

Megan Cowan received a B.A. in Comparative Health and Healing from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been practicing mindfulness since 1996 and working with children in various settings since 1999. As a cofounder of Mindful Schools, Megan has taught mindfulness to over 2000 children and trained over 200 teachers. Megan also consults with families on how to incorporate and apply mindfulness to address a variety of struggles that families encounter and increase the happiness of households.

Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Ph.D. Emiliana Simon-Thomas is the Science Director of the Greater Good Science Center. She earned her doctorate in Cognition Brain and Behavior at UC Berkeley. During her postdoc, Emiliana studied care/nurturance, love of humanity, compassion, and awe under the mentorship of Dacher Keltner. Previously the Associate Director/Senior Scientist at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, Emiliana’s research spans from the signaling, perceiving, and self-reporting of emotions to peripheral autonomic and neural indices of emotion to understanding the psychosocial benefits of emotional authenticity and connection. In other words, the potential for enhancing everything pro-social.

Eve Ekman, Ph.D. candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare, is conducting research on the effects of “empathy burnout” in the human services and health fields. A former fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, Ekman’s study looked at how chronic stress, exhaustion and the self-protective act of emotional withdrawal is leading to “a lack of work fulfillment that can prevent people from doing their jobs well.” Click here to read about Ekman’s research and work on the benefits of clinical empathy.

Vicki Zakrzewski, Ph.D., is the Education Director of the Greater Good Science Center. In her blog for the Center’s website, Vicki explores how the social-emotional skills of students contribute to their academic success and future ability to become caring members of society. She also provides science-based tips for promoting the social and emotional development of students, teachers, and administrators, as well as methods for creating positive school cultures. A former teacher and school administrator, Vicki recently spent two months in India—at a school awarded the Peace Education Prize by UNESCO and the Hope of Humanity Award by the Dalai Lama—in order to research their methods for developing teachers’ ability to create caring relationships with students. She earned her Ph.D. in Education and Positive Psychology from Claremont Graduate University where she studied under the guidance of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.