The Greater Good Science Center Summer Institute for Educators 2020

Accommodations and Meals

We understand that many local participants might prefer to sleep at home during the Institute. However, those from nearby communities who attended the Institute in the past stated repeatedly how grateful they were for the opportunity to leave behind the daily stressors of life. Time away from home allowed them to fully engage in the learning community and to reflect more deeply upon the material. Therefore, we are invite all participants to stay on campus. We have very limited spots for local participants who are unable to do this.

Housing accommodations are located at the University of California, Berkeley, Clark Kerr Campus—a beautiful Spanish-style complex. Situated in a lovely Berkeley neighborhood, the campus is within walking distance of restaurants, shops, and the UC Berkeley main campus. There are several hiking trails with breathtaking views of the San Francisco Bay directly behind the campus. 

The two- and three-bedroom suites have shared living rooms and one or two bathrooms that are shared by suite occupants. Each participant will be assigned a private room for sleeping with a shared bath.

Breakfast and lunch are included, beginning with breakfast on Tuesday and ending with lunch on Saturday. 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.  Coffee, tea, and snacks will be available during the meeting sessions. You will arrange your own evening meals in Berkeley (or the greater Bay Area).

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:

Weekly parking permits are available for $100

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 or Uber/Lyft

Fees

The cost per participant is $2,600. This includes tuition, materials, room, and board (breakfast and lunch included). Participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and arrangements.

Groups of three or more from the same school and/or district will receive a 10% discount per person.

What Is Included

• 6 days of training
• Accommodations, including breakfast and lunch, for 5 nights, 6 days
• Web-based and printed materials
• 1-year membership to the Greater Good Science Center
• A certificate of completion

Who Should Apply

School professionals who are interested in cultivating the prosocial development and well-being of students and the adults who work with them, including:

• Pre-K through 12 classroom teachers, paraeducators, and out-of-school-time providers
• Pre-K-12 School mental health professionals and counselors
• Pre-K-12 School and district-level administrators
• Pre-K-12 Teacher and administrator educators
• Other higher education lecturers or professors are welcome to apply, but please be aware that the Institute is geared primarily towards Pre-K-12 educators

Scholarships

We regret that we are unable to offer any additional scholarship funding to those applying after our priority deadline of January 31, 2020.

Understanding that those who attend the Summer Institute for Educators do so on the salary of education or non-profit professionals, we do our best to make the Institute affordable without sacrificing quality or integrity. If you are unable to pay the full amount, we ask that you first check with your school/organization to see if they will cover any of your costs with professional development or other funding. If your school does not have funding, or their funding does not cover what you need, we may be able to provide a partial scholarship to help offset the cost of attendance.

The Greater Good Science Center is completely funded by donations and grants -- we do not receive any financial support from the University of California, Berkeley. As such, we have limited funds available for scholarships and cannot offer full scholarships. In order to be as fair as possible to all applicants and create the most opportunity we can with the scholarships, we ask applicants to request the minimum necessary.   

Please note that UC Berkeley policy prohibits us from awarding scholarships for travel.

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.

Nondiscrimination Policy

The University of California, in accordance with applicable Federal and State Law, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including sexual harassment), gender identity, pregnancy/childbirth and medical conditions related thereto, disability, age, medical condition (cancer-related), ancestry, marital status, citizenship, sexual orientation, or status as a Vietnam-era veteran or special disabled veteran.

Apply today!

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Understand how the integration of social-emotional learning, mindfulness, and character education creates a comprehensive blueprint for the social, emotional, and ethical development of both adults and their students.
• Understand and practice how to view education through the lens of prosocial human development, including social-emotional learning, mindfulness, identity, purpose, and ethical development.
• Examine and understand how their beliefs about social, emotional, and ethical development affect their work with students and as education professionals, in general.
• Begin to envision culturally and developmentally appropriate, research-based tools, strategies, and processes for integrating the science of prosocial human development into many areas of education, including the teacher-student relationship, student and adult well-being, school and classroom climate, content, and pedagogy.
• Develop initial strategies for sharing this work with others back home.

• 

  Vicki Zakrzewski, Ph.D.

  Vicki Zakrzewski, Ph.D., is the founding education director of the GGSC. As an international thought leader on the science of well-being in education, Vicki writes articles (Greater Good, ASCD's Educational Leadership, Edutopia, and Huffington Post), gives talks and workshops all over the world, and leads the GGSC's Summer Institute for Educators—an annual multi-day event in which education professionals learn how the science of compassion, empathy, gratitude, mindfulness, and other social-emotional skills can enhance their own lives and the lives of their students.

  Vicki also sits on several advisory boards and consults and collaborates with organizations on how to incorporate the science of well-being into education. Sample collaborations include the EASEL Lab and Making Caring Common within the Harvard Graduate School of Education; CASEL's California Collaborating States Initiative; the Learning and Policy Institute at Stanford University; UNESCO's Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Peace and Sustainable Development; Science for Monks and Nuns in Dharamsala, India; the Knowledge and Human Development Authority in Dubai, UAE; the Mind and Life Institute (of which she is a fellow); the Jim Henson Company on a new television show for preschoolers; the International School of Brussels on the Common Ground Collaborative curriculum; several social-emotional learning programs, including Second Step, MindUp, Open Circle, Facing History and Ourselves, and Inner Resilience; and Pixar/Disney on The Emotions Survival Guide—a follow-up book for children based on the movie Inside Out.

  A former teacher and school leader, Vicki earned her Ph.D. in Education and Positive Psychology from Claremont Graduate University. In her doctoral research, Vicki 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, researching their methods for developing teachers’ ability to create caring relationships with students.

• 

  Amy L. Eva, Ph.D.

  Amy L. Eva, Ph.D., is the Associate Education Director at the Greater Good Science Center. She writes for the Center’s online magazine, facilitates the Summer Institute for Educators, and creates online resources for educators. She is one of the key developers of the website, Greater Good in Education, which features science-based practices for creating kinder, happier schools. With 25 years in classrooms, she is a teacher at heart, fascinated by the psychology of learning and students’ social-emotional development.

  During her twelve-year tenure as a teacher educator, she became particularly passionate about educator resilience and self-care, and she loves to conduct workshops that focus on teacher well-being. One of her recent publications “The Mindful Teacher: Translating Research into Daily Well-being,” describes mindfulness, provides research-based evidence of its usefulness, and highlights resources that educators can use to manage stress. Some of her consulting work has also included presenting on “Empathy: The Science and Art of Connection” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and assisting LG in their “Experience Happiness” initiative, featuring curriculum for middle and high school students focused on six happiness skills (mindfulness, human connection, gratitude, positive outlook, purpose, and generosity).

  As a researcher, Amy has published in the areas of teacher education, metacognition, adolescent mental health, and mindfulness-based interventions with marginalized youth. She has also written numerous articles for Greater Good Magazine, as well as Edutopia, Mindful, and The Huffington Post.  She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (Human Development and Cognition) from the University of Washington where she worked with high school students’ in language arts classes, helping them to draw on their emotional responses to poetry to guide their understanding and enhance their appreciation of literature.

• 

  Meena Srinivasan, MA

  Meena Srinivasan, MA, National Board Certified Teacher, is a South Asian-American edupreneur with deep expertise in the fields of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Mindful Awareness Practices (MAP). She is the Executive Director of Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL), an empowering, racially and culturally diverse, compassion-centered, innovative program for educational leaders who are called to integrate mindfulness-based, social, emotional, academic and ethical learning into schools and school systems. Prior to this role she spent five and a half years working in partnership with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to implement SEL system-wide in the Oakland Unified School District. Meena has taught and led in a variety of school settings (public, private, urban, international) and holds a Clear Administrative Services Credential in the state of California. She is the author of Teach, Breathe, Learn: Mindfulness In and Out of the Classroom and SEL Every Day: Integrating SEL with Instruction in Secondary Classrooms. meenasrinivasan.com
   

• 

  Fred Luskin, Ph.D.

  Frederic Luskin, Ph.D., founded and currently serves as Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects. He is also Senior Consultant in Health Promotion at the Stanford University Health Center and Department Chair in Clinical Psychology at Sofia University. At Stanford Dr. Luskin teaches classes on The Art of Happiness, Meditation, Developing Emotional Intelligence and The Psychology of Storytelling to undergraduate and graduate students. He also conducts numerous workshops and staff development trainings in his work for the Stanford Be Well wellness program.

  Dr. Luskin is the author of the best-selling books Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness and Forgive for Love: The Missing Ingredient for a Healthy and Happy Relationship. His book Forgive for Good is the best-selling self-help book published on the topic of forgiveness. His research has shown that the Forgive for Good forgiveness methodology leads participants suffering from a wide range of concerns to improved physical and mental health.

  Dr. Luskin’s forgiveness work has been applied in veteran’s hospitals, churches, in resolving legal disputes, with cancer patients as psycho education and in psychotherapy. He has helped people recover from the murder of their family members as a result of political violence in Northern Ireland, as an aftermath of the attacks on 911, in Sierra Leone after their civil war and in artic Canada where native populations deal with the loss of their ancestral lands.

  He is also the author of Stress Free for Good: Ten Scientifically Proven Life Skills for Health and Happiness which emerged from his 10 years as a researcher in preventive cardiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. His work showed the effect of enhancing stress management and positive emotion skills to in help patients cope with congestive heart failure and arrhythmia. He also did some consulting work for Stanford Hospital nurses in managing their emotions.

I live in the Bay Area. Can I commute to the institute and sleep at home?

We understand that many local participants might prefer to sleep at home during the Institute. However, those from nearby communities who attended the Institute in the past stated repeatedly how grateful they were for the opportunity to leave behind the daily stressors of life. Time away from home allowed them to fully engage in the learning community and to reflect more deeply upon the material. Therefore, we are invite all participants to stay on campus. We have very limited spots for local participants who are unable to do this.

Do you offer CEUs for this course?

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer CEUs at this time.

Can my spouse/partner stay with me in the dorms?

Yes, for an extra fee. 

Can I arrive a day early or stay a day later?

We are unable to arrange for additional housing before or after the Institute, so you must provide your own accommodations if you wish to arrive early or stay late.

Will we have free time to explore Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco?

Yes! Besides the first night of the Institute, you will have your evenings free to explore the Bay Area.

Here is what some past institute attendees have said about their experience:

"Attending the Institute both helped me to be deeply grateful for the things my school already does, and to imagine and envision the places we can go in promoting SEL, mindfulness, and character education. Working with students of backgrounds historically underrepresented in higher education, these areas are so essential and so often neglected or ignored. It will be so special to bring back to share with my team and students."

"The Institute absolutely lived up to the promises of its advertised objectives. GGSC is moving at the speed of current research, and reflecting it holistically and objectively. The facilitators are experts in their fields and synthesized and presented in a highly engaging and effective manner. The Institute helped me refine my professional philosophy and purpose; I am very grateful for the entire experience."

"I highly recommend the SIE the everyone and anyone involved in education, from infancy to adults. They encourage educators to walk the talk as human beings in order to guide others in doing it as well. What an engaging, awe-filled, emotional and inspirational way to spend the week!"

"The SIE was a perfect blend of research discussion and practical application of the science of prosocial development. I am confident that the information that I am taking back to my school community will have a positive impact on school climate, as well as enriching our social-emotional learning curriculum."

"I have "come of age" in education during this period of standards and assessment. While clear interventions and measures have value, it is also of value to nourish the journey of each of us - students and educators. GGSC SIE shines a light on the "moreness" of this work. How we can support students not only in learning context, but practicing the ways of being that will serve them every single day. It is affirming to be surrounded with others who see this as integral to learning and living. This is a powerful and uplifting family to which we all belong. This is the moreness."

For more information, please email ggsceducation@berkeley.edu or call 510-761-7865.