Purpose Challenge Toolkit

Encourage students to use the Purpose Challenge Toolkit to kick-start their thinking about purpose.

How can teachers help students cultivate purpose?

  • Encourage discussion and reflection related to purpose.
  • Ask students about their lives: What is important to you? What do you want to accomplish and be remembered for?
  • Integrate questions about purpose into the curriculum. For example, discuss the ethical dimensions of what is being learned. Encourage students to explore how the curriculum relates to their own values and goals.
  • Nurture the positive attitude, self-confidence, sense of responsibility, and “entrepreneurial spirit” (goal-setting, persistence, resilience, resourcefulness, etc.) that will enable students to turn their dreams into reality.
  • Talk with students about your own sense of purpose and what makes your life meaningful.
  • Try out the activities to get familiar with how to foster purpose.
  • Barbara Fredrickson
    “We scientists need partnerships with organizations like the GGSC because we’re not experts in reaching loads of people on a regular basis. Providing sustained delivery of content that’s thoughtful, not over-the-top, appropriately measured, and empirically grounded—that’s what the GGSC does better than anybody.”

    ― Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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