Graduation

Want to study Positive Psychology at Penn? This way please…

Martin Seligman & Nico RoseI spent the last weekend in Philadelphia at the Penn MAPP Alumni Meeting 2016 and the annual MAPP Summit. It´s always a great pleasure to meet my former classmates, or to get to know the current cohort of Mappsters, or some my of my predecessors.

If you are thinking about studying Positive Psychology at Penn, I urge you to visit this website: www.pennpositivepsych.org. It contains all the information on the program, e.g., the prerequisites, the schedule, and how to apply. You will also find some alumni stories (including mine).

If you´d like to know more about the study program: There´s an information session on campus on Nov. 10 and a virtual information session on Dec. 8.

Otherwise, the entries in this blog from day one all the way up to August 2014 serve as a documentation of my year in the MAPP 9 cohort (2013/2014). You can basically follow me an look over my shoulder while working towards that photo you see on the right (graduation day with Martin Seligman).

Enjoy – and maybe, we´ll meet one day at some future MAPP summit…

“All in on Love” and other beautiful Stories…

I guess I´m suffering from MAPP deprivation. The Penn graduation ceremony seems like a long time ago – even though it´s only been three months since then. And now that I´ve handed in my master thesis I´m free to do whatever I want. But the truth is: I miss my stays in Philadelphia. And I miss my MAPP classmates.

Time to engage in some reminiscence. Below, you´ll find a collage from graduation weekend (click to enlarge; from left to right and clockwise: Martin Seligman, co-founder of Positive Psychology and me; standing out from the crowd; James Pawelski, academic director of the MAPP program at Penn, and me; a view of Penn´s stadium during commencement; commencement brochure etc.; reuniting with Linda Matesevac, my psychology teacher from 19 years ago; the “Walk of Honor” on Penn´s Locust Walk; middle: me and some MAPP cohort members).

Nico Rose - MAPP - Penn Graduation

And you should definitely check out Penn President Amy Gutman´s salutation – and the fabulous commencement speech given by Penn alumnus and Soul & R´n´B star John Legend (“All in on Love”; here´s the full text). Enjoy!

The No. 1 Secret to Standing Out from the Crowd at an Ivy League School…

Climb* on a chair! 🙂

Outstanding Pomp and Circumstance

Just came home from a fabulous Penn (MAPP) graduation and commencement weekend. Will post lots more on that shortly…

* A big thank you to my classmate Brandy Reece and her husband for the awesome photo. In that moment, I climbed on my chair to give a special shout-out to our program director James Pawelski who was passing by.

Thank a Teacher: Somebody influenced your Life? Let ´em know…

Has there been a special teacher, professor, or mentor that you would like to thank for positively influencing your life? If you´re still looking for the right moment – it might be here right now. Six seniors from Olin College, MA have created the website www.thank-a-teacher.org which lets you express your appreciation in public. The site has really taken off over the last days thanks to exposure on social media.

So below, you will find my thank-you-note to Linda Matesevac, who was my psychology teacher from 1994-95 when I was an exchange student at York Country Day School, Pennsylvania.

Nico Rose - York Country Day School

In Germany, psychology is not taught at high-schools. Entering my junior year, I had already (sort of) made up my mind to make it to law school. That changed dramatically over the year. Thanks to Linda, from 1998 on, I majored in psychology at the University of Muenster, Germany. 15 years later, I became part of the 9. cohort of the Master of Positive Psychology program at Penn. I am writing this on the morning of my graduation ceremony. Linda is going to be there – so we´ll meet for the first time in 19 years… 🙂

Thank a Teacher

Godspeed to MAPP 9! I Love Myself so Much More Because of You…

The Master of Applied Positive Psychology program 2013/2104 at University of Pennsylvania (MAPP 9) is history. While the graduation festivities are still up and coming in May, it´s been the last time for us to come together as a full group since not all of us will come to graduation. It´s been a very emotional weekend with lots of special treats – but I promised not to divulge any details. I don´t want to be the spoiler for the future Mappsters. Let´s just say that some wise person brought a pack of Kleenex for each person in the room…

I´ll just share one thing with you, and that is a sentence that my classmate Guang Zeng said to our group at one point (and which may well be the most beautiful thing I´ve ever heard…)

I love myself so much more because of you!

Before coming into class on Sunday morning, I took this photo of Penn´s Locust Walk that runs across the core campus. It perfectly captures the mood of that weekend as we were frequently reminded of the fact that the end of MAPP 9 is the beginning of our journey in/with Positive Psychology – and not the end.

The Road goes ever on

As Bilbo Baggins sings:
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way,…
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
Is this the end of Mappalicious?
Is this the end of Mappalicious?

Is this the end of Mappalicious?

Certainly not. I´m going to continue blogging on Positive Psychology topics. Maybe not with the same regularity (as other exciting projects are waiting…) – but I will…