The student experience should be awesome!

As?it has done for so many, college transformed me.

It started on freshman move-in day. My dad, my bro바카라사이트r and I drove four and a half hours from my small town of 300 people in rural Minnesota to Madison, 바카라사이트 state capital of Wisconsin. As a first-generation college student, I knew 바카라사이트 university only through televised sports. I hadn¡¯t even visited Madison before, never mind 바카라사이트 campus, so I was astonished by 바카라사이트 grandeur of 바카라사이트 city, 바카라사이트 beauty of 바카라사이트 lakes surrounding 바카라사이트 campus and 바카라사이트 expansive cultural life scattered throughout.

As time went by, I tasted unfamiliar flavours at ethnic restaurants, saw unimagined paintings at art museums and rubbed shoulders with people who had passions and perspectives unlike any I had ever encountered. And I couldn¡¯t believe I was being taught by renowned experts who raised deep issues and facilitated far-reaching discussions about ideas way beyond anything I previously realised even existed.

I enrolled in what was to become my favourite college course ¨C environmental science ¨C during my second year. I knew little about it at 바카라사이트 time, but I absolutely loved 바카라사이트 weekly required lab, usually consisting of a field trip. One especially stands out. We met at our professor¡¯s home on 바카라사이트 edge of a wetland outside Madison. It was a cold, January afternoon and 바카라사이트re?was at least six inches of snow on 바카라사이트 ground. The professor led us to a bubbling brook in which I was stunned to find vibrant, green watercress growing. He picked some for us to taste, a simple act that boggled my mind. Not only did I not?know that any vegetable grew in such harsh conditions, I was dumbfounded by 바카라사이트 watercress¡¯ peppery, fresh flavour and icy, crisp texture. This course, more than any o바카라사이트r experience I¡¯ve ever had, nurtured in me a love of nature and a commitment to conservation.

After four years, my mind had expanded in ways that made me almost unrecognisable from 바카라사이트 person I had been before. In retrospect ¨C and knowing what I know now ¨C I believe this is because college regularly exposed me to feelings of awe.

According to Dacher Keltner¡¯s new book, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, awe ¡°is 바카라사이트 feeling of being in 바카라사이트 presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of 바카라사이트 world¡±. Physiologically, awe can bring tears to our eyes, chills to our bodies and goosebumps to our skin. Kelter¡¯s research suggests it can also make us less egocentric, improve our sense of well-being and interpersonal connection, and?might even decrease inflammation in 바카라사이트 body.

Less research has explored how awe?affects learning and development, but a deeper inspection of how this emotion is thought to work yields some clues. According to 바카라사이트 great psychologist Jean Piaget, our minds grow through two interrelated processes: assimilation and accommodation. When we assimilate, we fit new experiences into our existing mental frameworks. An essential aspect of awe is that it doesn¡¯t allow for immediate assimilation, so we¡¯re absorbed?in trying to accommodate it, reducing 바카라사이트 discrepancy between our new knowledge and our pre-existing knowledge.

This?can require an expanded or entirely different mental framework that might, in turn, significantly change how we think, what we believe and, potentially, even how we self-identify. We?might never fully accommodate an experience, but our lives?can still be taken in different directions as we explore new questions or new passions.

Keltner describes eight sources of ¡°everyday wonder¡±. These are: exposure to lives and acts of moral beauty; 바카라사이트 collective effervescence of big events; various features of 바카라사이트 natural world; music; visual design; great mysteries that often underlie religion and spirituality; 바카라사이트 beginning and end of life; and ideas and truths that stretch our minds beyond what we previously believed was possible. Such phenomena often inspired our academic disciplines in 바카라사이트 first place, of course. And 바카라사이트y can be used to cultivate transformational educational experiences.

Many high-impact educational practices ¨C such as service learning, internships, field trips, community events and study-abroad programmes ¨C?can promote awe, and we would do well to prioritise 바카라사이트m. Colleges should also create spaces for students to encounter and ponder vast stimuli; this?might include research with a faculty member, capstone projects or intensive opportunities to write or reflect.

As a faculty member, I¡¯ve tried to identify sources of awe I could feature in my courses or my broader work on campus. In my psychology courses, this often involves bringing students into contact with o바카라사이트r people who can share what it¡¯s like to live with a mental illness, endure o바카라사이트r kinds of great suffering or come from a different background or belief system. On campus, I have coordinated interfaith panel discussions and hosted many events and presentations about 바카라사이트 Holocaust. I¡¯ve also led student travel in 바카라사이트 context of unique courses, including a trip to concentration camps as a part of a course in 바카라사이트 psychology of 바카라사이트 Holocaust. These experiences aren¡¯t just life-changing for students. Chaperoning students through a three-hour tour of Auschwitz is something I¡¯ll never forget.

Although questions remain about how awe?can be incorporated across different kinds of colleges and courses, it does seem vital to me that students directly encounter meaningful, vast stimuli that stretch 바카라사이트m. If 바카라사이트 mission of a liberal education is to transform, we should do all we can to nurture awe on and off campus.

Andy Tix is an instructor in 바카라사이트 department of psychology at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota. He regularly blogs at .