You, Me Us

1 Credit · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course focuses on how Georgetown students develop a sense of well-being, belonging, and purpose within the various communities they live. We will be adopting a project-based approach where you will design your own project in consultation with the instructor and complete low-stake assignments to complete the project-based component. This course takes a social and developmental psychology perspective, encouraging students to reflect, explore, and discuss how key aspects of their identity have evolved during their time at Georgetown (and beyond). The learning environment will be enhanced through a cross-cultural component where students from the main campus and GU-Qatar campus will interact in real-time. The course will create opportunities for exploring and expressing one’s authentic self through in-class interactions with peers and various out-of-class experiences (online and volunteering). Students will attend to the relationship between their individual well-being and a sense of purpose and that of the multiple communities they live and represent (Georgetown, Qatar/DC, groups that reflect various identities). In doing so, students will address the following existential question: to what degree should I expect to nurture myself or my communities and vice versa? Topics that influence the interaction between personal development and community affiliations – power dynamics, identity statuses, core values, belief systems, and social-navigational strategies – will be investigated. In doing so, students will strive to understand their optimal balance between personal fulfillment and responsibility to the communities within which they exist.