A New Kind of College Course: Learning ‘How to Be Human’

Story by:

• Melanie Poppel- [email protected]

Media contact:

• Inga Kiderra- [email protected]

Topics covered:

• Mental Health
• Well-Being
• Psychology
• Experiential Learning
• General Education

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General education courses aim to give students experience in foundational subjects like math, history and writing before they dive into their majors. But what if learning to take care of your mental well-being was also seen as a core requirement? Neuroscientist and psychologist Karen Dobkins is working to make that happen. As part of that goal, she's launched the Learning Sustainable Well-Being (LSW) program, which teaches how to build emotional resilience, develop compassion for others, manage conflict and accept all parts of one's self.

While the idea sprouted through Dobkins' work as a professor of psychology in the UC San Diego School of Social Sciences, LSW courses on "how to be human" are now going to be offered across the university, in many of UC San Diego's schools and colleges and in a diverse range of departments and programs, from music and education studies to math, biology and mechanical and aerospace engineering.

"The principles and the teachings and the wisdom in this class don't belong to any discipline," Dobkins said.

Dobkins and Psychology colleague Janna Dickenson are now training a dozen faculty to instruct LSW classes in their respective disciplines. But it has taken a long time to get here.

LSW's pilot course, "Compassion for Self and Others," has gone through many evolutions since Dobkins first offered it as a freshman seminar in 2014. She realized she loved teaching about her lifelong passion for mindfulness and spirituality, a pivot from her research focus at the time.

At the same time, Dobkins was observing rising levels of anxiety and depression and felt there was a need for more preventive mental health care options.

"People reach out for help at the point that they're in pretty bad shape," Dobkins said. "A lot of people don't even take the steps to get the help they need because they're embarrassed or they feel alone in their experiences."

She realized her course could help. "The one thing students absolutely know how to do is enroll in classes," she said. "They've got that down."

Dobkins teamed up with Dickenson, a clinical psychologist with expertise in gender and sexual wellbeing, to fine-tune the curriculum. Their goal is to provide students with the skills needed to thrive in today's changing world.

"Having these lessons taught in the classroom not only reaches more students at once, but it helps them realize that we all feel this way, because everyone is saying 'Yes, I have gremlins who tell me bad stuff about myself,'" Dobkins said. Another benefit, she added, is that the course's interactive format allows students and professors to form connections with one another.

Getting into the mindfulness groove

While it might seem odd for a conservation biologist to teach about mental health, Carolyn Kurle feels right at home. A professor of ecology, behavior and evolution in the School of Biological Sciences, she began teaching her first run of LSW in Spring 2025. But mindfulness and acting with intention are nothing new to Kurle.

Her 2023 book, "The Guidance Groove," provides a roadmap on how to live a more authentic life. She's also taught a seminar on the book for several years. So joining the LSW program was an easy decision.

"I want to help students have more peace and contentment in their lives," Kurle said.

Offered by the School of Biological Sciences, Kurle's LSW course, naturally, incorporates the natural world. She uses data, like images of a brain after meditation, to discuss the effectiveness of various mindfulness practices. An avid hiker, Kurle also shares the value of spending time outdoors. "Being in nature automatically helps quiet the mind."

"People often say they want to feel love and they need love, and I tell them that they can feel love everyday," Dobkins said. "People look puzzled when I say that, but it's true! We're all so addicted to this idea that feeling love means it's shone on us, but you can feel love by shining it on somebody else."

To develop compassion for others, Dobkins has students practice "healthy communication rather than sitting in the seat of judgment."

Dobkins explains: "When we judge somebody for engaging in an undesirable behavior, we inherently separate from them, thinking we are different. But when we slow down, we start to see that we are just like that person. Take for example, interrupting. Sure, they might interrupt less than we do, but, still, we all interrupt people sometimes…. And really, there is no law of the universe regarding how much interrupting is too much!"