New Class at Baruch College Stirs Up Some Commotion
While most students were stuck indoors on a cold February Sunday, a group of Baruch students with scarves, gloves and bright colored daisies in hand, were heading out to Union Square.
As they walked along Park Avenue, the students handed out daisies to the passing men and women. First it was a bright yellow one, followed by fuchsia pink and then violet blue. Without more than a word, they happily accepted the small gift with a smile. Attached to the flower was a paper that read a quote of happiness and a note from the students of their mission to spread joy, asking of them to merely: ‘Pay it forward.’
This was the project that came out an assignment to spread kindness given from a new course in positive psychology offered at Baruch College by Professor David Sitt.
Dr. Sitt, Clinical Psychologist and Chair of the Psychology Department at Baruch, designed the course to match his charismatic and spontaneous personality. Unlike regular lecture classes, the basic principles, research and application are taught through experiential learning and personal application in atypical ways.
The “Pay it forward” assignment, for example, was a challenge inspired by the movie of the same title. Students in the class were asked to perform an act of kindness or good deed for an unknowing stranger and ask that they pay it forward to another stranger in return. Essentially, this would creat a chain of selfless acts by the concept of exponential growth, one person would help three people and those three people would help three others.
“This [pay it forward] project was probably the most challenging one we’ve done so far, but also the most rewarding. Most of us never really take the time to stop and just help someone, so when we do, they are confused or think there’s a catch,” said junior, Stephan Muller, whose group decided to help out the school janitor, by cleaning tables and sweeping the floor. “Right afterwards, I thought ‘this was so easy to do, I feel like I could definitely do this again.”
Other groups from the class got similar reactions when they handed out bottled water at Madison Square Park and gave prepaid metro-cards to rushed riders on the subway.
“One of the things we learned in class was that, we can feel temporary pleasure from buying a name brand watch, but we feel lasting happiness when we do something nice for someone else” said Muller.
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For Dr. Sitt, learning does not begin and end in the classroom. Students are encouraged to take part in theSittDown radio show, broadcast on Baruch’s WBMB radio station, where the focus is also on building happiness. This is not a coincidence as he hopes to eventually tie the two together, structuring the class as as a media hub. The radio show, has since, also evolved to include podcast, video and live student audience.
The radio show began as a search for a better way of disseminating information and communicating. “I realized I enjoyed speaking and teaching and dramatics. But this was a way for me to get a voice out there in a creative way” explained Dr.Sitt, sporting a casual 5’oclock shadow behind his paper-filled desk.
Among them was a full-length article published by Harvard Business Review titled “Manage Your Energy Not Your Time.” This, he points to, is how his he started his path towards positivity–by reading. Dr. Sitt read about emotional intelligence and the works of Martin Seligman and realized “I have to focus on what works, build on their strengths, not just focus on their weaknesses. So in doing so, it shifted my perspective towards looking for the positive…and I brought it to my patients.” His positive belief and attitude has reached beyond his patients to the students of Baruch, ever since he became a full-time professor in 2001.
Now sitting in his office, you realize how far he has come in such a short period of time. In just 10 years has shot to the Chair of the Psychology Department. Looking at the whimsical heart decorations on his wall and mariachi hat on his window sill, you are reminded that Dr. Sitt is only 37 year old. Shocking, considering he had originally came to Baruch to study business. However, during his undergraduate career from 1995-1999, he realized his true interest was in psychology. After graduating, he decided to continue his study at Yeshiva- Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.
During this time Professor Albright was looking for an adjunct professor to co-teach Introduction to psychology class. Dr.Locke, Baruch Psychology professor of 40 years, offered the position to Dr.Sitt, and has been teaching ever since. After nine years of teaching the large lecture hall, he realized he needed challenge himself again,–a small class environment was naturally the next step. He would focus on giving back to the school where he was once a student himself.
“There is clearly an interest in this school and every time we have an event like the walk and chalk or the hearts or the hug campaign, students are responding. There is a desire here at Baruch for positivity and for positive waves” he said with a large grin around his still youthful olive-toned face.
The walk and chalk was an event set up by the psych-in-motion club, mentored by Dr.Sitt. With bulks of colorful chalk in hand, students were encouraged to share words or drawings of inspiration on the sidewalks and pavements around the college, creating a temporary mural. “It was pretty cool when I saw it walking in to school, it reminded me of when I use to play with chalk when I was little” said senior, Jenna DiVerniero.
Angela Anselmo, who has a background in counseling and positive psychology, believes this is the right time for a class like this. Anselmo works with SEEK students at Baruch from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to support equal education opportunities. Additionally, she had studied directly under the founder of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman himself, at the graduate program at University of Pennsylvania.
Four years ago, she introduced the idea for a course in positive psychology to the department, but no one seemed interested. Therefore, it was undoubtedly a surprised when she heard about Dr.Sitt’s positive psychology class.
“I applaud him because he’s one of the younger faculty. He’s immersed in some of the latest trends in psychology and this [field] is, believe it or not, relatively young. Not many departments in psychology, certainly in City University’s are including this very important piece,” said Anselmo.
Positive Psychology was introduced in 1996 by Seligman, who was president at the American Psychology Association at the time. However it was not immediately accepted as an academic discipline until a few years later. It did, however, have roots from cognitive psych and the humanistic model, explained Dr.Locke, who would describe it more of an “outlook or point of view of human nature.”
“The risk [of any new branch] is always faddism. Something becomes hot for a while and everybody’s on board with it, then it’s on to something else in a few years. You didn’t hear the words positive psychology a few years ago. But the issue I think is attitudes [of traditional psychology] are deeply embedded. But I think it’s the hot area now,” says Dr.Locke.
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Ironically, Dr.Sitt wasn’t always sure that psychology was the right path. “What’s wild for me is I didn’t choose to be here… I did not look for this job. I did not apply for the job. So what’s beautiful to me is that despite my best effort, things just keep happening and I love it! I’m very excited to be there. I feel very blessed,” he said with great satisfaction.
Dr.Sitt isn’t sure what will happen to his broadcast in the future, but his dream would be to build a ‘house of positivity. [I want] to be known that in New York City, we are the top school to spread positivity,” said Dr.Sitt passionately.
“He is a teacher and communicator so he’s able to distill the information, but [he can] put it in a way that is even better because he has the passion for it. On top of that he has a whole fun way of doing it that students get a kick out of. I have no doubt that he can do it. Passion is important,” says Anselmo.