fullscreen background
Skip to main content

Summer Quarter

Summer Registration Opens May 18
shopping cart icon0

Courses


« Back to Liberal Arts & Sciences

WELL 40 — Living with Purpose

Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Diane Friedlaender
Duration: 6 weeks
Location: On-campus
Date(s): Jun 24—Jul 29
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 6:30—8:20 pm (PT)
Tuition: $435
   
Refund Deadline: Jun 26
 
Unit(s): 1
   
Enrollment Limit: 30
  
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
 
Quarter: Summer
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 6 weeks
Time: 6:30—8:20 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jun 24—Jul 29
Unit(s): 1
Location: On-campus
 
Tuition: $435
 
Refund Deadline: Jun 26
 
Instructor(s): Diane Friedlaender
 
Grade Restriction: No letter grade
 
Enrollment Limit: 30
 
Recording Available: No
 
Status: Registration opens May 18, 8:30 am (PT)
 
 
Purpose is less a fixed destination than an ongoing way of orienting one's life around what matters most. Adapted from a popular class for Stanford undergraduates, this course examines purpose as a lived practice shaped by values, self-understanding, and engagement with the world. In a supportive, highly interactive setting, we explore how inner awareness connects to outward action and supports purposeful living in any stage of life. Drawing on artistic, contemplative, and design-based approaches, the course offers practical tools for self-understanding and well-being. Students work in an artistic workbook that integrates journaling and creative exercises throughout the course, including insights from a brief self-guided retreat. They also complete a small-scale purpose project that translates reflection into action, helping them gain clarity and practical strategies for navigating life’s transitions and aligning daily choices with deeper values.

DIANE FRIEDLAENDER
Former Associate Director, Stanford Living Education

Diane Friedlaender is the founder of Deep Currents Consulting and a former associate director of Stanford Living Education, where she led the Leadership, Community Building, and Social Change (LEAD) program. She has taught more than 25 courses at Stanford and previously spent two decades as a senior qualitative researcher at the Stanford Graduate School of Education studying holistic education. She co-created an elementary mindfulness program and a K–8 public school. She received a BA from UC San Diego and a PhD from UCLA.