ALA 370: Mindfulness and Peace Global Leadership

• Application Opens: Monday, December 16, 2024
• Application Closes: Sunday, January 12, 2025, at 11:59 PM
• Interviews: Select applicants will be invited to a 15-minute interview in the last week of January
• Final Selection: First week in February
• Mandatory pre-departure cohort meetings will be scheduled on campus in the Winter 2025 semester
• Early applications are strongly encouraged

• Applicants must have, completed a LEARN experience before January 2025
• Have a valid passport that expires no earlier than May 31, 2025
  • If you do not currently have a passport, you must make an appointment to apply at a passport agency or center no later than January 3, 2025.
• Be eligible to enroll at the University of Michigan in the Spring of 2025 semester 
• International Students are eligible for this opportunity

Tuition: Accepted students will register in ALA 370 in the Spring 2025 term

Funding:

• This experience is not eligible for support from the BLI Leadership Grant program
• Students can pursue other methods of support within the university to cover additional program costs

Airfare:

• BLI will underwrite students' flights, lodging in Japan, and GeoBlue Health Insurance to make the trip broadly accessible to students 
  • Students are responsible for arranging their flight itinerary with CTP, the University of Michigan’s travel partner
  • Any fees associated with a flight itinerary change are the student's responsibility

Additional costs: Students are responsible for budgeting costs for their travel documents, rail pass and food for the duration of the course

• Food: ~$550
• Rail pass: ~$657 
• Passport and tourist visa (depends on residency) fees: ~$180

Financial Aid Information:

• If you receive financial aid, participation in this experience could impact your package. Please contact the Office of Financial Aid for questions specific to your financial aid package

• Credits: 3
• Attendance: Mandatory
• Dates: May 7-27 (tentative) 
• Methods of instruction: Lectures, discussion, readings, films, mindfulness practices, contemplative art exercises, and site visits. Daily readings will be available as PDF files in Canvas.
• Full Course Description:

    The main goal of this course is to provide a critical interdisciplinary perspective for mindful leadership, drawing from mindfulness research in psychology, creativity, and humanistic management to develop a holistic perspective on Global Peace Leadership to navigate the leadership challenges of an increasingly disconnected and divided community around the globe. The course provides a holistic education in a learning and living community setting at JCMU, which offers unique opportunities to learn many contemplative, creative arts of Japan. The course also draws from East Asian Buddhist contemplative practices and three notions of Japanese aesthetics (Mono no aware, Wabi-sabi, and Ma), providing a strong foundational understanding of mindfulness from a cultural and Humanities perspective. The course is an experiential learning course that includes many contemplative Japanese creative arts. JCMU is an ideal academic setting for students to learn culturally embedded mindfulness practices to cultivate a deeper awareness of the interconnected nature of our lives. 

    Students will learn about empirical mindfulness research, including scholarship on critical mindfulness. This course will provide a theoretical and methodological advance in holistic approaches to the study of mindfulness, peace psychology, and mindful leadership. Specifically, students will learn about current research on mindful leadership while learning several mindfulness practices with a specific goal of cultivating interconnectedness at three levels:  intrasectional (deeper connection to one’s emotions, thoughts, and feelings), intersectional (deeper connection to others who embody different social identities) and ecological level (deeper connection to nature). Building on these foundational practices, students will learn about engaged mindful leadership, exploring how mindfulness practices can enable them to be more authentic, open, and engaged mindful leaders who can lead with compassion, generosity, and cultural humility, promoting peace and harmony in their communities.