Grit Lab

Taking a course with a world famous psychologist feels intimidating, until you actually start

learning from them. When I originally heard about Dr. Angela Duckworth’s inaugural version of

Grit Lab, I was intrigued. The syllabus claimed that this class would teach you about the basics

of grit and teach you how to apply it to your own life, and in turn, maybe some certainty about

what you want to do with your life after college. I wanted to learn more about what makes

people successful and content in their jobs. As a sophomore on the verge of declaring my major,

it felt like a good fit.

I applied and miraculously got in through a completely random lottery system. The course had

generated a lot of buzz before course selection had even opened up, demonstrating how badly

college students want assurance and certainty about their lives before they even happen. I felt

lucky, but a little bit uncomfortable—what was I going to do with this exclusive opportunity to

learn from the best of the best about grit and positive psychology as a student not majoring in

psychology?

As I felt with most new things, I walked in with intimidation. I didn’t know what to expect from

this class, or the larger program it was housed in, the brand new Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Paideia Program. We were quickly assigned seats (which, even for a grown woman, felt oddly

relieving!), given notebooks, stickers, pins, and a copy of Dr. Duckworth’s influential book, Grit:

The Power of Passion and Perseverance, which would serve as our textbook. The format would

be simple: weekly meetings consisting of three hours, which would be broken up into sections

and peppered with breaks (even as a person who is no longer considered a child, I can’t bring

myself to sit down for 3 hours straight!).

The first section would consist of a lecture from Dr. Duckworth, followed by a discussion with a

new person each week. We were told that each week, in order to facilitate conversations, we

must sit next to a different person each week. The discussion would sometimes be facilitated by

our teaching assistant—mine was a former NFL player turned Ph.D student (nuts, I know!). The

last section would consist of a Q&A with a Penn alum who Dr. Duckworth felt embodied

principles of grit, alums like Kathryn Minshew (CEO of The Muse), Sophie Beren (founder of

The Conversationalist), Brett Perlmutter (founder and CEO of Google Cuba), and Kayvon

Asemani, (Product Manager at Facebook).

I won’t spoil the class for you in the case that you come to Penn and decide to take this class

yourself, but even though it got interrupted by the COVID–19 pandemic and had to transition to

the virtual space, the wisdom still wasn’t lost. I found myself more motivated than ever to

identify my passions, work hard to follow through on goals derived from my passions, and ask

for lots of advice along the way.

- Karin H.