The Princeton Perspective Project (PPP), a joint initiative of the USG, the Office of the Dean of the College, the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, and the McGraw Center for Learning and Teaching, aims to empower Princeton students to:
- alleviate the burden of unrealistic expectations;
- constructively navigate setbacks, disappointment, doubt, and loneliness;
- actively seek and embrace the risk of failure that accompanies meaningful challenges;
- build resilience and develop adaptive coping responses to stress;
- mitigate concerns and anxieties inherent in the academic, social, and personal lives of today’s college students
Together, these objectives are designed to combat the idealized notion of “effortless perfection” that pervades the Princeton campus. To that end, we will facilitate peer-to-peer storytelling through a website with video and written narratives from diverse students, staff and alumni. These narratives will demonstrate that no one is perfect and that we can all learn from each other’s setbacks, offering students new ways to develop “perspective” when they experience failures or rejections that make them question their sense of belonging in our community. In this way, this project serves as a complement to ongoing programming and advice from faculty members and advising staff across the university. Ultimately, we want to encourage every Princeton student to develop a healthy perspective on their lives, one that is necessary to realizing their full potential on campus and beyond.