Undergraduate Education

The Center’s undergraduate courses introduce students to the Center for Positive Organizations and its research on Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). The courses offer students a hands-on experience with POS through a unique combination of academic coursework, action-based learning, engagement with the Center’s broad community of scholars and practitioners, and participation in related University and community events.


Class listing

The following courses at the University of Michigan are infused with Positive Organizational Scholarship:


Thriving Catalyst Endorsement

University of Michigan students enrolled in any academic program are invited to earn a Thriving Catalyst Endorsement to gain an interdisciplinary grounding in Positive Organizational Scholarship, a field dedicated to unlocking and nurturing the highest level of human potential in organizations and communities.

Thriving Catalyst students will acquire a full toolbox that is evidence-based, rigorous, and solution-oriented. You will emerge equipped with the capacity to unlock greater passion, energy, connection, and purpose in yourself and to take others with you on the journey to thriving. Given our rapidly-changing ways of working, this endorsement launches you into a whole new sphere of capability, helping you realize possibilities in yourself and in others.

The Thriving Catalyst Endorsement can be entered at any time and completed at the student’s personal pace.

Learn more about the Thriving Catalyst Endorsement.

Questions can be directed to cpo-learning-programs@umich.edu.


Magnify Immersion Program

The Magnify Immersion Program is a spring semester immersive academic program that brings Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) to students in order to learn, identify, and apply POS principles and practices to build high-performing organizations that enable people to thrive.

The course is composed of three components: classroom work, action-learning, and an integrated reflection. Students learn about the latest POS research, principles, and practices and spend are embedded at a partner organization working with high-level change agents to observe and interpret positive capabilities.


Questions about the Magnify Immersion Program can be directed to cpo-learning-programs@umich.edu.

We support students’ well-being; please visit the Well-being Collective to learn more.