Greetings. My name is Steve Reifenberg and I am enthusiastic to help lead this course on LifeDesign. I graduated with a philosophy degree four decades ago from Notre Dame, ready to go out and change the world. In my first year out of college, I struggled to teach high school, thinking I would become a lawyer. I then worked for a couple of years at an orphanage in Chile, thinking I should be a doctor. I ended up becoming neither. Instead, I have found a home at universities (Harvard University for two decades and Notre Dame for the last decade) building bridges from the academy to the “real world.”
I currently teach at the Keough School of Global Affairs in classes that connect organizations with interdisciplinary teams of students to address complex global challenges. I am fascinated with the connections between theory and practice, exploring questions such as: What “works” in global development? How can we manage and negotiate conflict more productively? How can we focus on education in ways that are valuable in our own lives and can help improve the lives of others as well? This LifeDesign class is a result of that last question. Co-teaching this class with all the other facilitators over the past two years has been a great personal learning experience and enormous joy for me. I am enthusiastic for the journey ahead for all of us for the coming semester.
