College Happiness Clubs Spread Joy and Random Acts of Kindness

--by Lexi Dwyer, syndicated from today.com, Feb 24, 2016

College students often get stereotyped as stressed out and sleep-deprived. But at universities across the country, students are aiming to change that as they join clubs dedicated to a common, joyful purpose: spreading happiness.

Eleanor Collier / Stanford Happiness Collective

The Stanford Happiness Collective was started three years ago "with the goal of doing things to brighten people's days," its president, junior Eleanor Collier told TODAY.

Northwestern University is home to one of the country's oldest college happiness clubs, which began unofficially in 2008 when a group of students handed out hot chocolate outside the library on a cold evening right before finals week. (The group became an official student club in 2010, and the hot-chocolate tradition has continued annually.) This semester the club hosted events like "Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles," where children's soap bubbles, bubble wrap and bubble gum were handed out for students' amusement.

Members post encouraging messages on the group's Facebook feed like, "You can make it through this next week...if you're feeling overwhelmed and like you don't know how to get all of your work done, JUST DO IT," as well as photo collections based on topics like "What Makes You Thankful?" and"What Makes You Happy?"

Another group, Stanford University's Happiness Collective, was started three years ago "with the goal of doing things to brighten people's days," its president, junior Eleanor Collier told TODAY. Some ideas are simple, like a recent Sunday-night project that involved members attaching candy and upbeat notes to bikes around campus. "That came out of a meeting where we had talked about the value of writing kind letters, so Monday morning when people tend to be so stressed out, they showed up to a sweet surprise," says Collier.

Other Stanford initiatives are more elaborate, like a recent fair celebrating World Kindness Day that featured a flash mob of musicians playing Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" and booths offering activities like a hug menu (choices included bear, bro grab, armless and pick-me-up) and a station for writing letters of gratitude to loved ones.

Collier said she likes to use meetings to get a sense of what's going on in people's lives. "It's easy to get this idea when you hear 'happiness collective' that it's sort of this froofy thing and you're expected to be happy all the time," she says. She originally asked participants to share one thing from their week that brought them joy, but then started to dig a little deeper.

"I realized that people seemed stressed out, so I invited them to also share one thing they were struggling with, and encouraging them to be vulnerable," she said. "A teacher of mine had said in class, 'we are not human doings but human beings,' and that idea, of how people were being, just resonated with me," she added.

Eleanor Collier / Stanford Happiness Collective

On World Kindness Day, the Stanford Happiness Collective came up with creative ways to inspire joy.

Junior Andrea Ocampo, the vice president of the Happiness Collective, said she thought the club was especially welcome given the academic pressure at Stanford. "It is so important to life at Stanford because in such a high stress and high achieving environment, it's amazing what simple random acts of kindness can do to lighten the burdens placed on students," she told TODAY.

Stanford's Happiness Collective is planning to work with The Happiness Challenge, a project originally developed by Leslie Rith-Najarian when she was an undergraduate psychology major at Harvard. Students are invited to register for the 10-week online program, which consists of "8 weekly challenges designed to educate and empower participants to build happier habits."

Each week, participants are asked to focus on a different self-care habit such as exercising, getting enough sleep, improving negative thought patterns or managing time. Rith-Najarian, now a psychology PhD candidate at UCLA, partnered with fellow former Harvard Happiness Club members Emily Lowe and Cindy Shih to bring the challenge to six different universities, including Emory and Yale, and plans to expand to more schools and organizations over the next few years.

Rith-Najarian said that unlike traditional mental-health resources, which still might have a stigma for some students, the Happiness Challenge was about changing habits. "People are very much like, 'Oh yeah, I want to have better habits, I'll try that," she told TODAY. But the challenge can be customized for each school to "funnel students towards other campus resources," such as wellness centers or mental-health counselors.

The Happiness Challenge may have deeper implications, especially since the federal agency SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) has reported that when compared to older adults, members of the 18 to 24 age demographic are the least likely to seek help for mental-health-related issues. Rith-Najarian also added that she'd seen many students say they were going to put off taking proper care of themselves "just until graduation" or "when they get to their real lives." But she stressed that this mindset could be detrimental. "College is life, it's this time of independence when you're building your way of interacting with the world and you really are forming your habits, and the ones you make during that time will be tricky to reverse after you graduate," she said.

Collier also said that the "attitude of valuing achievement over well being," was, in her opinion, counterproductive. "It's very backwards because research shows that happier people succeed better, but there is a mindset that in order to succeed, we have to sacrifice sleep, self-compassion and relationships with other people. Ultimately, this is 'wellness activism,' and we want to change the messages that people hear," she said.

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Republished with permission from Today.com where this article originally appeared. This story is part of NBCU's Season of Kindness. Follow the series on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. #ShareKindness

Middle and Upper Division RAK Week extended to the whole month of February

Altruism Quiz

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Are you a giver or a Grinch?

Tis the season for generosity. But how important is it to you to help others? To find out—and get tips for becoming more altruistic—take this quiz, which is based on a scale developed by psychologist Gary S. Nickell of Moorhead State University.

Please answer the below questions as honestly as possible; there are no right or wrong answers. For the first 20 questions, please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each statement.

The last five questions are about you, and they'll be used by our research team to better understand how altruism relates to factors like age and gender. We'll report next month on what the scores suggest about the Greater Good community.

When you're done, you'll get your score, learn more about the benefits of altruism, and find resources for boosting your habits of helping.

TAKE THE QUIZ

Random Acts of Kindness

This practice involves performing five acts of kindness in one day. Is there a day in the next week when you have free time and might be able to do this practice? If so, write it in the space below.

To get ideas for your acts of kindness, it can help to think about times in your past when you've been the recipient of others'  kindness. Take a moment to think about these times, and then list a few of them in the space below. 

It's likely that you have engaged in acts of kindness yourself, perhaps without even being aware of it at the time. Take a moment to think about your own past acts of kindness, and then list a few of them in the space below.

Based on the lists above, list five acts of kindness that you could perform on your Random Acts of Kindness day.

 

If you're stuck, here is a list of ideas. 

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5.

Put your Random Acts of Kindness day on your calendar and make a note to take care of any advance arrangements that may be needed. 

Although it can help to plan certain acts in advance, allow yourself to also do spontaneous acts if opportunities arise (like witnessing someone in need). And don't forget to write about what you did and how it made you feel.

The Roots of Compassion

Why Give?

1. Giving makes us feel happy. A 2008 study by Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton and colleagues found that giving money to someone else lifted participants’ happiness more that spending it on themselves (despite participants’ prediction that spending on themselves would make them happier). Happiness expert Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, saw similar results when she asked people to perform five acts of kindness each week for six weeks.

These good feelings are reflected in our biology. In a 2006 study, Jorge Moll and colleagues at the National Institutes of Health found that when people give to charities, it activates regions of the brain associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust, creating a “warm glow” effect. Scientists also believe that altruistic behavior releases endorphins in the brain, producing the positive feeling known as the “helper’s high.”

2. Giving is good for our health. A wide range of research has linked different forms of generosity to better health, even among the sick and elderly. In his book Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Stephen Post, a professor of preventative medicine at Stony Brook University, reports that giving to others has been shown to increase health benefits in people with chronic illness, including HIV and multiple sclerosis.

A 1999 study led by Doug Oman of the University of California, Berkeley, found that elderly people who volunteered for two or more organizations were 44 percent less likely to die over a five-year period than were non-volunteers, even after controlling for their age, exercise habits, general health, and negative health habits like smoking. Stephanie Brown, now a researcher at Stony Brook University, saw similar results in a 2003 study on elderly couples. She and her colleagues found that those individuals who provided practical help to friends, relatives, or neighbors, or gave emotional support to their spouses, had a lower risk of dying over a five-year period than those who didn’t. Interestingly, receiving help wasn’t linked to a reduced death risk.

Researchers suggest that one reason giving may improve physical health and longevity is that it helps decrease stress, which is associated with a variety of health problems. In a 2006 study by Rachel Piferi of Johns Hopkins University and Kathleen Lawler of the University of Tennessee, people who provided social support to others had lower blood pressure than participants who didn’t, suggesting a direct physiological benefit to those who give of themselves.

3. Giving promotes cooperation and social connection. When you give, you’re more likely to get back: Several studies, including work by sociologists Brent Simpson and Robb Willer, have suggested that when you give to others, your generosity is likely to be rewarded by others down the line—sometimes by the person you gave to, sometimes by someone else.

These exchanges promote a sense of trust and cooperation that strengthens our ties to others—and research has shown that having positive social interactions is central to good mental and physical health. As researcher John Cacioppo writes in his book Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, “The more extensive the reciprocal altruism born of social connection . . . the greater the advance toward health, wealth, and happiness.”

What’s more, when we give to others, we don’t only make them feel closer to us; we also feel closer to them. “Being kind and generous leads you to perceive others more positively and more charitably,” writes Lyubomirsky in her book The How of Happiness, and this “fosters a heightened sense of interdependence and cooperation in your social community.”

4. Giving evokes gratitude. Whether you’re on the giving or receiving end of a gift, that gift can elicit feelings of gratitude—it can be a way of expressing gratitude or instilling gratitude in the recipient. And research has found that gratitude is integral to happiness, health, and social bonds.

Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, pioneers in the scientific study of gratitude, have found that teaching college students to “count their blessings” and cultivate gratitude caused them to exercise more, be more optimistic, and feel better about their lives overall. A recent study led by Nathaniel Lambert at Florida State University found that expressing gratitude to a close friend or romantic partner strengthens our sense of connection to that person.

Barbara Fredrickson, a leading happiness researcher, suggests that cultivating gratitude in everyday life is one of the keys to increasing personal happiness. “When you express your gratitude in words or actions, you not only boost your own positivity but [other people’s] as well,” she writes in her book Positivity. “And in the process you reinforce their kindness and strengthen your bond to one another.”

5. Giving is contagious. When we give, we don’t only help the immediate recipient of our gift. We also spur a ripple effect of generosity through our community.

A study by James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, shows that when one person behaves generously, it inspires observers to behave generously later, toward different people. In fact, the researchers found that altruism could spread by three degrees—from person to person to person to person. “As a result,” they write, “each person in a network can influence dozens or even hundreds of people, some of whom he or she does not know and has not met.”

Giving has also been linked to the release of oxytocin, a hormone (also released during sex and breast feeding) that induces feelings of warmth, euphoria, and connection to others. In laboratory studies, Paul Zak, the director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University, has found that a dose of oxytocin will cause people to give more generously and to feel more empathy towards others, with “symptoms” lasting up to two hours. And those people on an “oxytocin high” can potentially jumpstart a “virtuous circle, where one person’s generous behavior triggers another’s,” says Zak.

So whether you buy gifts, volunteer your time, or donate money to charity, your giving may help you build stronger social connections and even jumpstart a cascade of generosity through your community. And don’t be surprised if you find yourself benefiting from a big dose of happiness in the process.

Jason Marsh is editor-in-chief and director of programs at the Greater Good Science Center and the course producer for "The Science of Happinesss." Jill Suttie, Psy.D., is Greater Good's book review editor and a frequent contributor to the magazine.

Kindness and Service to Others = HAPPINESS

A Member of the Class of 2019 Reflects!   
Cotillion Advocate- Student Ambassador:  Kindness to others = HAPPINESS

“Being a student ambassador is something I’ve known I wanted to do for a long time. Ever since I started in fifth grade, I wanted to do exactly what I’m doing now. It’s one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It’s the best feeling when you get to help someone with something you love. Through this journey, I’ve made new friends who I wouldn’t have met otherwise, learned important behavior that will help me throughout my life, and had some of the happiest moments in my life. The people I work with, for, and teach all make me laugh so much. They’re fun and amazing people that I hope I can always stay in touch with. The feelings I have are indescribable. There aren’t enough words in the world to describe how happy I am that I’ve been able to do this. You come to care so much for the people around you that it becomes hard when they graduate and can no longer be student ambassadors with you. Everything about what I do is incredible. I get to help others while learning so many things myself. I wish this could last forever, so I try to enjoy it as much as I can now. Even though it’s my first year as an ambassador, I know that this is something I will look back on and smile when I remember all of these memories I’ve made. There are so many things I love about being a student ambassador and I don’t think I can name them all. All the dances are super fun of course, like the swing, the cha cha, the foxtrot, and of course the waltz(my personal favorite). The food is absolutely fantastic too. There are so many traditions I still get to take part in even though I’m in highschool now. Like having the same meal for the middle school dinner and dances, or walking in and shaking hands with Mrs. Vega at the beginning of every class, drinking Mr. Vega’s delicious fruit punch(that he made on the spot when they ran out of punch one class), or lining up to walk in while in escort position. I love all of these things, but hey I’m nostalgic! I can never stop smiling when I’m working. If there was one thing I wish I could tell every middle schooler, it’s that they should continue in the program even if  they hate it as fifth graders. As you get older, it gets even more fun. Now that I’m also in the high school class, I’ve noticed that all the tension from middle school just goes away. Everyone claps in the cha cha or tries to do the pretzel as fast as they possibly can. It’s so much fun and I wish I could feel this happy every day for the rest of my life. I’m even emotional as I’m writing this because I never want it to end and it’s so sad that so many people don’t get to experience this kind of happiness like I do. I consider myself the luckiest person in the world that I get to be a student ambassador. It’s something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”  Cotillion pictures:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ibdj2q51ek2g1jz/AACkva5_w5aUUCQEjIyhRC1fa?dl=0

February is RAK Month at Casady School

Middle Division:  February is RAK Month @ Casady School

Rachel's Challenge Cyclone Style:  You are caught doing RAK, your RAK is placed in the RAK Bucket.  The chain comes from Got YOU DOING RAK!

-SEE period picks from the 8th grade RAK and a little slide show movie of them.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzPD2CUL_vpheWhYMG5qTk96d2M

_ 7th grade SEE period RAK's the North YMCA
https://drive.google.com/a/casady.org/folderview?id=0B7431J95O_PKSlhKc3RsU0lDS3M&usp=sharing#

High School:  Happy Valentine's Day:  Leave us your RAK Heart

LD Parents Pancake Breakfast for Mardi Gras

 Lower Division Art Show

Happy Chinese New Year of the Monkey

Grand House provides a great Chinese New Year Show for OKC on Chinese New Year's Day

 

Super Cao Nguyen provides a cultural experience to OKC on Chinese New Year's Day

HAPPY RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS WEEK

From the Science of Happiness Online Course from Berkeley University
Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., is the founding faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the author of Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life and a co-editor of The Compassionate Instinct: The Science of Human Goodness.

What is compassion and kindness?  Why are we kind and generous?
 

 Research states, "emotions as rational, functional, and adaptive—a view which has its origins in Darwin’s Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals. Compassion and benevolence, research suggests, are an evolved part of human nature, rooted in our brain and biology, and ready to be cultivated for the greater good."

Compassion is deeply rooted in human nature; it has a biological basis in the brain and body. Humans can communicate compassion through facial gesture and touch, and these displays of compassion can serve vital social functions, strongly suggesting an evolutionary basis of compassion. And when experienced, compassion overwhelms selfish concerns and motivates altruistic behavior.

Human communities are only as healthy as our conceptions of human nature. It has long been assumed that selfishness, greed, and competitiveness lie at the core of human behavior, the products of our evolution. It takes little imagination to see how these assumptions have guided most realms of human affairs, from policy making to media portrayals of social life.

But clearly, recent scientific findings forcefully challenge this view of human nature. We see that compassion is deeply rooted in our brains, our bodies, and in the most basic ways we communicate. What’s more, a sense of compassion fosters compassionate behavior and helps shape the lessons we teach our children.

Of course, simply realizing this is not enough; we must also make room for our compassionate impulses to flourish. In the Greater Good Science Center's online magazine, Greater Good, contributors provide ample evidence to show what we can gain from more compassionate marriages, schools, hospitals, workplaces, and other institutions. They do more than make us reconsider our assumptions about human nature. They offer a blueprint for a more compassionate world.

Biology and Compassion
The brain, then, seems wired up to respond to others’ suffering—indeed, it makes us feel good when we can alleviate that suffering. When we feel threatened, our heart and breathing rates usually increase, preparing us either to confront or flee from the threat—the so-called “fight or flight” response. What is the ANS (Automatic Nervous System) profile of compassion? As it turns out, when young children and adults feel compassion for others, this emotion is reflected in very real physiological changes: Their heart rate goes down from baseline levels, which prepares them not to fight or flee, but to approach and soothe.  In some recent studies researches have found that when people perform behaviors associated with compassionate love—warm smiles, friendly hand gestures, affirmative forward leans—their bodies produce more oxytocin. This suggests compassion may be self-perpetuating: Being compassionate causes a chemical reaction in the body that motivates us to be even more compassionate.

Jack Nitschke found in an experiment that when mothers looked at pictures of their babies, they not only reported feeling more compassionate love than when they saw other babies; they also demonstrated unique activity in a region of their brains associated with the positive emotions. Nitschke’s finding suggests that this region of the brain is attuned to the first objects of our compassion—our offspring.

 Joshua Greene and Jonathan Cohen of Princeton University found that when subjects contemplated harm being done to others, a similar network of regions in their brains lit up. Our children and victims of violence—two very different subjects, yet united by the similar neurological reactions they provoke. This consistency strongly suggests that compassion isn’t simply a fickle or irrational emotion, but rather an innate human response embedded into the folds of our brains.

Neuroscientists James Rilling and Gregory Berns,  gave participants  the chance to help someone else while their brain activity was recorded. Helping others triggered activity in the caudate nucleus and anterior cingulate, portions of the brain that turn on when people receive rewards or experience pleasure. This is a rather remarkable finding: helping others brings the same pleasure we get from the gratification of personal desire.

Terms of Happiness

Kindness is a general, everyday term describing behaviors that involve being friendly, generous, or considerate. Pro-social is the term favored by scientists to refer to kind, helpful behaviors or states, but it is also quite broad.

Compassion: Literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you witness another’s suffering and feel motivated to help relieve that suffering.

Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. While empathy refers more generally to our ability to sense the emotions--and/or take the perspective--of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help. While altruism is often prompted by compassion, one can feel compassion without acting on it, and altruism isn’t always motivated by compassion.

Altruism: Altruism is when we act to promote someone else’s welfare, even at a risk or cost to ourselves. Many debate whether and why true (or "pure") altruism actually exists. Evolutionary scientists speculate that altruism has deep roots in human nature because helping and cooperation promote the survival of our species. Indeed, Darwin himself argued that altruism, which he called “sympathy” or “benevolence,” is “an essential part of the social instincts.” Some evolutionary biologists argue that organisms may sometimes put themselves at risk in order to help another because they expect that the other organism will return the favor down the line, a concept known as reciprocal altruism.

Empathy: Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people’s emotions (affective empathy), coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling (cognitive empathy).

Studies suggests that empathy is often a vital first step toward altruistic behavior, but it does not always lead to altruism, and altruistic acts can be motivated by factors other than empathy. More specifically, research by Daniel Batson and others suggests that empathy is much more likely to lead to altruism when it elicits the specific feeling of empathic concern, which is when we observe someone in need and truly "feel for" that person--a state similiar to compassion--rather than wanting to escape the situation or feeling overwhelmed by distress.

Sympathy: Sympathy, which means "to feel together," is sometimes used synonymously with compassion. However, while sympathy does refer to feelings of sorrow or sadness about another person's suffering, it does not typically involve the urge or motivation to help, or do anything about the situation. In other words, a person may feel sympathetic towards another person's difficulties, but not feel inclined to help. 

Pity: Feeling sorry for the suffering or misfortune of someone else. Pity is similar to compassion, but it suggests a power imbalance, whereby the observer occupies a place of superiority and looks down upon the person who is suffering.

The kindness Happiness Loop and its connection to volunteering

Happy V-Day and Day 1 of RAK Week- Random Acts of Kindness Week

http://www.aeaces.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/kindness.jpg

Random Acts of Kindness Week, February 14-20, Take the Great Kindness School Challenge: Make 2016 Kindness Year! Become a RAKtivist. National Random Acts of Kindness Day, February 17!  RAK Tool Kit:https://app.box.com/s/hiwpf6fsfo7nrrbslm14jdusdrrs8vnb

http://www.greatkindnesschallenge.org/images/checklist.png?z=1

Harvard's Executive Summary for College Admissions Reform- Service-Learning

Harvard's Education School published today their executive summary for college admissions reform.  This document is supported by many brand name schools.

http://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/files/gse-mcc/files/20160120_mcc_ttt_execsummary_interactive.pdf?m=1453303460

Sustainable Development YSA (Youth Service America) Global Development Goals Creative Solutions

In December 2015, YSA launched the first ever Global Goals contest. YSA challenged youth under 25 to think critically about the Sustainable Development Goals and how youth will take a leadership role in achieving these 17 goals.  Their task was to create an illustration (photo, drawing, painting, or graphic) that shows how youth will “lead us to a better future”.

Here are some of the winning entries

Hasanul, Bangladesh, age 25

SDG 10 – Reduce Inequality

BEST PHOTO

Brett, United States, age 19

SDG 3 – Ensure good health

BEST DRAWING

Azend’e, United States, age 17

SDG 16 – Promote peaceful/inclusive/fair societies

BEST DIGITAL/MIXED MEDIA

Micaela, United States, age 11

SDG 12 – Ensure sustainable production and consumption

BEST UNDER 13

Ahmed, Saudi Arabia, age 23

SDG 1 – End poverty

BEST OVER 13

Luiza, Kazakhstan, age 23

SDG 17 – Make partnerships for sustainable development

HONORABLE MENTION

Erick, Kenya, age 21

SDG 4 – Ensure education for all

HONORABLE MENTION

Isabella, United States, age 15

SDG 5 – Ensure gender equality

BEST OVERALL

To get into college, Harvard report advocates for kindness instead of overachieving

By Lisa Heffernan and Jennifer Wallace January 20

Bucknell University (By TB Kilman)

As your oldest child begins to fill out her college application, it is hard not to feel a rising panic. For the last four years she has thrown herself into her school work, taken AP classes, studied for the SAT, worked on the school paper, played on the field hockey team and tutored elementary school children.

Yet as she methodically records her activities on the application, it becomes clear that this was simply not enough. There are 10 looming blank spaces and although her days have been overflowing with homework, activities and volunteering, she has only five activities to report. There are 15 spaces to record the four AP classes she was so proud of taking.

You wonder who the kid is who can complete all of these blank spaces, and what has gone wrong that this is what applying to college now means.

A new report released today by Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, takes a major step in trying to change the college admissions process to make it more humane, less super-human.

Parents, educators and college administrators have long wrestled with the unintended negative side effects of the admissions process, like the intense focus on personal achievement and the unfair advantages of more affluent students. The report, entitled Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good Through College Admissions, aims to tackle these complex issues. It lays out a blueprint for addressing three of the most intractable challenges facing college applicants today: excessive academic performance pressure, the emphasis on personal achievement over good citizenship, and the uneven opportunities available to students of varying income levels and backgrounds.

Many colleges have tried to address these concerns over the years but it takes a unified effort to make a big impact, says lead author Richard Weissbourd. More than 80 stakeholders, including admissions officers (like Harvard’s), deans, professors and high school counselors have endorsed the report.

[5 ways to raise kind kids, according to a Harvard psychologist]

“It’s the first time in history that I’m aware of” that a group of colleges is coming together to lay out what is and what isn’t valued in the admissions process, says Weissbourd.

“Yes, we want students who have achieved in and out of the classroom, but we are also looking for things that are harder to quantify, [like] authentic intellectual engagement and a concern for others and the common good,” explains Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale University, one of the report’s endorsers.

In response to the report, Yale will be adding an essay question on next year’s application that asks applicants “to reflect on engagement with and contribution to their family, community and/or the public good,” Quinlan says. Yale will also “advocate for more flexibility in the extracurricular sections on both the Common Application and Coalition Application, so that colleges can more easily control how they ask students to list and reflect on their extracurricular involvement.”

The University of Virginia is also in agreement with the report. “We supportTurning the Tide because we philosophically agree with many of the principal points in the document, [like] promoting, encouraging, and developing good citizenship, strong character, personal responsibility, [and] civic engagement in high school students,” says Gregory Roberts, the school’s dean of admissions.

[How I survived 16 essays and the college application process]

Like Yale, several of the report’s endorsers have already modified their admissions efforts or practices as a result of these findings. Weissbourd said that over the next two years, Making Caring Common will work with college admissions officers, parents, high school guidance counselors and others to further implement the report’s recommendations. He hopes that many of these points will eventually be incorporated into the Common, Coalition and Universal applications as well.

Here are five highlights from the report, along with tips from Making Caring Common for how parents can help turn the tide:

1. Reduce stress by limiting course loads and extracurricular activities. Admissions offices can reduce undue pressure by sending a clear message that “long brag sheets do not increase students’ chances of admission.” To make this point, the authors recommend applications provide room for only two to four activities or ask students to describe two to three meaningful activities in an essay. Tallying up a lengthy listing of AP credits should be discouraged in favor of more sustained effort in areas of genuine interest.

Parent tip: Help your teens by encouraging them to find activities, classes and volunteer experiences that are meaningful to them, but that do not create undue stress.

2. Value the different ways students make contributions to their families and communities. Current applications often disadvantage students from less affluent backgrounds who may make important but overlooked contributions, such as working part-time to help support their families or taking care of a family member, leaving them no time for extracurricular activities or community service. Colleges need to clearly communicate the high value they place on family contributions and give ample opportunity for applicants to explain their role. By doing so, the authors hope to redefine achievement in broader terms.

Parent tip: If your teens help to run the household, babysit a younger sibling after school, or make other significant family contributions, make sure they write about it on their applications.

3. Stress the importance of authenticity. At the heart the report is the notion that admissions committees are looking for students who are authentic and honest about their interests and accomplishments. Students are encouraged to find the right college fit by remaining true to themselves, keeping an open mind about their options and examining a broad range of colleges. It should also be made clear that over-coached applications can jeopardize admission. Confidence and integrity are best reflected in the student’s own voice.

Parent tip: College admissions officers can sense when an application is not authentic or trumped up. Help teens present themselves in their best light, while still staying true to who they really are.

4. Alleviate Test Pressure.  Some colleges have already taken steps to de-emphasize the weight of the SATs and ACTs by making these tests optional. Admissions offices can reduce the pressure surrounding standardized tests by doing this or clearly explaining the test’s weight in the admissions process.