Arthur Brooks, social scientist, bestselling author and columnist for The Atlantic, spoke at Elon’s 2024 Fall Convocation on Sept. 27. Brooks is the author of 13 books as well as a professor at Harvard where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness.

Prior to convocation he spoke to Elon News Network about the key to setting yourself up for happiness and success during college.

“You have an opportunity to learn all the things that you're supposed to learn,” Brooks said. “To become an accomplished professional, get a job and all that responsibility stuff, but more importantly, you're setting yourself up for a life that can be one that's full of satisfaction, that can be full of enjoyment, that can be full of meaning, but that means you have to know the tricks.”

Brooks opened convocation by speaking about expectations that college students have about happiness.

“People come to university because they want the skills to get a good job,” Brooks said during the event. “They want the skills to be productive citizens. They want to have a good life. That's the idea of a university. But the truth of the matter is that the decisions that students take in the first four years of their higher education experience — that these have very big relationship to the rest of their lives.”

Brooks further highlighted four main habits that people should maintain in order to be happy.

“There's only four big things that really matter,” Brooks said. “Your faith, your family, your friendships and your work.”

The floor then opened up for a Q&A from students, professors and parents. A parent asked how they could instill purpose and balance in their child’s life. Brooks responded by saying that a parent should focus more on their child having a full, balanced life.

“You can't make anybody happy. You don't want perfectly happy children. That's not balanced, that's not a full life,” Brooks said. “You want your kids to be fully alive — experiencing all of it and being able to deal with the hard parts.”

Elon sociology professor Karen Wirth attended the event.

“I loved the speaker,” Wirth said. “I actually use all his works in a capstone course that I teach, What Makes Life Worth Living. So I used his column from The Atlantic. I have both of his books, his most recent. I hope people take away that it's okay not to have everything figured out and you can still be happy.” 

Freshman Raven Donaldson’s uncle Greg Ganey — who’s on campus for Family Weekend — said he took a lot away from the talk.

“One of the biggest things that was a takeaway for us … was the statement about strength to strength and inspiring each person,” Ganey said. It's really important for each person to be inspired to never give up on yourself, never give up on your dreams, never give up on the lifestyle that you want to lead.”