Join the Honors Program Gratitude Challenge

This fall, the Honors Program is calling on everyone to join them in The Gratitude Challenge.  After the challenging year that we have gone through, letters of gratitude are one of the most effective ways of increasing perceptions of well-being, social support, and motivation for both the sender and the recipient (e.g., Kumar & Epley, 2018; Rash, Matsuba, & Prkachin, 2011).

Our goal is for students, faculty/staff/administrators, alumni, community members, and friends of ISU to write 400 letters of gratitude during the month of September to people who have made a positive difference in their life. The Gratitude Challenge will follow four themes, one for each week in September:

Week 1 (Sept 1-4) - Letters of gratitude to parents, family, or friends.

Week 2 (Sept 5-11) - Letters of gratitude to first responders (20th anniversary of 9/11).

Week 3 (Sept 12-18) - Letters of gratitude to ISU faculty and staff.

Week 4 (Sept 19-25) - Letters of gratitude to a person of your choice.

Please visit isu.edu/honors/gratitude to report the number of letters that you write in order to help us to move toward our goal of 400 letters. We also invite you to submit your stories and memories of gratitude in connection with ISU to be considered for a book, Orange, Black, and Thankful: Stories from the ISU Gratitude Book Project. For more details on these projects and other upcoming events associated with The Gratitude Challenge, please visit isu.edu/honors/gratitude.

Thank you again for joining us and helping to strengthen our community, one letter at a time!