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Student Spotlight: David Frenkel

October 9, 2015 by Louis Alloro

David Frankel is curious about flow at his piano.
David Frankel is curious at his piano.

David Frenkel reads a lot. He estimates that he reads 2 books per month and then listens to another 4 or 5 audiobooks (he humbly asks “if those count?”). As he is reading he looks for clues as to what his next book should be and this process for choosing books has lead him to discover a passion for the science of human flourishing.

It was not even a year ago that David finished the book, Drive by Daniel Pink which led him to read Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. David describes reading Flow as the “best experience” because he had seen in his life that he had not let himself enjoy himself. Flow also brought about the decision to teach himself how to play piano (he, of course, read several books on learning how to play piano). He says he can get “lost” in playing because each song is harder and harder. Currently he is working on Mozart’s Sonatina in C major.

Most recently David’s reading chain has led him to Todd Kashdan’s Curious, which he described as “eloquent in its description of the two systems of anxiety and curiosity.” David learned a valuable life lesson in the book that if he tried to work on his anxiety on his own, he could make a modest amount of progress, but if he redirects his energy to be curious about his world and his surroundings it is much more powerful in helping him break though the anxiety.

All of this reading did eventually lead David to positive psychology. He had an interest in getting a Masters in Positive Psychology, but when he googled positive psychology the only thing in New York that popped up was CAPP. He was not convinced at first, so he called and spoke to Emiliya and later Louis. “They were so enthusiastically part of this “positive species” I wanted more of,” he said. “I immediately registered for CAPP 6 in Philadelphia.

“CAPP made my life a lot better. It is a saving grace.” It gave him, “permission to be positive”. He quotes “other people matter” often as he recounts his experience in the program.

For his final project, David drew on his Fine Arts degree, and his creativity and curiosity to create a board game that teaches principles of positive psychology. David named the game, The Pursuit of Happiness, and it teaches principles of Positive Psychology to those who play the game. The Pursuit of Happiness allows each player five turns to draw a card, move their game piece around the board, and learn lessons regarding well being as they play. The game allows all players to celebrate the winner’s victory by using positive psychology: strength finding, gratitude, and active constructive feedback.

This Sunnyside, NY native sees himself ten years from now in a profession helping people using the foundational tools that he has gained from CAPP. David is continuing his learning by assisting in the current Philadelphia CAPP class that just got started.

<This Student Spotlight was contributed by Jim McGuire, CAPP>

Filed Under: Student Spotlight Tagged With: capp, Curious, Daniel Pink, Drive, Flow, positive psychology, Pospsy, Todd Kashdan

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The Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology Program (CAPP) is a comprehensive training program in the factors that enable individuals and organizations to thrive, and the world’s leading certification program in the field today.


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