The Appreciation Project is a four-week class and writing workshop providing an opportunity to bring more gratitude into your life.

We will learn the science and philosophy of gratitude through readings and discussion. Then we will have structured time to get to the core of The Appreciation Project: writing notes of appreciation to people you’re grateful for. Some of those prompts might include showing your appreciation to:

• a family member
• a former teacher or mentor
• someone who gave you good customer service
• someone who has passed away
• someone with whom you have a complicated relationship
• a friend who could use a little moral boost

“The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.” – William James

Messages matter! By writing these appreciation notes, you will be sharing your gratitude to bring joy, purpose and greater satisfaction to others. As a cohort, you’ll get generative ideas about who and what and how to appreciate others. You’ll get inspired by your classmates’ letters and acts of kindness. Your prose will become more powerful and meaningful. Your gratitude will reverberate and spread into other peoples’ lives and expand your empathy and compassion for others.

Portland Underground Grad School (PUGS) offers courses and workshops that facilitate your becoming who you want to be. Taught by local experts, they are filled with smart, interesting, and motivated Portlanders. We believe that a quality education is key to personal and societal transformation.