Gina Elia | What Experiment?

The Benjamin Franklin Experiment | How Ben Franklin's plan for mental well-being is relevant to contemporary campus life

By Gina Elia 08/31/15 12:21am

If you go to Penn often, you probably encounter him all the time. You might pass him on College Green, or perhaps you see him more frequently on your way to Stouffer Commons from central campus. He’s also been known to make an appearance on 34th Street between Walnut and Spruce, looking brave and a little frightened. He’s such a frequent sight around these parts, in fact, that even if you venture off-campus, you might run into him smiling at you with a glint in his bespectacled eyes or working hard at the only trade he ever really loved, the printing press.

By now, you’ve probably gathered that I’m talking about Benjamin Franklin, a man this city is so in love with that his face greets anyone who drives through it.

Philadelphia’s obsession with Franklin is well-deserved, I might add, as I found out when I read his autobiography this summer. Within its pages, Franklin casually narrates how through hard work, independent study and efficient application of his talents to every problem he encountered, he made a success of himself and helped to transform Philadelphia from a backwater town to a major world city.

But I actually found the first part of Franklin’s autobiography — where he talks about the formation of his character in early life — much more interesting than the dry listing of accomplishments that comprises the second half. In an effort to cultivate himself into the best person he could be, Franklin concocted a list of 13 virtues that he intended to work on improving throughout his life, each week focusing on developing one. The list includes temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity and humility. Franklin believed these virtues were uncontroversially good for everybody, and that development of them would improve general contentment with oneself and one’s life.

Inspired by his plan for self-improvement, I started to think more about what would happen to me if I tried to strengthen the presence of these virtues in my own character. How would I change as an individual? How would my feelings of general contentment and happiness alter? Most importantly, how would cultivation of these virtues improve my mental health and well-being?

As a graduate student overwhelmed by considerations of my upcoming qualifying exam, dissertation research and writing, fellowship applications and the eventual difficult academic job search, I am one of many Penn students, faculty and staff whose shoulders constantly slump from the burden of our various responsibilities. As I have found both in my own life and from my observations as a graduate associate in one of the undergraduate houses, this ongoing pressure, paired with the competitive atmosphere of Penn’s campus community, all too often leads to a downward spiral of stress, anxiety, depression and feelings of inferiority. The tragic spate of suicides we have encountered here and at other universities is an extreme example of what can happen when campuses like Penn stress the importance of material and academic success to the detriment of all other aspects of character and living.

So here I am, ready to embark on an experiment this semester using the list that good old Ben swears by. Every other week, I will write about something I have changed in the way I conduct my daily life to try to strengthen one of the above virtues in myself. Writing about my experiment in a public forum will force me to be accountable and actually follow through, which is great. What’s more, I will learn about the value of developing these virtues for myself and for the campus environment as a whole. Right now, students who want to maintain a healthy state of physical and mental well-being have to try pretty hard to keep this competitive atmosphere from getting under their skin.

Undergoing this process will hopefully teach me about the many issues our community needs to address in order to nurture a culture of contentment, confidence and comradeship. Such an environment would actually encourage prioritizing mental health and well-being over all other academic and social concerns. To me, that sounds like an environment worth striving for.

GINA ELIA is a graduate student from Hingham, Mass. Her email address is ginaelia@sas.upenn.edu. “The Benjamin Franklin Experiment” appears every other Monday.

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