What do the founder of The Body Shop, a former female New Zealand Prime Minister, and the Dalai Lama have in common? Each one found a way to lead and change systems around them without losing sight of important goals. During this course, you will examine how great leaders create a positive impact.

Positive Leadership is a rigorous, evidence-based course built on the psychology of leadership, positive psychology, and positive organizational behavior — a framework developed by Prof. Kim Cameron at the University of Michigan and enriched by former Harvard Prof. Tal Ben-Shahar's work on the joy of leadership and high performance. Through a blend of theory, workshops, guest speakers, and the resolution of real-world challenges, you will investigate how successful leaders cultivate resilience, adaptability, and compassion in the face of 21st-century complexities. Live sessions are dynamic and interactive. They are a fruitful place to learn from your peers’ wealth of experience and knowledge.

The journey moves through three layers: enhancing your capacity to lead, building high-performing teams, and making a meaningful contribution to organizations and society. At the end, you will craft your Leadership Statement, a clear articulation of your values, strengths, and leadership approach that serves as a compass and a roadmap for your career. You will leave the course with both the theoretical frameworks and the practical tools to lead with purpose and impact.

• Leadership & Team Management Skills
• Problem-solving Strategies
• Self-Assessment & Personal Leadership Development
• Organizational Strategy
• Principles of Positive Psychology
• Great Leaders’ Leadership Approaches

Explore how democracies emerge from crisis and what sustains them in turbulent times. Drawing on Berlin’s pivotal role in Europe’s democratic history, this interdisciplinary course brings together international law, political science, and human rights to examine what allows systems to remain just, transparent, and resilient.

This course is designed for more than just aspiring politicians or lawyers; it's for anyone seeking a deeper comprehension of their world and their role in it. Because when more people recognize how political shifts shape everyday life, they’re in a far stronger position to respond, engage, and contribute to meaningful change.

Participants learn to understand and evaluate the forces shaping modern democratic systems, while critically engaging with real-world challenges such as migration, climate change, and digital transformation. By examining how society and politics are interconnected, the course promotes a more informed strategy for democratic transformation, especially in times of crisis.

• Critical thinking
• Global issue analysis
• Policy evaluation
• Digital & political literacy
• Decision-making in complex contexts
• Change and transition insight
• Human rights awareness

What’s wrong with the world? How can individuals worldwide create ideas for a better future, society, and environment? Berlin serves as your classroom for exploring global issues. Students engage with current worldwide issues through interdisciplinary studies, discussions, and collaborative projects. They develop innovative solutions influenced by Berlin's vibrant cultural and intellectual environment.

This course is built on the idea that today’s challenges cannot be understood in isolation. It guides learners to look beyond a single issue and instead explore how topics like migration, inequality, sustainability, and governance are deeply interconnected and constantly evolving within local and global contexts.

Berlin itself plays a central role in this process. As a city shaped by division and reunification, it offers a unique lens on political transformation and social change. As real-world case studies, we see the ongoing negotiation of global economic pressures against a strong local identity, the careful engagement with cultural memory after devastating historical events, and the development into a diverse, multicultural society.

We won’t solve all global problems in this course, but we will unite university students and young professionals to swap views, question beliefs, and collaboratively develop concepts for solutions. International teamwork allows participants to leverage diverse viewpoints and empowers them to translate their learning into meaningful local contributions, because enduring change begins at home.

• Policy & Urban Analysis
• Systematical Thinking
• Sustainability-Oriented Planning
• Inclusive Decision-making Awareness
• Political Transformation
• Presenting Solutions Collaboratively