You’ve learned to analyze, optimize and solve. But the future you’re preparing for is uncertain and fast-changing. Compass trains attention, direction and nervous-system regulation so you can make decisions without a clear right answer — through real experience, not lectures.

You don’t get the answers.
You learn how to navigate.

You learn by doing, noticing and integrating — not by receiving weekly content to reproduce. From the first weeks you are part of a small group (max. 16) in which your presence matters. You work with real questions from your own life and study, and everything you try becomes material for reflection and growth.

We explore three relational directions: with yourself, with others and with the world.

Expect to:

·       connect and step into dialogue instead of discussion

·       work with your body as a source of information in decision-making

·       practice with stress and learn how to regulate your nervous system

·       spend time learning in nature and outside the classroom

·       experiment with new behavior and observe what that changes

·       reflect in ways that fit you — writing, visual, audio, movement

·       play, try new things, share both stories and silence

Sometimes this feels natural and energizing. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable. Often both.

There are no quick hacks. Your learning process is the curriculum.

The program formed after talking to many students/people who:

-            Make decisions based on what looks good on paper, but feel something is off.

-            Overthink when there is no clear right answer.

-            Want to focus, but constantly let attention be pulled away.

-            Find it hard to set boundaries and find real connections.

-            Feel tired of performing and checking boxes.

-            Want to care/contribute, but don’t know where to start.

You don’t have to have it all figured out.
You do have to be willing to show up.

Learning Outcomes

1. Embodied Decision-Making: demonstrate embodied decision-making by integrating signals from your body (tension, energy, gut response) with emotional and cognitive information when making choices.
2. Multiple Perspectives: engage with diverse viewpoints and show how your perspective evolved through that engagement.
3. Authentic Relationships & Ethical Decision-Making: navigate vulnerability and boundaries in relationships while making choices aligned with your values.
4. Working with Uncertainty: demonstrate capacity to stay present with not-knowing and use discomfort as information rather than problem.
5. Reflective Practice: maintain ongoing reflection through diverse modalities and show progression over time.
6. Interconnection & Context: recognize yourself as part of larger systems (relationships, nature, society) and show how that awareness shapes your choices and contributions.

These capacities are actively developed in organizations such as Google (Search Inside Yourself), the United Nations, and leadership programs linked to the Inner Development Goals — because technical expertise alone is not enough. In complex professional environments there is rarely a single right answer. You will be asked to make decisions in uncertainty, collaborate with people who think differently, stay present with pressure and discomfort and act from your values instead of external expectations.

Compass is where you deliberately practice these capacities — and learn to apply them in your study, work and daily life. You’ll gain confidence not as performance, but a quiet sense that you can meet what comes.

Enrollment

Four attitudes are needed: (1) genuine curiosity about self-inquiry, (2) willingness for vulnerability, (3) capacity to reflect on behavior and patterns and (4) openness to step into unknowns and productive discomfort.

Extra requirement for professional/work-study participants: experience in navigating professional settings and reflecting on showing up in work contexts.

Is this minor for you? Good fit if you:

·       are genuinely curious about yourself and open to try new things

·       can commit to being present and contributing to a group process

·       want education to be personally meaningful and professionally relevant

·       are willing to learn from experience, not only from theory

Probably not a fit if you only want quick hacks, predictability, knowledge transfer, or roll your eyes at words like mindfulness before even trying.

Students choose resources that serve their learning journey. These sources – and all others shared during the minor – are optional materials: invitations for deeper exploration, not requirements.

1.       Barbezat, D. P., & Bush, M. (2014). Contemplative practices in higher education: Powerful methods to transform teaching and learning.

2.       Baxter Magolda, M. B. (2009). Authoring your life: Developing an internal voice to navigate life’s challenges.

3.       Biesta, G. (2021). World-centred education: A view for the present.

4.       Capra, F., & Luisi, P. L. (2014). The systems view of life: A unifying vision.

5.       Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain.

6.       Lengelle, R., Pouw, P., Post, J. M., & Goren, S. (2022). Happy U: Zenmeditatie, loopbaanschrijven en een diversiteitsdialoog in De Haagse Hogeschool. LoopbaanVisie, 1, 61–66.

7.       OECD. (2023). Education for human flourishing: Building the conditions for thriving in a changing world.

8.       Scharmer, O., & Kaufer, K. (2013). Leading from the emerging future: From ego-system to eco-system economies.

9.       Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma.

Schedule

Primary location: THUAS Campus Johanna Westerdijkplein
Secondary locations: Sportcampus Zuiderpark + Nature areas in The Hague

Full-time (track/group 1)
Monday 13:30–17:00
Thursday 09:30–15:00
Monthly Wednesday evening 19:00–22:00 (optional, recommended)

Work-study (track/group 2)
Friday 09:00–17:00
Monthly Wednesday evening 19:00–22:00 (optional, recommended)

Language: English
Group size: 10-16

Testing - How the learning works

We work in cycles: experience → reflection → integration → new experiment

You document this in three portfolio journey maps, including a creative synthesis, and assess your own development in dialogue with the lecturer and the group.

There are weekly activities, assignments and explorations within and without the program accompanied by continuous reflection and sharing of both inner experience and observations.

The group process is the learning process. That is why your active participation is essential at every gathering and why 80% presence is a prerequisite to complete the program.

You always have agency in how you take part. Your boundaries are part of what you learn to recognize and communicate.

 

Resit = Re-submission with incorporated feedback, 2 weeks after semester end.