Lai Wai Man (Norris)

“I went to MAPP because of my students,” says Lai Wai Man (Master of Applied Positive Psychology, University of Pennsylvania `24) known to her Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) peers as Norris. “I wanted to find the answer of how to get more buy-in for positive education in Hong Kong, because it’s quite difficult but crucial.” Norris, an experienced teacher who has also worked for UNICEF and volunteered in rural China, first encountered positive psychology as part of a positive education initiative in Hong Kong in 2014. She learned how to support struggling students using character strengths and the PERMA model of well-being; later, when she took a leadership role in education, she encouraged her colleagues to apply the same concepts in their classrooms. “The more I learned about it, I realized I wanted to learn more about the root of positive education,” recalls Norris. “What’s behind the PERMA model?” But as a full-time teacher who lives halfway around the world from the Positive Psychology Center at Penn, the possibility of enrolling in the rigorous MAPP program seemed out of reach until retirement. The Bei Shan Tang Scholarship helped turn Norris’s positive education ambitions into her reality, offering tuition support and a two-year agreement to contribute to the Bei Shan Tang Foundation’s positive education projects after graduation. Norris is the first in-service teacher from Hong Kong to receive this honor.

“It's not just a program, it's a fruitful experience of love with 50 classmates and over 50 world-class researchers and practitioners of positive psychology from different parts of the world,” says Norris of her time in the MAPP program. “This program is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget.” From the beginning, during online coursework, Norris learned about positive interventions and concepts that she could put into practice right away—even personal positive habits like beginning the day by listening to nice music or going for a jog.  She also learned more about teaching from the close-knit MAPP community. “The team is always here to give us support. No matter where we are and what questions we ask, we go to the MAPP team and they respond straight away,” she says. “They designed the program in a very human way. I learned not just about how to apply positive psychology, but also about how to be a better teacher, to really listen to the students and make them feel valued.”

For on-site weekends, Norris would fly from Hong Kong to New York City after work, then take the train to Philadelphia just in time to join her peers for the morning session. With practice, she grew accustomed to completing some of her coursework while waiting for flights. She would head back to Hong Kong on Sunday nights, and go straight to work from the airport. “I would say the jet lag was not easy,” laughs Norris. “But I enjoyed it and treasure it, because it helped me to have better time management.” On her first visit to Penn, although Norris was feeling tired and out of place from long hours of travel, everyone in the MAPP program team knew her name and made her feel at home right away. “There will be doubts. You may question why you are doing this and whether you are capable,” says Norris. “Trust the process and remember why you applied for this program in the first place. And once you get through it, then you will look back and realize you have made the best choice in life.”

During on-site sessions, MAPP students from different parts of the world had opportunities to share their cultures and professional experiences during scheduled energy breaks. “It’s very fun to know each other’s experiences,” says Norris. “In Chinese culture, we are taught not to talk about our strengths because this is a sign of arrogance. But in this program, we are encouraged to share and to be proud of who we are, and this is something that I like.” These opportunities encouraged Norris to reflect on her own culture, and inspired her to be more appreciative of her top character strengths (which are perseverance, self-regulation, and love of learning). Norris describes the MAPP experience as being like sunscreen that helps protect her in times of challenge or adversity. “I call it my S.P.F. 51,” she jokes, “because it raises my self-awareness of my purpose to work towards Flourish 51,” referring to Martin P. Seligman’s proposed goal for the field to help 51% of the world’s population flourish by 2051.

For her service learning project, Norris collaborated with three other students from Buffalo (US), Toronto (Canada), and London (UK); they nicknamed their team All Over the MAP(P). Their group decided to partner with an animal shelter, which gave Norris an opportunity to explore practical applications outside of her field. “I had been spending most, if not all, of my time on education. I was ready to try something new,” she recalls. The group developed a program based on the PERMA model to help military veterans find a sense of meaning and belonging through volunteering with the animal shelter.

When it was time to narrow down a topic for her capstone project, however, Norris returned to the subject that led her to MAPP in the first place. “At the very beginning, I believed that I would work on a project focusing on my students as they are the reason I am taking MAPP. Midway, I realized maybe I want to do something for teachers, especially novice teachers—because if I want students to have well-being, I need to make sure my teachers have well-being,” she explains. “Then I realized that I need to care about leaders. We ask Hong Kong educational leaders, including principals and vice principals, to care about the students’ and teachers’ well-being and even parents’ well-being, and we want them to do a good job, but no one asks about the well-being of the educational leaders in Hong Kong.” Norris spoke with 20 exemplary educational leaders in Hong Kong who worked with different types of schools: primary or secondary, funded by the government or by direct subsidy scheme. Her project, “Unveiling the hidden strategies: sustaining well-being and performance for educational leaders in Hong Kong,” shared the practices that these educational leaders employed to maintain excellence in their schools and well-being in their own lives. Norris also came up with an outline for a three-hour workshop for aspiring principals in Hong Kong, hoping that the Education Bureau of Hong Kong would consider the proposed workshop in the required certification process for principals.

Now that she has completed the MAPP degree, Norris looks forward to working with the Bei Shan Tang Foundation to continue advancing positive education in Hong Kong, perhaps by running workshops or sharing findings from her capstone research that could help develop new projects. “I'm now serving at my school as the vice principal, responsible for student development and support. That position would be perfect for me to see how I can apply what I have learned as a member of the leadership team at school,” says Norris. “But I want to do more to share my learning experiences with other teachers in Hong Kong and beyond. If we really want to care about our students, we need to take care of ourselves first and understand what we need.”

“Through all this, I realized that teachers and educators are just planting a seed,” Norris continues. “We provide the environment for a plant to grow. No matter how it turns out, if we spend time and love, then the plant will grow and flourish. And this gave me a very good reminder about my choice to be a teacher. I truly, truly believe that sharing the concepts that I learned from this program would be the best gift that I can give to my students for their lives.” She summarizes her own life purpose in 10 words: “Seeing goodness in everyone, living in a virtuous circle.”