How to Transcend Yourself
The EPIC Experience
Program Description:
How to Transcend Yourself: The EPIC Experience offers students an exciting opportunity to explore the intersection of personal growth, storytelling, and social science research. Over the course of this immersive program, students will learn how to reflect on and share their challenges—whether related to academics, peer relationships, family, or life in general—while discovering how these experiences can be leveraged positively.
Under the mentorship of researchers from The Education for Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC), students will create a multimedia narrative of their own struggles and triumphs. By developing a deeper understanding of their personal journeys and the research methods used to explore human behavior, students will gain critical insight into how they can transform setbacks into successes.
What Benefits Do Students Gain from Participating in EPIC’S Summer Program?
The benefits include, but are not limited to the following areas:
- Students will be taught the art of conveying their challenges related to academics, peer relationships, family, or other life scenarios, through narrative; leveraging these experiences positively. Under the mentorship of EPIC researchers, students will create a multimedia narrative struggle story and discover their new and great potential in turning their struggles into successes.
- Students will have multiple opportunities to participate in research projects of our faculty, lab members, and doctoral students, including:
- The Psychology of Failure
- The Effects of Failure Disclosure on Motivation
- The Relationship between Information-Seeking and Performance
- Students will learn about cutting-edge research in the field of cognitive science and psychology by participating in and analyzing groundbreaking experiments. Foundational concepts and classical psychology experiments will be introduced in our online workshop to help develop a better understanding of human behavior and motivation.
- Participants of this program will be some of the first to learn about novel research conducted at EPIC including projects that include original interviews of Nobel Laureates and exceptional athletes who have shared their wisdom on how to interpret and overcome hardship on their way to success. Knowledge gained in this internship will benefit students’ studies and lives. In this internship, students will be able to closely observe how researchers collect, organize, and analyze data. These skills are crucial to students’ high school and college academic success regardless of what major the students choose to pursue in the future.
- Students will also have opportunities to interact with peers and make new friends through interactive online workshops.
- An EPIC Program Certificate is awarded at completion of the summer program commensurate with meeting all summer goals and projects successfully.
- EPIC Internship Opportunities are awarded to exceptional students interested in working with us in future projects and programs.
- Past participants have gone on to gain admission to top institutions, including Columbia University and Brown University.
Dates: July 6 - 24, 2026
Schedule:
- 4 synchronous meetings per week full group from 7:30pm - 9:00pm EST
- 1 synchronous meeting per week in small groups: Timing depends upon group schedule
- Individual synchronous meetings
Time Commitment: About 10 hours per week
Location: Online with Live Synchronous Zoom Sessions
Early Bird Price: $3,300 - Enroll by April 30th to Save $300 (Regular Price: $3,600)
For more information, questions or to register: Email tcacademy@tc.columbia.edu
Faculty
Xiaodong Lin-Sielger, Ph.D.
Cleveland E. Dodge Professorship in Cognitive Studies
Dr. Xiaodong Lin is a Professor of Cognitive Science in Education and the founding Director of Education for Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC), at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on how educators can motivate students to succeed despite facing obstacles in their school work and personal life.
A theme that runs throughout her research is the importance of learning about other people’s struggle with failures and the impact this learning has on a student’s confidence and future achievements. For example, Professor Lin found that incorporating “celebrity” stories of failure to success into the STEM curriculum can help improve a student’s ability to tackle their own struggles in life. In her 2016 study (Lin-Siegler, Ahn, Chen, Fang, & Luna-Lucero, 2016), she found that making explicit the struggles famous scientists experienced prior to success enhanced students’ ability to deal with challenging STEM learning tasks. This study was press released by the American Psychological Association, and has since then been published by over 25 news media, including NPR Morning News Edition, CBS News, PBS Kids, PBS SciTech program, Science, Atlantic Quartz, BBC News, News India, China’s People Daily, etc.
Professor Lin has earned many academic awards throughout her career, including Career Achievement Award and Distinguished Research Award by the American Education Research Association (AERA). She was also named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 2003. Recently, Professor Lin was elected to serve on the Education Advisory Board of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and has made important contributions to the Education 2030 Initiative. Professor Lin has been named Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Cognitive Science in Education at Teachers College for her profound contributions to failure studies and their applications across the fields of education, psychology, and health.
Benjamin J. Lovett, Ph.D.
Dr. Ben Lovett is a Professor of Psychology and Education in the School Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he teaches courses on psychological assessment, cognition and emotion, and the history of psychology, among others. His research focuses on (a) the diagnostic assessment of learning and attention problems, (b) the provision of disability accommodations, and (c) the nature and management of test anxiety. He has over 100 publications on these and related topics, including 4 books. He is also a licensed psychologist in New York State and has served as a consultant to schools and testing agencies.
Amel Alrifai, M.A.
Amel earned her master’s in Cognitive Science in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and her bachelor’s in Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently working as a Lab Coordinator at the Education for Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC) at TC. Her interests include cross-cultural influences on students’ failure responses in STEM fields.
Misty Lam
Misty is a master’s student in Developmental Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University and earned her bachelor’s in Psychology and Early Childhood Education at Boston University. She is the co-founder of Choice Potential, an education NGO in Hong Kong. Misty is currently a research assistant at the Education for Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC) at TC. Her interests include early factors that influence student’s motivation and STEM career choices.
Learning Objectives
- Learn to Share Your Failures: Explore how to talk about your setbacks in a way that helps you grow and teaches others. The goal is to connect with the events and understand your role in them. This means expressing your emotions and how your thoughts changed. You will learn to tell impactful stories about your own journeys of turning setbacks to success.
- Develop Self-Knowledge by Reflecting on Your Reactions to Failure: Dive into the process of finding meaning in both yourself and the events that unfold. This introspection involves making sense of your experiences, leading to a deeper understanding of yourself and your journey. Good storytelling should help one achieve this goal.
- Introduce Fundamentals of Social Science Research: Dive into the essentials of social science research methods and discoveries of human behaviors, emotions and thinking. You will learn by analyzing research papers, understanding what problems researchers study, how they approach it, and what it means. Plus, we'll have a lecture on different research methods, followed by a workshop where you'll craft your research idea. This knowledge will help one think critically about the society and events in your life.
Upon Completion
Participants who successfully complete this program will earn a verified Certificate of Participation and an official Digital Badge—valuable credentials that can be shared on LinkedIn or digital portfolios.
View our sample program badge and certificate below:
Testimonials About The EPIC Pre-College Program
“The EPIC summer program will change your perspective of life and your failures, it will improve you as a person.”
“The experience provided insights into anxiety management, self-awareness, and psychological principles for proactive stress mitigation.”
“This is a great program, we really learned things from it, and it’s very valuable. We have independent work and group work, and we can share our ideas honestly.”
“It is a very meaningful program and the professor and mentors are so nice and supportive.”
“It taught me that failure is okay and that there are healthy and good ways of dealing with it.”
“It was a fun experience. Be ready to face failure and be willing to share.”
“I learned that, when facing failure, one must have the courage to confront it, the right approach to solve problems, and above all, the perseverance to endure repeated setbacks.”