Discovery Day:
The Becoming You
Experience
What if you could figure out what to do with your life – in just one day? Welcome to Discovery Day: The Becoming You Experience, an intensive eight-hour journey of exploration and career planning, taught on campus by acclaimed NYU Stern School of Business Professor Suzy Welch. Normally only available to NYU students, this exclusive, enrollment-limited program, sponsored by the NYU Stern Initiative on Purpose and Flourishing, is designed to help you unlock the answer to
“What should I do with my life?”
The Becoming You Experience
Discovery Day
9am - 5pm on February 1, 2025
The Becoming You methodology is founded on the premise that your purpose lies at the intersection of your values, your aptitudes, and the areas of economic growth that call you emotionally and intellectually. That overlap is, in Becoming You’s terminology, your “Area of Transcendence” (AOT), which Professor Welch describes as “the right-fitting, soul-filling, and empowering destination of the beautiful, messy, and precious journey of life. Your AOT, the ultimate destination on the Becoming You methodology, is where you will feel most exquisitely alive.”
To be clear, Becoming You’s Discovery Day does not promise a straight shot to your perfect job. Life does not work that way. People have real responsibilities and constraints. But the Becoming You methodology, with its proven exercises, activities, and tests, invariably yields transformative insights, and vigorously sets participants on a recharted course toward their purpose, with profound new insights and fresh, well-founded confidence. Discovery Day is your first step there.
What Suzy has created is profound and inspiring, and honestly, she makes something very complex seem so simple if we're willing to get existential. I know so many people will benefit from this brilliant method.
Chrissy Rutherford
Founder & Editor
“ ”Part 1: Values
Personal Values Excavation
9am - 12pm followed by a lunch break from 12 - 1pm
The first three hours of Discovery Day are spent identifying each participant’s unique core values, deploying exercises, as well as The Values Bridge, the digital assessment tool that Professor Welch developed as part of her PhD research specifically for those undertaking the Becoming You process.
Whether you enter Discovery Day thinking you know your core values or not, the values excavation will expand and deepen your understanding of your deeply held beliefs, goals, and motivations. And, as importantly, the values excavation process will start to clarify the purpose-filled future you hope to build.
The personal values excavation is followed by a lunch break, from 12 - 1pm. Enjoy a meal at a restaurant near the NYU campus or find a spot in the Tisch Hall lounge to eat something you’ve brought along. Review your discoveries so far with trained Becoming You facilitators, meet fellow attendees, or just catch your breath. There’s much more to come!Part 2: Aptitudes
Aptitudes Identification
1pm - 3pm
What are you good at? No, really good at? Like, better-than-most-people good at? We can spend our whole lives not knowing the true answer to those questions, and such data is essential to finding, and living, the lives we were meant to.
Becoming You begins to pinpoint its participants’ underlying aptitudes with a series of scientifically validated tests, which are taken prior to Discovery Day. (The costs of this testing are covered in tuition.) The goal of this portion of Discovery Day is to take the mystery out of our cognitive (intellectual) and emotional strengths, so that we can begin to identify which kinds of jobs and industries are the best match for them.Part 3: Economically Viable Interests
Industry and Megatrend Survey
3 - 3:45 pm
The third part of the day is designed to expose participants to often overlooked industries where opportunity abounds, and elucidate the most notable megatrends on the horizon. Even if you enter Becoming You thinking you know what kind of work you want to pursue, this portion of Discovery Day is intended to “open the aperture” on what constitutes an economically viable interest.Part 4: Area of Transcendence
Comprehensive Area of Transcendence (AOT) Workshop
3:45 - 5 pm
The final module of Discovery Day synthesizes the findings, and begins the journey of creating participants’ personal “Area of Transcendence” roadmap. The portion of the class is aided by a hands-on Area of Transcendence workbook — which walks users through the synthesis of their Becoming You discoveries around values, aptitudes, and interests — examples from previous Becoming You participants, and a visitor with a real-life story of Becoming You at work.
If this last part of the class sounds intensive, yep, it probably will be. We are synthesizing hours of what might be called “extreme learning,” but nothing good in life is ever easy, right? And we are firm believers that taking the steps to discover your purpose is always worth it.
Faq
- Who is this program for? People just starting out in their careers, or mid-career professionals who are hoping to pivot?AHow about yes and yes, and everyone in between? The power of the Becoming You methodology is that it is a lifelong tool that meets you exactly where you are in your career journey.
Professor Welch has taught Becoming You to individuals from 18 to 80; the course is designed to be inclusive – and life-transforming – whether you are very close to your purpose or are searching for it on what feels like a distant horizon. - What can I expect to get out of the Discovery Day program?AYou will emerge from the program with a comprehensive list of your core values, new and specific insights into your unique aptitudes, and a new understanding of the wide array of economic opportunities available today. Perhaps most importantly, each participant will leave with their own personalized, customized “Area of Transcendence” workbook, which can be regarded as a roadmap to their future.
In short, you should expect to come out of the Intensive with a clearer, deeper, and more hope-provoking answer to the question, “What should I do with my life?” - How does Discovery Day compare to Professor Welch’s course at NYU?AProfessor Welch’s course at NYU is 21 hours and features several exercises, activities, assignments, and guests that a one-day timeframe simply does not allow. That said, the one-day strives to present a comprehensive overview of the Becoming You method and it does include a good number of the academic class’s key components. Of course, one other note is that Professor Welch’s NYU class is only open to NYU | Stern School of Business MBA students.
- How does Discovery Day compare to Professor Welch’s Three-Day Intensive program?AThe Becoming You Three-Day Intensive has 21 hours of class time and has only 60 students at a time. (Discovery Day has over 100 participants.) Given the longer timeframe, the Three-Day Intensive also offers more group exercises and longer time spent on each exercise. Also included in the Three-Day Intensive: a pre-session gathering with Professor Welch the evening before the program, personalized 15 minute interviews prior to the Intensive with the Becoming You team, Area of Transcendence presentations at the end of the course with individualized commentary from Professor Welch, a cocktail party celebration hosted by Professor Welch at the end of the course, and a one-hour personal Zoom session with Professor Welch anytime in the six months after the Intensive concludes.
- How much access will we have to Professor Welch at Discovery Day?AProfessor Welch will teach the entire day-long program, but given the amount of participants and the shorter timeframe, participants will not have set aside one-on-one time with Professor Welch.
Please note, there is a group Zoom call with Professor Welch after Discovery Day for follow-up questions. This is free of charge and optional. - What is included in the cost of the program?AThe $900 cost includes instruction, as well as all learning materials and tests. It does not include meals.
- Where is the program taking place?AOn the NYU campus.
- Do you recommend taking the class with a friend or family member?ABy all means, if this makes sense for you! That said, people tend to connect quickly and naturally during the Becoming You process, so you likely feel a sense of immediate community.
- What should I do if I have other questions?ABring ‘em! Please contact us at hello@suzywelch.com.
I wanted to express my sincere gratitude for the insightful and transformative experiences I've gained through Becoming You. The guidance has been invaluable, and the knowledge and self-awareness I've acquired has changed my life for the better.
Jacob
Financial Executive
“ ”