2025 ACTC Undergraduate Student Conference

Happiness in Connection | March 7 - 9, 2025

In collaboration with the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC), DRBU is hosting the 2025 ACTC undergraduate student conference for a weekend of presentations, conversations, and opportunities to experience contemplative exercises and recreational activities in the famous redwoods of Mendocino County.

Dive into meaningful discussions, inspiring presentations, and a community of new friends from colleges nationwide.

  • Connect with students nationwide in a weekend of inspiring presentations, insightful panels, and new friendships

  • Be inspired by a keynote speech from renowned social entrepreneur Nipun Mehta

  • Opportunities to experience breathing and mindful movement practices led by instructors from Dharma Realm Buddhist University

Theme: Happiness in Connection

In what ways are we individually responsible for our own happiness and in what ways are we dependent on our relationships?

This year’s theme invites you to explore the balance between individual responsibility for happiness and the role that relationships—whether with other people, animals, nature, ideas, or the world at large—play in shaping it.

Research reveals that young adults are facing a crisis of unhappiness and disconnection. How might classic texts help us frame the pursuit of happiness through the lens of relationship? What timeless wisdom from these texts is timely to our theme?
We invite you to engage seriously with at least one core text. Some authors you might explore include:
  • Confucius, The Analects
  • Epicurus
  • Zhuangzi
  • Plato, Symposium
  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
  • The Pali Canon
  • Bhagavad Gita
  • Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
  • Bible: The Gospels
  • Leo Tolstoy
  • Emily Dickinson
  • Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents
  • Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
  • Toni Morrison, Beloved

Keynote Speaker: Nipun Mehta

Nipun Mehta is a designer of large-scale social movements that are rooted in small acts of service and powered by micro moments of inner transformation. Among many other initiatives, he is the founder of ServiceSpace, an incubator of projects that operates at the intersection of volunteerism, technology, and gift-economy, which has now grown into a global ecosystem of over 1.5 million members and has delivered millions of dollars in service for free. He has been honored as “unsung hero of compassion”” by the Dalai Lama and was appointed by U.S. President Obama to a council for addressing poverty and inequality in the United States.

What to Know

Paper Format: ACTC papers are short essays (5 pages, double spaced) that significantly engage at least one core text.

Cost: There is no registration fee for students of ACTC member institutions. The program covers food during the conference and lodging Friday and Saturday nights.

Travel: Accepted students will be responsible for their travel to Dharma Realm Buddhist University in Northern California. Detailed information about travel will be provided to accepted students.

DRBU: Dharma Realm Buddhist University (DRBU) is a liberal arts institution focused on core texts from Asian and Western traditions, fostering self-reflection, critical thinking, and ethical development. DRBU is located in Ukiah, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, California. We’re surrounded by rolling hills, vineyards, orchards, and lakes, and just a short drive from ancient redwood groves and the stunning coastline.

Call for Nomination

Faculty, nominate your students now!

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Contact Us

ACTC Undergraduate Conference at DRBU

ir@drbu.edu