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At a time when our society often reduces the value of college majors to their earning potential, nine ���ϲ����� students in Dr. Ira Silver’s Death & Dying course say they gained something far more meaningful this semester: a deeper understanding of what it means to live well.

“This class has helped me understand that connection isn’t something to postpone,” said Criminology major Maddie Boucher during the group’s final oral presentations this month. “It’s something to honor, especially in the face of mortality. I’m trying to be more intentional, more present, and more willing to say what matters to the people that I love.”

Throughout the semester, students engaged with texts such as Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and Yes to Life in Spite of Everything by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl. They also met guest speakers whose experiences offered real-world insight into how to live well in the face of mortality - including a woman living with metastatic cancer, a rabbi, and a hospice nurse. These guests enabled students to explore cultural, emotional, and philosophical dimensions of death.

“Perhaps the best way to find greater meaning in your life and live a richer life is to become proximate with death,” says Silver, a Professor in the Sociology and Criminology Department. “I was fortunate to go through this experience with these nine students. You might say I taught them, but really, I learned with them. The course was not about content mastery, but about growing personally and achieving greater self-understanding. People at any stage of life can benefit from this type of self-reflective learning experience”

For Criminology major Sophia Carvalho, the class offered a new way to process childhood trauma.

“Instead of seeing something as solely awful, I can see now it as part of my story,” she says. “I can try to honor my pain while still choosing growth. I’ve learned that even in the darkest moments, we can try our best to find purpose and meaning.”

Several students reflected on how, despite being the one experience every human will face, death remains a topic society tends to avoid.

“I want to teach my children to confront death with honesty instead of fear,” says senior Sociology major Chris Broussard. “Facing mortality openly can bring clarity, gratitude, and connection. I want to challenge the silence and change the conversation.”

At the close of the presentations, Silver noted how each student’s reflection - from a course focused on dying - was ironically life-affirming.

“These messages are substantive because they are anchored in your lived experiences,” he said. “What you demonstrated today is education at its best. It’s never only about course content. More importantly, it’s about you and how you can integrate what you’ve learned into your life to make it richer.”