Senior Tyler Wang is attempting to bring Asian religious ideals into the American school system. He is currently working on his Humanities Capstone project to do just that.

“We know religion has helped people in the past,” Wang said. “Unfortunately, religion has kind of fallen out of [fashion], it’s not popular anymore. So, one of the things that I want to do is bring some aspects of it back into the school system in a way that may help people.” 

He began his journey after discovering the severity of poor student mental health and its causes.

“Technology and COVID contribute  to negative mental health outcomes,” Wang said. “The fact is that there’s so much that has bad mental health outcomes such as social media and school stress.”

Wang believes that the best way to solve this problem is through reintroducing Asian religious teachings in a secular way. 

“Religion has many aspects that have helped people in the past,” Wang said. “For example, when people were fearful of dying, they took to religion and belief systems to help them ease their existential dread.”

Wang’s project, though progressing, has faced some hurdles, including making the teachings secular and acceptable for people. 

“First of all, we need to make them secular; not a part of a religion, something that people would likely accept,” Wang said. “Then after they’re somewhat secular, and people can accept them, we can push this into schools.” 

Wang is in the process of finishing his project and implementing his solution.

“It feels good to know that people feel much better in the world after what I’ve done,” Wang said. “Hopefully, more people will find it useful and that through this change people will look at the world in a different light.”