KAIST's Students Cry For Suicide Prevention Education - The Result?
In 2011, at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a highly competitive and world-renowned institution, several student suicides caused KAIST to consider methods for stress mitigation to protect its students.
KAIST is a place where the best and brightest of Korea are gathered. The pressure-filled competitive atmosphere contributed significantly to students’ stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
KAIST, in shock at the time, listened to the opinions of students while halting classes entirely, and was asked to “provide suicide prevention education”. KAIST is now the setting for the opening of a 'meditation class' that soothes the mind and emotions of its students.
In the fall semester of that year, a special lecture on aerospace engineering was offered with the subtitle ‘Now is the turning point of my life!’ Meditation classes were held on campus through 2018. Since 2015, the course content has been reorganized and the online education platform “Coursera” has been conducting learning sessions for people all over the world.
The recently published 'KAIST Meditation Class' is a book that reconstructs the contents of classes held at KAIST and Coursera lectures that are available online and provides them in an accessible easy-to-understand manner.
Deok-Joo Lee, a professor of aerospace engineering, the main character who created the meditation class at KAIST and the author of this book.
With the power of meditation, he was able to overcome major life crises that suddenly came at once. He suffered panic attacks as several family members died one after another and the family business went bankrupt. His work demonstrates the real help from meditation in his life.
Source: Kim Dong-ho