BYU–Hawaii News

A BYU-Hawai counselor who has worked with students for the past three decades noted in the July 10 devotional address on campus that almost everyone will experience afflictions in life, but we should avoid imposing our own upon ourselves. Read Full Story

A group of eight BYU-Hawaii students took part in one-month work/study internships that led them to the Cook Islands earlier this summer--an experience described by one of the student interns as "unforgettable." Read Full Story

Gordon B. Hinckley, fifteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was awarded an honorary doctorate degree before addressing BYU-Hawaii graduates, students, faculty and community members during the June 21 commencement ceremony in the Cannon Activities Center.

"I've been to many university commencements, but I've never been to one like this," he said. "As I have seen the great variety of people from many lands, all mingling together, and proudly wearing your graduation robes as an expression of your great achievement, it is a most remarkable thing."

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Former CEO and co-founder of WordPerfect Corp., Alan Ashton, along with his wife Karen, spoke to BYU-Hawaii students and faculty on the role of the family in achieving eternal happiness during a devotional on June 19.

Alan is the grandson of David O. McKay, former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who prophesied on the destiny of BYU-Hawaii and the leaders that it would produce. It was also a historic day for the university as it marked the first time that a devotional was held in the new campus stake center.

The Ashtons explained that after "praying and pondering long" about their subject to speak on, they decided to follow Marjorie Pay Hinckley's statement of "Family is everything."

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Real estate investor David McCulloch expressed to BYU-Hawaii students the value of keeping a proper perspective towards building wealth during an entrepreneurship lecture held on June 17. Read Full Story

BYU-Hawaii head basketball coach Ken Wagner, emphasized the need to rely on the Lord by sharing various life experiences in his June 12 devotional address to students and faculty.

"No matter what trials or help I have needed, I have always felt I could turn to the Lord," Wagner said. "We need prayer to help us get through lives experiences."

Wagner explained that he had really started to examine his life and how he had learned about prayer after one of his daughters had experienced her own struggles with praying and receiving answers. He started to reflect on some on the events that helped strengthen his confidence in the Lord.

"My whole life had been filled with beautiful examples of prayer-personally, in my family, and in our community," he said.

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Hawaiian Studies professors and students from BYU-Hawaii, as well as several others in surrounding communities launched the university's traditional twin-hulled sailing canoe, the Iosepa, from Hukilau Beach in Laie on June 3 for a short series of sea trials. Read Full Story

BYU-Hawaii men's and women's chorus director Merrilee Webb, shared with the university family the importance of recognizing and understanding the many miracles that occur daily in our lives in a devotional speech on May 29.

"You and I are involved in miracles everyday but the problem is that we are not seeing them," she said.

Webb explained that often, two people who see the exact same event can have completely different experiences depending on that person's perspective in life. It is through that perspective that we either recognize or ignore the impact of the daily miracles we experience in our lives.

"We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we describe," Webb said, quoting the author Joseph Jaworski.

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Several BYU-Hawaii student body officers recently provided leadership training for their younger counterparts from nearby Kahuku High School as part of the university's recruiting efforts. Asai Gilman, director of admissions and recruitment, international and Hawaii, explained, "The University wanted to have the leaders of Kahuku High School on our campus to listen to BYU-Hawaii student leaders and take part in our delegating and team building workshops. It worked great." Gilman, who previously conducted similar programs for high school leaders at Dixie State College and Southern Utah University, said, "We invited all the student leaders of surrounding high schools while I was working at those institutions. I thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing here." Sunday Mariteragi, a 1970 BYU-Hawaii alumna who has been Student Activities Coordinator for the past 18 years at Kahuku High and oversees their student body officers, agreed. "It was valuable training. I think this is the first time we have had something like this from BYU-Hawaii." Current BYU-Hawaii student body president Jannifer Lesuma, who conducted the delegation portion of the workshop along with vice president Nelson Fotu, also agreed. "It was a great opportunity for BYU-Hawaii and the Kahuku student leaders to get together, because we come from the same community. We often use the same resources," she said. Lesuma added both she and Fotu, who attended Kahuku High, believe delegation "or the ability to empower others, is one of the most important skills of a leader. We were pleased to be able to share with the Kahuku leaders." Mariteragi said both the outgoing and incoming senior Kahuku student officers who participated already do planning and follow up by delegating, "but these workshops really helped formalize our procedures. In fact, since we trained at BYU-Hawaii, our student body officers have given their own version of a leadership workshop at Kaaawa Elementary School." "Our intention is to do more leadership training orientation programs like these," said Gilman, who sees the program as a form of indirect recruitment. "We also hope when some of these students are on our campus that they will recognize there are opportunities for not only academic but also leadership growth here. It's a subtle 'here's an opportunity' event that suggests, 'you are a leader at your high school. You can also be a leader here.'" Gilman said he would like to do at least two more similar programs next school year; One on Oahu, and the other on a neighbor island. "Our students make this kind of leadership training successful," he said. "Without them, it would be quite challenging to pull off, because high school students listen to peers much more easily than other adults." Gilman added, "This was a good beginning in creating the high school student motivation that BYU-Hawaii exists. I hope we can continue with this program, with the help of the BYU-Hawaii Student Association officers." Read Full Story

A young BYU-Hawaii alumnus from the Philippines married to a Laie girl recently returned to his home where the couple has set up a retail Internet business designed to help other economically challenged alumni in the area. Read Full Story