In 2022, under the direction of the Board of Trustees, each institution of the Church Educational System (CES) created a college success course to help students adapt specific practices that influence the success, persistence, and spiritual outcomes of new students. These include understanding and applying the institution's mission, applying the CES Honor Code, and accessing essential academic, social, mental health, and financial resources.
In alignment with this directive, BYUH requires all freshmen to take the unique Holokai Foundations class. The course is named after the Hawaiian word holokai (kai = ocean, holo = to go, to move, to travel) which means voyaging canoes into new lands using stars and waves for navigation.
This developmental course allows students to get to know the university better, ranging from knowledge about majors, minors, employment, university resources, and much more. The class has had a variety of teachers, including the university president, John S.K. Kauwe III, and the academic vice president, Isaiah Walker. In addition, carefully selected, experienced BYUH students, known as "Holokai Mentors," each lead groups of students within the class to facilitate discussion and answer questions.
Incorporating scavenger hunts, team-building games, service projects, and overall fun activities, this class alleviates the stresses new students face, allowing them to learn and enjoy the Spirit of Aloha that the campus offers. Students—attendees and holokai mentors alike—agree this class is special.
Applying the Mission of BYUH
The mission of BYUH is to “prepare students of Oceania and the Asian Rim to become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ and leaders in their families, communities, chosen fields, and in building the Kingdom of God.” Although students are informed of BYU–Hawaii’s mission during the enrollment process, the Holokai class enables them to embrace the full scope of the mission and vision. Sisilia Kaufusi, a holokai mentor and a senior majoring in social work, says that the class enables the students to “really take the time to understand each section of the mission and vision and how it fits in their life here on campus. Now they have the opportunity to build themselves in everything that the mission and vision entails.”
Aqeel Emmanuel, a freshman from Pakistan majoring in marketing, testifies that the class has already begun to mold him into a better disciple of Jesus Christ, saying, “The class has been helping me become closer to the Savior Jesus Christ by letting me see the vision of whom I can become here in BYU–Hawaii.”
Applying the Honor Code
The CES Honor Code helps accomplish the CES and BYUH mission of building disciples of Jesus Christ. Students voluntarily commit to conduct their lives in accordance with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and strive to maintain the highest standards in their personal conduct regarding honor, integrity, morality, and consideration of others.
The Holokai Foundations class plays an instrumental role through constant re-education of the students by "serving as a reminder that by following the Honor Code, I am keeping the promises I made when I decided to be a student at BYUH, which in turn helps me to live with integrity like my Savior Jesus Christ.” said a freshman from the Philippines.
“The class helps them adhere to the Honor Code because it enables people to become more aware of what it really means,” said Algernon Martis, a holokai mentor and sophomore majoring in business management. He also adds that the digestion of information about the Honor Code is instrumental to helping students, saying, “A lot of people just gloss over it, and the class helps by making it more accessible and easier for them to obey it, especially new students.”
Access to All Essential Campus Resources
One of the main purposes of the class is to help new students understand how to access all the essential academic, social, mental, physical, and financial resources that can be found on campus such as the Center for Academic Success, math lab, Reading Writing Lab, Language & Speech Lab, Service Center, Fitness Center and Fitness Studio, Financial Aid & Scholarships, and much more.
This knowledge about campus resources is presented to the students through numerous ways, such as scavenger hunt activities, where students mark on their given map the numerous places around the campus that they have visited with a prize for the winners usually given at the end. “I felt determined to win the scavenger hunt because the prize was a BYUH t-shirt,” recalls Patrikaela Martinez, a junior from Guam majoring in elementary education, who took the class during her first semester in fall 2022. She adds, “Along the way, I had fun, and I was able to learn about the various resources available for me as a freshman.”
Liza Marie Querimit, a holokai mentor and junior majoring in business management from the Philippines, says that the class “prepares the students for their college journey and the rest of their life. It sets them on a path where they can visualize how they can maximize their time here at the university and how they can use that in their careers by accomplishing the mission and vision of BYU–Hawaii.” She also adds how it makes the students aware of every resource available on campus, saying that “with most colleges, you can come in and have your eyes set on your future diploma, but the Holokai class also sets their eyes on making the best out of college life through the diversity of the programs, faculties, mentors, and everything.”
An Academic Voyage to Serve
The impression left on students and mentors cannot be understated as hundreds of students have been enlightened by the class during their entry to BYU–Hawaii. Rimika Sugamoto, a junior from Japan majoring in accounting, returned as a class mentor and highlights the impact of the curriculum and interaction with classmates, saying, “Even though I’m a junior, I’ve learned so many things from the new students because they motivate and inspire me to keep going. As a mentor, even though it’s the same thing every semester, the diversity of the students helped me grow as a person.”
The Holokai Foundations class will remain a guiding light for all students of BYU–Hawaii, particularly as it honors its namesake holokai, encouraging students to continue their academic voyage into BYU–Hawaii, navigating through the dozens of resources found on the campus setting them on their way to fulfilling the mission of BYU–Hawaii in their own divinely-guided way.