Campus Community

BYU-Hawaii President Eric B. Shumway, Carolyn M. Shumway have been called to serve as president and matron of the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple in fall 2007.

Brother Dallas Low, a member of the BYU-Hawaii/Polynesian Cultural Center Presidents' Leadership Council, a major benefactor of both institutions, a former labor missionary, resident and a frequent visitor to Laie over the years, passed away on February 5 in Logan, Utah, at the age of 94.

Han Moe, an award winning Korean drum group, delighted the BYU-Hawaii audience with its performance. Earlier in the day, the group showcased its talents for university ohana exiting the weekly devotional.

Media Relations | University Advancement | 8 February 2007

The Poulenc (pronounced "Poo'le ng k) Trio will perform at BYU-Hawaii in the McKay Auditorium Thursday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m.  The world renown group consists of three virtuosos:  Oboist Vladimir Lande, bassoonist, Bryan Young, and pianist Irina Lande.

The Trio was recently featured at Italy's Ravello Festival, where they premiered two new compositions written specifically for the group. The new pieces, by Italian composer Gaetano Panariello and by Russian-American composer Igor Raykhelson, add to the Trio's growing catalog of new commissions, which include two works premiered in 2004 with violinist Hilary Hahn and a new Triple Concerto with orchestra, to be premiered during the 2006-2007 season.

Boud and one of his newest backpacks. He's also been making missionary backpacks for 24 years.

Thursday, February 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the McKay Auditorium, Gina Smith will present her Junior vocal recital. “Je me Souviens” (I remember) will feature two Italian art songs and an aria, three French pieces—one a duet Smith will sing with Kristy Dudoit, and three musical theatre numbers, including “Someone Like You” from Jekyll and Hyde. A reception, including refreshments, will follow the recital.

In the first BYU-Hawaii Honors program lecture of 2007, Dr. Paul A. Cox, Executive Director of The Institute for EthnoMedicine, outlined the progress being made on developing a potential anti-AIDS drug from a plant used by traditional Samoan healers and ongoing research on an amino acid linked to significant increases in ALS-type degenerative diseases in Guam and other places.

Memoriam: CCH/BYU-Hawaii Art Professor Emeritus Wylie W. Swapp, 88, passed away early Sunday morning, January 14, 2007, surrounded by his family and a few close friends.

With 330 students graduating from over 40 countries, the fall graduating class of 2006 will be BYU-Hawaii's largest. Nepal, Kiribati, Indonesia, Ghana, Finland,Bolivia, Thailand, Liberia, Romania, and Fiji are just a few countries that will be represented among the 77 that make up BYU-Hawaii's student population. With such diversity in a student body of only 2,400, BYU-Hawaii is one of the nations most flavor-rich melting pots. This is just one element of the campus environment that has provided the experiences shared by three members of the graduating class: Salutatorian, Bashan Abeyasekera, Mason Allred, and Daniel Leeworthy.

Tuesday, January 16, Dr. Paul Alan Cox will present an Honors Academic Forum at 10 a.m. in the Little Theatre on the BYU-Hawaii campus. The forum, sponsored by the University Honors Program will feature the topic “New Medicines from Ancient Knowledge in the Pacific Islands.”

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 11 January 2007  In the first devotional address of 2007 BYU-Hawaii president and Area Authority Seventy Elder Eric B. Shumway drew upon a lesson learned as a teenager from his mother to remind university students, faculty and staff that they are the "children of the light." President Shumway recalled in the January 11 address in the Cannon Activities Center whenever he came home at night that the light from his mother's reading lamp in St. John's, Arizona, signaled she was "awake and waiting, expecting a report on my evening's activities."

He also asked if they wondered what it would have been like to "live in the days of the Savior" and be on the shores of Galilee," when Jesus "looked into the eyes of four fishermen and spoke the words that would change their lives forever: 'Follow me.' If you had been there, would you have heeded the Savior's call? Perhaps, a more productive question might be: If the Savior were to call to you today would you be just as willing to follow Him?"

After much prayerful consideration, Keitaro and his wife, Shimwa, came to BYU-Hawaii in 2003 from Saitama, Japan, with one child, enough savings to pay tuition, and a great desire to use their talents to bless the families of their homeland.

With a reinforced focus on service learning, BYU-Hawaii social work majors are infusing concepts and skills learned in the classroom by advocating for social justice in communities throughout the world.

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 6 December 2006

In the final BYU-Hawaii School of Business entrepreneurship lecture for 2006, a businessman who has based his success on "changing lives through inspiring family entertainment" outlined how some of his unconventional approaches have led to hundreds of profitable products and media releases.

Seldon O. Young, Co-chairman and CEO of NEST Family Entertainment™ and a member of the BYU-Hawaii/Polynesian Cultural Center Presidents' Leadership Council, started at age 20 to produce and market such products as Animated Bible Stories for Children, Living Scriptures™, The Swan Princess — an original G-rated general release movie, and many others, including several technologically innovative services.

Dr. Ethan Yorgason, an adjunct assistant professor in the history and International Cultural Studies departments at BYU-Hawaii, contributed a chapter on the "shifting role of Latter-day Saints as the quintessential American religion" to a recently published, scholarly three-volume work entitled Faith in America.

Dr. Li Yining, considered to be the foremost economist in the People's Republic of China and the principal scholar involved in its recent phenomenal economic growth, outlined some of the remaining difficulties his country still faces to a large group of BYU-Hawaii students.

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 27 November 2006 

The Mormon Pacific Historical Society, the Laie Community Association and the BYU-Hawaii History Department teamed up November 21 to co-sponsor an "old movie" night in the McKay Auditorium featuring rarely seen footage of Laie from the 1930-50s. The selections included a historic look at the Hukilau program from 1949 or ‘50, and a more modern 1966 clip of Elvis Presley at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

The evening began, appropriately, with Hawaiian music by the Laie Serenaders — a volunteer group of local kupuna musicians who perform for free at many community events.