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A former presidency member of the General Young Women's program in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, opened the two-day BYU-Hawaii Women's Conference by explaining how we can overcome the impediments of knowing God and find peace within ourselves.

To kick off the start of spring term 2003, BYU-Hawaii officially launched the redesign of its website on April 26.

The website sports a look that has many similar elements with BYU-Hawaii’s sister institutions in Provo and Idaho, but also has additional features to appeal to a more internationally diverse audience.

“In this current information society, websites on average are updated about every two years,” said Robert Wakefield, director of university communications. “The University’s old look had existed for the last three years and was more than past due for a redesign.”

Along with the new look, the website offers a more user-friendly approach to those who use it on a frequent basis.

It is important receiving an education, then going back home to help develop your own nation, a government official from Western Samoa told BYU-Hawaii students on April 14.

“I want many Samoans to receive their educations overseas, when and if they have that opportunity, and then return to Samoa and develop Samoa as a nation,” said Dr. Samuelu So’o, Director of the Institute of Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa. “I want all the people of Samoa to be equally competent in both the Samoan and English languages. Just be educated people and continue to be a happy people.”

So’o conducted a question and answer session with the students after briefly explaining his background and goals in his current role.

A BYU-Hawaii assistant professor was recently named to the editorial board of a scholarly journal that focuses on translating the huge body of information printed in Hawaiian language newspapers and other literature from the late 1820s through 1938.

Brigham Young University Hawaii officials announced S. Kimbrelyn Austin as the new Director of Career Networking and Placement.

Former Miss Hawaii and Miss America finalist Patricia Lei Anderson Murray spoke on the blessings and significant role that miracles bring into our lives in an April 4 devotional speech to BYU-Hawaii students and faculty.

In introducing the theme of her talk, “…and it will surprise you what the Lord has done,” Murray told students and faculty that years ago she observed that there were three kinds of people in the world.

“Which one are you?” she asked. “Are you making things happen? Are you noticing what’s happening? Are you aware of the blessings in your life? And most importantly, are you recognizing and acknowledging the many miracles in your life?”

Murray explained that in each of our busy lives we often forget to study the miracles in our lives and the “Lord's daily saving grace.”

Hawaii's Retailer of the Year told BYU-Hawaii students that while education is vital to success, they also have to put their heart and soul into business dreams.

Over 500 BYU-Hawaii alumni, former faculty and staff, supporters and friends gathered on March 22 in Salt Lake City for a historic meeting in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.

Michael B. Bliss, BYU-Hawaii Vice President of Administrative Services, spoke on the significance of following the spirit in our lives and "having a corresponding increase in vision of eternal things" in his March 20 devotional address to the university family.

A successful financial planner and former Taichung Taiwan mission president encouraged BYU-Hawaii business students to consider seeking a career in their own businesses.

North Korea's potential for making weapons of mass destruction poses a very serious problem for the United States, a Korean scholar for the Honolulu-based Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies told BYU-Hawaii students in the annual Honors Week Forum on Mar. 11.

The BYU-Hawaii Seasiders received the number one seed in the NCAA II West Regional Basketball Tournament today and will serve as the host team for the tournament.  The Seasiders, 19-3 on the season will face number eight seed Cal State-Bakersfield in the first round on Friday at 8:30 pm HST. The Seasiders received an automatic bid to the tournament as the champions of the Pacific West Conference and will host the tournament for the first time since becoming affiliated with the NCAA in 1998. Cal State-Bakersfield received an at-large bid to the tournament after finishing the season with a 19-8 record and a fifth-place finish in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA).

Professor Norman Evans, President of the BYU-Hawaii 2nd stake, shared with students and faculty the importance of "the nature of change" at a devotional on Mar. 6 in the Cannon Activities Center. Evans said, "We are all here in this mortal existence to become what our Eternal Father knows we are capable of becoming." Evans pointed to the scriptures as "a guide toward our eternal potential" and made numerous references particularly to the Book of Mormon. "The scriptures are of full of injunctions pointing us toward our eternal potential," he said. "It was King Benjamin in the Book or Mormon who said that we must "put off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things,'" Evans said. "Alma and Amulek exhort us to use our time in mortality to prepare to meet God," he said. "We must change from our natural tendencies and turn to a higher level of performance." Quoting III Nephi 27:27, Evans explained, "Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am. What a significant challenge our Savior has issued to become even as He is." "How do we change from who we are to what he wants us to become? King Benjamin's choice of words to "put off the natural man" seems to belie the vastness of the task. Changing is hard work," he said. Evans added that although change from a natural to a Christ-like life can be very difficult, it is possible. He then suggested "four principles of change" that he has observed over the years. In outlining the first principle, he said, "as we work toward achieving our divine potential we must understand that change and progress are not synonymous." Evans explained that our external, physical changes "are obvious" using the analogy of a car to illustrate that no matter how much we change the exterior, "we are still driving the same car." "The changes I am speaking of today are what King Benjamin, Alma, and Samuel call a 'change of heart,'" he said. "An internal change is lasting and purposeful not just a change but a purposeful directing of our efforts toward noble and good causes." The second principle Evans shared with the students and faculty was that "change seldom occurs at the center." He said this principle stemmed from some studies he did as a graduate student. If we stop and consider the things it has taken each of us to get to this point today, we would be quick to recognize that like Alma, it took time, experiences and trials to change, he explained. The third principle of change is closely related to the second: change is a process, not an event," Evans continued. Inspired by Benjamin Franklin and his endless pursuit of "moral perfection," Evans used that example of perfecting such virtues as temperance, silence, and order--13 in total to demonstrate a systematic process toward change. "Franklin was convinced the way to achieve perfection in these aspects of his life was to establish a process whereby he could systematically overcome each in order," he said. Evans added to this third principle President Spencer W. Kimball's familiar injunction to "Lengthen our stride" and have a "quiet resolve to do a better job." Eventually and over time, these small incremental changes are what make a difference in our lives. "Time is at the center of my fourth and final principle of change. Stated simply, meaningful change takes time," he said. He counseled that in this age of rapid information technology, where information can be transferred instantaneously, we should not be misguided into believing that personal change will occur at the same rate. Evans" final point was the example of the "suffocatingly slow process the early saints endured to build the Salt Lake temple." "Not until April 6, 1892, nearly forty years after it was begun, did President Woodruff set the capstone of the Salt Lake temple in place," he said. "Great works do indeed take time." Evans added, "Can we expect any less of ourselves as we strive to build of our lives what our Father has always seen in us? Are we not told in the scriptures that 'out of small and simple things are great things brought to pass?' Let us be patient with the changes that we envision for ourselves." "All of us cannot be geniuses, but we can strive for excellence," he said. "This quest may be a long one. It may be fraught with much of repentance, and it will take much effort. Do not sell yourselves short. You are sons and daughters of God, children with a divine potential. 'Look to God and live.'"

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 6 March 2003

The president and CEO of one of Hawaii’s most unique hotel chains told BYU-Hawaii business students how the company has evolved over the past 50-plus years from a spare bedroom through a string of affordable lodgings spread throughout Waikiki, to an international network of properties that include luxury service at premium rates.

Speaking at the Mar. 4 School of Business Entrepreneurship Lecture series, David Carey traced the growth of Outrigger Enterprises back to its founders, Roy and Estelle Kelly who started leasing out spare bedrooms in their Waikiki home not long after World War II, then started building their own hotels or buying them and converting them into the Outrigger chain which featured limited services at affordable rates.

Imagine a small, committed group of BYU-Hawaii students who meet weekly on their own initiative to take rigorous practice exams and discuss ways to prepare for graduate school, and you have begun to form a mental picture of the campus pre-law group.

Merrill J. Bateman, President of BYU and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with his wife Marilyn outlined “the mortal journey, its purposes and challenges, and its role in the eternal plan” during their devotional address at BYU-Hawaii Feb. 27.

BYU-Hawaii President Eric B. Shumway and a group of students gathered in the Aloha Center on Feb. 11 to enjoy refreshments and kick off the university's homecoming festivities.