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Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 13 June 2005 Elder Pita Vamanrav, Area Authority Seventy for the Pacific Islands Area and BYU-Hawaii alumnus, passed away from cancer last Friday, June 10, after a life full of loving service to the Church and the people of Tonga.

Elder Vamanrav, Indian by birth, was raised in Tonga and attended Liahona High School where he was baptized. He came to Church College of Hawaii in 1963 to study electronics but was called back to Tonga in 1966 to serve a mission.

As a missionary, Elder Vamanrav baptized his brother and his brother's wife, among many others. He returned to CCH in 1968, graduated in 1970 and married his wife, Seini Pasi, the following year.

After returning to Tonga, Elder Vamanrav and his wife owned and operated an importing company; however, as successful as he was professionally, his life is better characterized by his service.

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 13 June 2005 BYU-Hawaii faculty, staff and students successfully hosted approximately 300 widespread international members of the Global Chinese Society for Computers in Education on campus from June 6-9 during the group's ninth annual but first-ever conference outside of Asia.

"From all aspects, I think the conference was a success, both in the paper quality as well as the other functions," said GCSCE organizing chairman Dr. Tak-wai Chan of Taiwan Central University. "One surprising thing to us, this was supposed to be a western place, but somehow this conference inherited the spirit here [in Hawaii]. It's not only the mountains and the beaches, but you have a human paradise here."

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 9 June 2005 Elder Stuart Poelman, CES missionary in the School of Business, contrasts our sense of duty and our sense of desire in today's devotional, encouraging all to be "anxiously engaged in a good cause."

Elder Poelman prefaced his address by advising listeners how to study the scriptures—not just read them but truly study them. He recommended reading a scripture several times, each time asking oneself the following questions: What does this scripture tell me? What does the Lord want me to learn from this scripture? What have I learned from this scripture? What I'm I going to do about it?

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 6 June 2005 BYU-Hawaii's Center for Instructional Technology and Outreach is hosting this week's 9th annual Global Chinese Conference on Computers in Education—the first time the conference is being held outside of Asia.

The conference began today and will run until Thursday, June 9. For four days, BYU-Hawaii is hosting close to 300 of the brightest minds in instructional technology out of Asia and parts of the United States.

Organized by the Global Chinese Society for Computers in Education, the conference is traditionally held at prestigious universities in major Chinese metropolises, such as Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Nanjing and Singapore.

The unprecedented move to Hawaii symbolizes the society's burgeoning global interests and increasing willingness to interface with the Western world.

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 1 June 2005 BYU-Hawaii's chapter of SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) ranked among the top 40 in the nation at the 2005 SIFE USA National Exposition held in Kansas City last week.

SIFE is a global, non-profit organization with student chapters on over 1800 university campuses in more than 40 countries. Each team is given the charge to teach principles of free enterprise—including market economics, entrepreneurship, personal and financial success, and business ethics—through educational outreach projects that better themselves, their communities and their countries. More on SIFE.

Sandra Rogers, VP of International Students at BYU in Provo, Utah, counseled the BYU-Hawaii 'ohana on our individual responsibilities as members of the Church to participate in the rolling forth of the Kingdom of God to fill the earth.

BYU-Hawaii Biology Department chairman Dr. Roger Goodwill and several students recently returned from Saipan in the Northern Marianas Islands where they initiated radio telemetry and DNA study fieldwork on Pacific Golden-Plover, a migratory shorebird known as kolea in Hawaii.

President Shumway recently returned from a highly successful 16-day goodwill tour to the South Pacific—including New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Kiribati—as part of this year's Jubilee celebration.

BYU-Hawaii women's tennis team head coach Dr. David Porter was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's NCAA II national "coach of the year" following the Lady Seasiders' second-place finish in the national championship competition. Coach Porter's latest honor marks the fifth time he has been national coach of the year in either the NAIA or the NCAA II.

The top-ranked three-time defending NCAA II championship BYU-Hawaii women's tennis team lost their bid to four-peat to Armstrong Atlantic State on May 14 in Altamonte Springs, Florida, and also broke their 130 consecutive dual match win streak. Read more...

"I have tried to sculpt this talk with words, and it hasn't been easy; I wish it could be done in clay instead," BYU-Hawaii sculpture professor Viliami told the audience at the May 12 devotional in introducing his speech, "I have dreamed a dream."

BYU-Hawaii women's tennis player Adrienn Hegedus was named ITA NCAA DivisionII national Senior Player of the Year, and head tennis coach Dr. David Porterwas named the ITA West Region Coach of the Year, among other BYUH honors collectedat the annual NCAA II tournament awards banquet on May 10 in Altamonte Springs,Florida.

In honor of Mother's Day, BYU-Hawaii accounting professor Glade Tew and his wife, Donnette — who recently completed a one-year term as American Mothers Inc. Hawaii Young Mother of the Year — jointly delivered the May 5th university devotional in which they described motherhood as the "noblest calling in the world."

Andrew Miller | University Advancement | 26 April 2005 After meeting with BYU-Hawaii administrators over the past several days, the executive board of trustees for the Church Education System gave its approval of BYU-Hawaii's progress and direction in a meeting with faculty and staff yesterday.

The board is comprised of Elder Richard G. Scott, chair, Elder Robert D. Hales, Elder Rolfe Kerr, Commissioner of Education, the presidents of the other church schools and many others.

In the meeting with faculty and staff held yesterday, Elder Kerr explained that the object of the visit was to for the board to become more acquainted with some of the major issues, concerns and initiatives currently facing BYU-Hawaii.

Among the programs considered by the board during its visit was the issue and concern of housing in the communities surrounding the university.

BYU-Hawaii named women's tennis player Adrienn Hegedus and men's water poloplayer Vanja Kalabic as Seasider athletes of the year during the annual athleticsbanquet on April 12 for outgoing seniors.

In February 2004 when Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of The Quorum of the Twelve served in residence as President of the Chile Area, he became the first LDS Apostle to visit Easter Island — or Rapa Nui as its approximately 2,500Polynesian inhabitants call their isolated homeland, which has had a small branch of members since 1981 and is currently part of the Chile Santiago North Mission.

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 11 April 2005 During the April 10 "fireside" portion of the BYU-Hawaii Golden Jubilee's two-day choral reunion, Dr. James A. Smith reminded his former students that President David O. McKay said we use music and other art forms for the "feelings in the human breast that cannot be expressed in any language or words...which speak the language of the soul."

Dr. Smith, who is retiring in July after teaching choral music at BYU-Hawaii for 30 years but is known for his eclectic appreciation of music, also quoted jazz musician Dave Brubeck who said, "Music is the most profound form of communication. Its influence, sometimes subliminal, often times supercedes language."

President Shumway honored President David O. McKay and the labor missionaries—"those we call the university’s and the Polynesian Cultural Center’s first donors"—in a Jubilee devotional yesterday.