Education Week integrates and promotes spiritual, cultural, and secular learning. Keynote speakers blend personal experiences with knowledge, gospel principles, and the spirit of aloha to provide a rounded, stimulating experience. Education Week took place on Friday and Saturday June 14-15 at the BYU–Hawaii campus. Educational Outreach hosted the event, and this year’s theme was “Build Upon the Rock.” Around 200 locals and mainlanders attended the event.
Education Week’s keynote speakers, W.A. and Sherry Christensen, shared their first hand experiences with stress and a life of crisis as they raised their four children—each suffering from a rare malady, Congenital Muscular Dystrophy- Rigid Spine Syndrome. In addition to the Christensens, twenty-three other speakers presented throughout the two-day session, including a number of infield professionals, teachers, service missionaries, and musicians. Among them, Bishop and Finance professor Cary Wasden spoke on seeking trust in God during trials. Wasden taught, “We often equate trusting God with obedience to Him. As Joseph Smith emphasized on numerous occasions, trust and obedience are not equivalent. Trust implies a relationship. Consequently, trusting God requires knowing Him and yielding everything. The payoff is peace, joy, sanctification, and eternal life.”
Spencer Sheets, a junior studying business, said, “Our bishop recommended my wife and I to go, and we are very grateful we did. The speakers shined a new light on gospel principals and drew us closer to the Atonement and the plan of salvation. Modern miracles and testimonies of faith are abundant in these latter-days among members throughout the world. Our spiritual reservoirs were filled, and we know to trust in the Lord more fully in our trials. I recommend students attend and make it a priority next year. I look forward to the next Education Week.”
Friday and Saturday’s sessions began at 6 AM with group fitness classes. Later that morning, general class sessions began, where attendees had the opportunity to pick from a number of informative classes. The Ko’olauloa Children’s Choir & Hula Halau Olana closed Friday evening with a musical performance. Saturday evening, Education Week concluded after keynote speakers W.A. & Sherry Christensen shared what it means to “Build Upon the Rock.”
For more on upcoming events please visit Educational Outreach at http://outreach.byuh.edu.