Mari Romney

Just a few years ago, the idea of real-time collaboration with other classes and campuses involved costly travel, or a telephone, and mailing shared documents back and forth. Virtual technology has drastically changed the dynamics of education collaboration, and BYU–Hawaii is taking advantage of those changes. During this most recent Fall semester, BYU–Hawaii Leadership and Management students used technology-enhanced classrooms and other virtual tools to pull off a special project with Leadership students at Boston University – and got a little national attention in the process.

Approximately 240 students representing 46 countries will participate in the upcoming BYU–Hawaii Commencement exercises on Saturday, December 14, 2013. Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will address the graduates. Elder Andersen was called to be an Apostle of the LDS Church on April 4, 2009. He is a Brigham Young University (Provo) graduate, where he was a Hinckley Scholar, and he earned a Master's of Business Administration from Harvard University. He has led the work of the Church in southern Brazil and oversaw the work of the Church in Western Europe, Mexico, and Central America. Elder Andersen has also served as a mission president in the France Bordeaux Mission and as president of the Tampa Florida Stake.

BYU–Hawaii has recently adopted a new class registration tool called Schedule Planner that allows students to more effectively plan out their semester and sign up for classes, making the registration process more efficient and user friendly.

On Saturday, November 2, 2013, three BYU–Hawaii students took first place in the Hawaii site of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, arguably the most recognized programming contest for university student programmers in the world. Peniette Seru (from Fiji), Thomas Lowry (from the Cook Islands), and Meilan Jin (from China), all seniors majoring in Computer Science, were members of the winning team.

BYU–Hawaii welcomes Alison Whiting as the new director of Student Leadership, Activities and Service. Whiting has been actively involved with student leadership in a variety of management and mentorship positions for the past 20 years. While working at Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona), she coordinated student programs for the Office of Student Life and Leadership and Office of Service Learning, overseeing programs for 3,500 students. While there, she was responsible for helping her college (Chandler-Gilbert Community College) receive the two highest national awards for service and engagement.

Emmy-award winning television host and producer. Chinese fashion icon. Best-selling author. Humanitarian. These are all titles for Yue-Sai Kan who visited campus and spoke to students on Friday, October 11, 2013, during a visit to Hawaii. She’s also a BYU–Hawaii alumnus.

Elder Larry W. Gibbons, former member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, gave a Devotional talk entitled “Are You in Control?” on Tuesday, September 17, in the Cannon Activities Center at BYU–Hawaii. Focusing on doctrine, principles and application, Elder Gibbons outlined his counsel related to the importance of self-control.

CES Devotional Address

Since the university’s announcement of the Nine Semesters in Residence (9SiR) program in 2012, the course of the school year has changed dramatically for both students and faculty. Deans, department chairs, and individual faculty members have organized curriculum to help students reach their academic goals in efficient and fair ways. Over a year later, this new graduation policy has seen many successes due to the campus-wide effort to integrate the change.