Mike Foley

Following a five-day visit on October 21-25, a State of Hawaii Board of Education accreditation team issued their preliminary report indicating the BYU Hawaii School of Education U.S. licensing teacher education program meets the standards required of all such programs in Hawaii. The final seven-year accreditation report is expected in May 2007.

Ivan Lumala, Academic Relations Manager for the Microsoft® Corporation in Hawaii and other parts of the western U.S., introduced a new gaming graphics software to BYU-Hawaii School of Computing students on October 3 that will enable end users to create their own game applications on personal computers — something that was previously done by major development teams and studios.

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 28 October 2006 Internationally acclaimed motivational speaker and best-selling author Andy Andrews will present one of the most interesting sessions at the 2006 International Business Conference — Traveler's Gift: The Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success. The conference, entitled "Creating Wealth in a Global Economy," will be held on campus from October 30 through November 4.

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 27 October 2006 One of the first BYU-Hawaii/Polynesian Cultural Center alumni to join the Presidents' Leadership Council told School of Business students on October 24 that if they want to be successful entrepreneurs, "it all comes down to you."

"Who's going to make you successful?" asked Joseph S. "Joe" Berardy ('89), President & CEO of DBI Hawaii. "My job is not to tell you that you should go out and work for a corporation; but the best thing I did when I left the Polynesian Cultural Center was to go into business for myself."

BYU-Hawaii Religion professor Aaron Schade showed Honors students in their October 18 colloquium how scholars relate ancient texts and inscriptions to scriptural connections.

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 17 October 2006 While television coverage of Big Island earthquake damage and Honolulu International Airport delays caused some of the mainland recruiters to stay home at the last minute, BYU-Hawaii students met with approximately 40 potential employers on October 17 in the Cannon Activities Center during the Fall Career Fair.

"In spite of all of that, we've had a good turnout today," said Kim Austin, BYU-Hawaii Director of Career Services. "We have some new employers here for the first time this year, including Target, the big accounting firm of Deloitte, Old Navy and First Command among others. Each year we're seeing more of the larger companies that want to come to our campus, and that's very exciting for us."

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 10 October 2006 The Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) organization, which is associated with the BYU-Hawaii School of Business, sponsored a financial education seminar on October 10 that focused on retirement planning.

Michelangelo "Miki" Domine — who grew up in Tonga, has family ties in Laie and is executive director for the American Money Group (AMG) in Covina, California — explained, "I'm not here to teach you how to get rich quick...but to try to educate you a little bit about financial planning, starting now. I'm hoping you'll have an epiphany — one of those ah-hah moments."

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 9 October 2006 Elder Kent Watson, a volunteer service missionary who helped grow his public accounting firm in China into one of the largest operations of its kind in the world, recently shared with BYU-Hawaii School of Business students some of his successful experiences as well as the realities faced there.

Watson is the former Chairman and CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers in the People's Republic of China. He also twice served as a mission president in Taiwan and now volunteers in the BYU-Hawaii Career Center.

Mike Foley | University Advancement | 6 October 2006 Three officials from the State Administration for Religious Affairs in Beijing recently came to BYU-Hawaii, toured the Polynesian Cultural Center and previewed three songs the BYU-Hawaii Concert Choir will sing during their tour of China and Mongolia in May 2007.

The officials — Yanming Wang, Division Chief of the Administration's Fourth Department; Dr. Wei Qi, Deputy Director of Division I; and Wang Sheng Cai — had earlier visited Utah where they met the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a dinner hosted by Elder Donald L. Staheli, the recently released member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy who oversees China relations for the Church and is a new member of the PCC Board of Directors. They also attended General Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, and participated in the Law and Religion Conference at BYU in Provo.