Mike Foley

Cecil O. Samuelson, President of BYU in Provo, Utah, spoke on enduring to the end and emphasized how "we must realize that what we do and how we do it is inescapably wrapped up in our individual relationship with Jesus Christ" in his Jan. 22 devotional address to the BYU-Hawaii family.

"Enduring well means that we strive to live . . . in the way that the mortal Savior did, but especially to follow His pattern in the ways that He would have us face our own unique and personal challenges," said President Samuelson, who is also a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Having said this, for most of us, it is far easier to conceive of what enduring to the end is and why we should do it than it is to answer the basic question: Exactly how should we do it."

Elder Russell M. Nelson, an internationally acclaimed heart surgeon who has served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1984, urged 212 BYU-Hawaii Winter 2003 graduates to guard against spiritual degradation by seeking safety in the circles of family, Saints and the Savior.

"Your experience here at BYU-Hawaii is different from that of students at other institutions," Elder Nelson told the graduates in the Cannon Activities Center on December 13. "In addition to your secular studies, you have also been taught spiritual truths of eternal significance. That difference will become even more evident in the future as the gap between the world and the Church continues to widen."

A young man from the Micronesian island of Yap, who first got his hands on a computer when he attended the University of Hawaii-Hilo, has since built a successful business in Honolulu around his graphic and computer skills.

In fact, Lubuw Falanruw, president and CEO of Digital Mediums, Inc. has done so well over the past three-plus years with his website development and software engineering firm that the Small Business Administration presented its Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award to him in April 2003.

Falanruw told BYU-Hawaii business students on December 2 that Digital Mediums uses "a lot of Flash [animation] and other scripting to do zoom-in functions, and starting early next year, we'll feature 3-D interactive sites." He added they have a "good blend" of designers and software coders to create the sites.