Gordon B. Hinckley, fifteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visited Laie on Saturday, December 11, to address a graduating class of 248 students at BYU–Hawaii's December 2004 commencement.
President Hinckley reassured and counseled the graduates with the words of Jesus Christ from the New Testament: "To you young men and women who are leaving this institution today to move out into a larger world I say... 'Be not afraid, only believe.'
"Believe in yourself," he added. "Believe in your capacity to do great and good things. Believe that no mountain is too high that you cannot climb it. Believe that no storm is too great that you cannot weather it. You are not destined to be a scrub. You are a child of God, of infinite capacity."
"Believe that you can do it, whatever it is that you set your heart on," he continued. "Opportunities will unfold and open before you. The skies will clear when they have been dark with portent ... We can see only so far ahead, and our vision beyond this point must be a vision of faith."
Eric B. Shumway, president of BYU–Hawaii, expressed his gratitude to the 94-year-old president, who has visited Hawaii numerous times in his official assignments for the church.
"It is hard to express our appreciation to President Hinckley for his years and years and years of dedication to the church, and particularly to the region of Asia and the Pacific that has become the target area for our university," he said. "No one in his life has given more to the people of this area than President Hinckley. He is a man of great honor and integrity, and a friend forever of this place."
Class valedictorian Celestine Selvaragu, from Malaysia, also addressed the graduates. She spoke of the intelligence and wisdom she learned in college, but she stressed other valuable experiences gained from her time at BYU–Hawaii.
"There is nowhere in the world like BYU–Hawaii where you can find so many nations and cultures represented and living in such unity and peace," she said. "I challenge you [fellow graduates] to take this unity in your heart and be an example to the rest of the world. The warm spirit of love and aloha is in us all. May we carry it with us wherever we may go."
In reference to a declaration made by the university's founder David O. McKay, former president of the LDS church, she added, "May we be an instrument in the hands of God and help fulfill David O. McKay's prophecy of being the men and women that will bring about the establishment of peace internationally."
Of the 248 graduates, a hundred are international students from 30 foreign countries. Twenty-four states were also represented, with 45 graduates from Hawaii. This reflects the culturally diverse demographics of BYU–Hawaii's student body — the most international in the nation.