BYU's Inspiring Learning Initiative

(MUSIC) Every day the Brigham Young University campus is alive

with a perpetual motion and creative energy of students.

Rushing to classes,

searching for answers,

practicing and perfecting,

standing for truth,

and wearing themselves out

with hard work

and occasionally

a little fun.

Students are the heart of BYU.

They constantly amaze and inspire me with their potential,

enthusiasm and faith.

The moments that students spend here on campus

are precious and fleeting,

yet this brief period of time lays the

foundation for their personal and professional lives.

We want students here to have every opportunity to succeed

and to be inspired in their life's work.

We recognize that education doesn't always take place

in a classroom or even on a campus.

We're doing archaeology.

Hands-on experiences help students to gain perspective

and to become excited about learning.

We want more of our students to have these opportunities.

And now we're gonna put him back in his den.

In partnership with our exceptional faculty,

we're making an increased investment in students

with an inspiring learning initiative.

While the term may not be familiar,

inspiring learning has been part of our institutional DNA from the beginning.

It encompasses many things

mentoring,

experiential learning,

and innovative teaching.

I like to think of inspiring learning as the spark that

ignites a student's passion for learning and illuminates a life course.

I hope we inspire our students to learn,

and I hope that learning leads to inspiration.

Here are some ways that inspiring learning is changing the lives of students.

My story begins with an avocado.

When the BYU competition was introduced,

they told us about these small scale farmers throughout South

America that don't have the means to export fruits internationally.

So, what Fairtrasa does is they actually go in and they teach these farmers

how to farm in a way that allows them to meet national standards.

And the CEO invited me,

he said,

"Would you be willing to go down to

South America this summer and implement your ideas?"

So, my wife and I got married the very first day of finals.

We took a two-day honeymoon.

And then I graduated the very next day. And then 12 hours after she graduated,

we were on a plane to Peru.

We were spending our honeymoon in a sweaty banana farm.

Definitely one of the crazier things I've ever done in my life.

In the first 30 days of our internship,

we lived in 13 different places. And we're interviewing farmers,

writing surveys,

looking through data charts.

We as humans can help one another though we live in faraway

places and though we don't always understand the challenges that others face,

there's a way for us to help.

We don't need to be in the spotlight necessarily,

but we do need to be making an impact with the talents we've been blessed with.

There's a quote on campus that says, "Learning a language makes you worth two."

Study abroad can offer a lot more than just language acquisition,

the love of the

people, and food and culture and music

even. Once a week I would go

and teach refugees English.

I was selected as one of the winners for the many languages one world competition.

I got to go to New York and speak at the UN. (FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

It was a little nerve-wracking.

At one point I looked out and saw an Arabic speaking UN worker,

and he looked out and gave me a thumbs up,

so that was kind of encouraging to see that. Learning Arabic gave me a great

outlook on life and also helped me out to have empathy for other people.

They say that journalism is history's first rough draft,

and being at the nation's capital on election

night was like seeing history unfold up close.

It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for

a student journalist to go to the White House,

see people's reactions,

and talk to people.

You can't become

a good journalist sitting in a classroom,

you have to be out in the field.

The Washington, D.C., trip was funded by an anonymous donor,

and we would not have been able to go without that help.

Being there really gave me the confidence that I can do this.

I will be fully prepared to be a professional. In Washington,

Alex Birch,

Vote Utah, 2016.

Our lab has a lot of really cool innovation going on.

We're taking these origami devices and we're using them

for applications that people wouldn't have originally thought of.

The origami is interesting because it involves so many different

mechanisms that we can't think of in other ways.

Origami can be used in space applications,

in medical devices, and for Homeland Security.

When I was a freshman,

I got involved with Freshman Mentorships for Women,

and I worked on this origami solar array with a Ph.D., student Shannon,

and the idea is that it would fold up and fit inside

of a rocket and then deploy once they got into space.

I think it's cool that you can make things that are both

beautiful and useful and origami is one way to do that.

The first project I came into on the

lab was an origami-based ballistic or bulletproof barrier.

The law enforcement officials are looking for something

that's portable and quick to set up.

It's probably the most rewarding thing is when we just set

it out there on the firing range and just

hit it with 20 bullets. So, it just absorbed all the bullets didn't reflect any out.

When I was a freshman,

I had a grad student mentoring me

and now I am mentoring other students.

BYU does a really great job of getting undergrad students involved with research,

and that helps me get the experience that I needed to go work for NASA.

All the programs that I've been involved with have really expanded my

view of my own potential of what I can do and where I can go in life.

The Liahona Children Foundation works with children in the Philippines.

So, they got a community outreach and when

they do find children that are malnourished,

they gave them these supplements

and people would be lined up at the church door when we got there.

It's an internship through the sociology

department,

and they send students there to evaluate how organizations are doing and how

they can get from their current practice to maybe the next best practice.

This experience has changed how I view education as a whole.

It put a human face to what I was studying.

If you look back at my family tree,

you'll see that it is

plagued with brain disorders ranging from mental illness to Alzheimer's.

My goal and hope is to find solutions.

There's been a gene that we have identified

and has implications for Alzheimer's prevention and treatment.

Kenny is such a deserving student.

He's committed

to his research in Alzheimer's disease,

he's committed to his education in neuroscience.

Good,

I've got something for you from the ORCA office.

Really?

I want you to take a look at it.

Oh,

awesome!

Sure.

Dear Kenny Reid,

the Office of Research and Creative Activities,

ORCA,

is pleased to inform you that you have been awarded

a 2017 ORCA Grant.

That's awesome!

Congratulations!

It's a blessing to be here,

but it hasn't been easy academically or financially.

My family works as hard as they can,

but it's not easy to provide for boys.

I think about my parents and

how much they've done

for me in there.

And so, that to receive even $1500,

it's really such a blessing.

There's nearly two dozen undergraduates that work in my lab,

but when you

see the quality of students

that walk

into my office

and that work in this lab,

you

can't help but be excited about what's in store

for BYU and for the church and for the world.

(MUSIC)

My gosh,

you are such great African dancers.

What an incredible opportunity

for students to work with world-class faculty from colleges all across campus.

These collaborations energize and transformed the BYU student experience.

And they spark innovative thinking and creativity

for both students and faculty.

Enter to Learn—Go

Forth to Serve.

That's what I'm talking about.

Expanding these programs to serve more of our students is

one of my top priorities as president of BYU.

Our students are the leaders and problem solvers of the next generation.

In the future

they will play a critical role in their families,

the church,

their communities,

and the world.

We want the BYU experience

to prepare them for that bright future,

to be an inspiring source of light and truth

throughout their lives.

Inspiring learning is loving what you learn.

Inspiring learning is pursuing your passion.

Inspiring learning is using your education to help others.

Inspiring learning is living what you learn.

Inspiring learning is learning to tell your story.

Inspiring learning is becoming as you learn.

Inspiring learning is realizing who I am

and who I'm meant to be.

When I look at the scared and

inexperienced freshman that I was and compare that to the engineer that I am now,

that's inspiring learning. (MUSIC)