Cebu City—Ten BYU-Hawaii students spend their summer studying the lifestyles of the not so rich and famous among nearly 700 returned missionaries living on dozens of islands here.
Under the watchful eye of Dr. Ronald Miller, BYUH Psychology professor, the students are conducting ground-breaking research of Filipino BYUH alumni who have returned to live in the Philippines. Their major research subjects, however, are 353 of the 1322 graduates from the Academy for Creating Enterprise (ACE). They also researched 344 Filipino returned missionaries who did not attend the Academy.
The BYUH students are applying the knowledge and skills learned in Dr. Miller’s classroom to a real world situation, Dr. Miller explained. He said the students were providing a humanitarian type service for the non-profit school that provides entrepreneurial education in eight weeks sessions exclusively to Filipino Latter-day Saints, of whom the majority have served missions.
The BYUH students feel as though they are not only personally able to gain experience in the real world, but giving to a school that does so much to improve the lives of LDS Filipinos.
Carlyn Hubner, sophomore majoring in Accounting from Laie, said, “I felt it would be a really great experience to come to the Philippines and be involved with a non-profit organization. I really like the mission of the Academy. They are trying to help Church members get themselves out of poverty through entrepreneurial training. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my summer.”
Justin Benson, BYUH alumnus in Math and Computer Science from Saipan, had only been home for a couple weeks from a two-year mission to Manila when he joined Dr. Miller’s team in Cebu.
“We are doing research,” Benson said, “that we believe will help improve the Academy. We are using our skills to make the Academy better so more Filipino returned-missionaries will benefit from the curriculum.” Benson has done similar research with Dr. Miller in Tonga.
Daily work routine of the BYUH researchers
Of the ten students in Cebu City, most of them are Psychology majors, and all were chosen by Dr. Miller because of academic strength and their performance in his Statistics classes. Other majors represented are Computer Science, Accounting, Math and English.
The BYUH students are analyzing the answers to 110 questions they asked the BYUH Filipinos who returned home after graduation, the 353 Academy alumni and the 344 returned missionaries who didn’t attend the Academy. They are carefully examining the data to find out differences in lifestyles, Church activity, economic income, entrepreneurial careers and opportunity identification skills among the three groups.
James Fantone, Executive Director of the Academy, and Stephen W. Gibson, founder of the school, both shared their thoughts about the quality of the research work of the students. Gibson, nine months on the BYUH campus as Entrepreneur in Residence, said he loves all college-aged students but he was especially happy with the research work being preformed by the BYUH students. “They are focused, they are intense and they are taking it very seriously. They aren’t here just to have fun—they are accomplishing a mission. I am impressed by that,” he said.
The student in charge, Taylor Snarr, senior majoring in Psychology from Salt Lake City, Utah, was responsible for managing the work load among the students and dividing them into different groups while on the trip, covering responsibilities such as contacting ACE graduates and other Filipino returned missionaries, interviewing, assessing the ACE curriculum and various other projects. Under Snarr’s direction and Dr. Miller’s guidance, the students have moved from data collection and interviewing into the second stage of the project, the actual analysis. They said they hoped to know in a couple weeks the results of their research and the efficacy of ACE.
Dr. Miller was originally approached by Gibson and Ron Lindorf, Academy donor to take a look at all aspects of the lives of Academy alumni to see how they compare with returned missionaries that didn’t attend either BYUH or the Academy.
Dr. Miller accepted the invitation and asked to bring some of his students. “This is an opportunity for my students to have real world experience, which looks great on a graduate school resume. This type of project will enable the students to gain very valuable experiences that can greatly help them in the future.” Miller, who brought his wife and six children with him to the Philippines, said this was his family’s summer vacation and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Seth Kressin [third from right] with several ACE graduates
The BYUH students were also fortunate to attend the 43rd graduating class of the Academy. Many of BYUH researchers grew very close to the ACE students, they said, and it was bittersweet to watch them graduate and leave the Academy; bitter because they were losing friends, but sweet because the ACE graduates would go on to be entrepreneurs and help their families and loves ones break the chains of family poverty.
All the BYUH students have agreed this is a great chance for them to do good in the world and fulfill President David O. McKay’s prophecy for BYUH and its students. “I think this project fulfills President McKay’s vision of establishing peace internationally and doing good throughout the world,” said Nathan Fordham, senior in Psychology from South Carolina. “I personally think that’s a big part of what we are doing and why we are here. We aren’t here for us, we don’t benefit from any of the end results. I could do something else to get a recommendation; I could have stayed in Hawaii with my wife. But being here and being able to help the Filipino people has been a great opportunity.”
Two of the BYUH students on the trip have Filipino ancestry. Michelle Bautista, senior in Psychology from Las Vegas, was born in the Philippines to Filipino parents, but her family moved to the United States when she was young. She said she has returned to the Philippines with her family every three to four years, and she enjoyed being back again. She came on the trip as a result of a desire to help the Filipino people. “I was watching TV one day and I saw a commercial about the Philippines. I realized that I really wanted to do something to help the people there. So, a couple years later when Dr. Miller told me about this trip, I said yes right away. I’ve always wanted to do something like this, something to help the Filipino people.”
JoLyn Brant, recent graduate in Psychology from St. George, Utah, is half Filipino. Brant has never lived in the Philippines, but she said the trip has made her gain more respect for her mother, who lived in the Philippines before coming to the United States. Brant also learned she was related to one of the Academy employees.
On a related note, the Academy and the BYUH School of Business have been working together to host the first ever Filipino Entrepreneur Academy Awards in Cebu City in October. Awards will be given to top entrepreneurs in seven different categories, with prize money donated by the Yamagata Foundation. One million pesos, or roughly twenty-five thousand U.S. dollars, were donated by the Yamagatas to help Filipino entrepreneurs strengthen businesses they have already started. Andy Barfuss, the Academy’s Chief Operating Officer said some of the categories in the competition are for ACE graduates, BYUH graduates, social entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs and startup entrepreneurs. The main point of the competition, explained Barfuss, is to excite the Filipino people about entrepreneurship, which many feel to be one of the only ways for the people of the Philippines to escape poverty. The team hopes to make the competition a yearly event.
Top photo (L to R): Back: Samantha Litchfield, Carlyn Hubner, Justin Benson, Dr. Ronald Miller, Nathan Fordham. Middle: Valeria Jaramillo, Seth Kressin, Lacey Kressin, Taylor Snarr. Bottom: JoLyn Brant, Michelle Bautista.
Bottom right photo: Valeria Jaramillo [right] with two ACE employees at graduation.