David Lucero, the director of Student Leadership at Brigham Young University Hawaii, encouraged BYUH students and employees to become "genuine gold" by developing personal identities consistent with the ideals put forth by the university and LDS Church General Authorities at a devotional held on August 12.
Speaking from personal experience and recounting humorous anecdotes, Lucero said an extensive amount of change happens during the college years. A graduate of BYU in Provo, Lucero said, "When I got to the university, I changed, and I changed quite a bit. I felt like I was coming out of my shell, exploring new things, becoming a unique and different person."
"Actually, studies show that exploring and becoming a new person are quite common college students," he said. "It's interesting to note that becoming unique is normal."
Lucero said even though we already have basic identities as we are continually reminded of our divine heritage and our differences from other groups of people, we also need to remember who God expects us to become as members of a religious university. "We are all familiar with President David O. McKay's teachings, displayed in the Aloha Center, of how ‘this school will produce leaders...whose influence will be felt for good toward the establishment of peace internationally'; women and ‘men who cannot be bought or sold...who scorn to violate truth—genuine gold'...we might consider what it takes to become someone whose purpose is to lead out in building God's kingdom wherever he takes us, whose integrity is genuine gold, whose relationships with people at home and community is that of a peacemaker."
Further defining the BYUH identity, Lucero referenced President Steven C. Wheelwright's remarks at his inauguration when he stated this school will produce "leaders of integrity and character." President Wheelwright also quoted President Gordon B. Hinckley, who said while speaking on this campus in 1969, "[The world needs young men and young women who are] not weak, but forgiving; not soft, but understanding; not arrogant, but respectful of the rights and feelings of others; not boastful, but thankful for the blessings of the Almighty; not selfish, but generous in giving of their abundance to the less fortunate; not drunk with power, but humble before God in whom they place their trust. These are the...qualities I challenge you to cultivate."
Utilizing a diagram developed by a scholar named Chickering, Lucero guided listeners through the process of choosing their identities as individuals who are part of BYUH. Though "a person's identity is largely formed when we are small children," explained Lucero, "...certain intense experiences have the power to shake loose our old identities and give us opportunity for significant change. Attending a university is one of those intense experiences."
"This diagram suggests our sense of identity helps us develop our purpose in life, our integrity, and our ability to build healthy relationships with others," said Lucero. "A person with a weak identity finds it difficult to strengthen the feeble knees or to bear one another's burdens. A person certainly cannot become truly one with someone else if they are not yet one with themselves."
Basing identity on three questions, Chickering's diagram asks individuals to identify:
First, one's competencies; second, one's emotional responses; and third, one's autonomy and independence. Focusing on student and employee missions at BYUH, Lucero asked, "What competencies will help us become genuine gold? How can I handle my emotions to be a peacemaker? What must you be able to do for yourself to be a leader in building God's kingdom on earth?"
Taking the Prophet Joseph Smith's approach, Lucero taught three principles so that listeners could "govern themselves" in accomplishing this.
First, Lucero counseled the audience to follow commandments whether given individually through personal revelation or by LDS Church General Authorities. "What specific commands have we been given at BYUH through inspired leaders to bless us?" Lucero asked. "I suggest that the principles of student honor embodied in our Honor Code are tools to help the school as a whole stand as a light to the world, and to help each individual student receive additional blessings. These principles are approved by prophets and God will bless each one who obeys."
Lucero recalled guidance from President Henry B. Eyring to BYU faculty members and their "responsibility to help students abide by the Honor Code." Lucero also acknowledged that ultimately "with the Honor Code, the key to unlocking additional blessings is in the hands of each student. Learning to be competent in obeying each thing God and his servants asks us to do will help us become leaders he can trust - genuine gold."
Lucero's second principle dealt with "how we handle ambiguity - the fuzzy gray areas where right and wrong are unclear - and where feelings of freedom, uncertainty, and confusion so often arise." Referencing another researcher named Perry, Lucero said college students encounter exploratory types of development stages first, taking their preconceived notions of right and wrong and subsequently running "impulsively through the wide open green fields of freedom, wherever their passions may lead them, often not noting if there are rocks, or thorns, or centipedes."
"Eventually, students learn that to progress, they need to make some commitments...Many of these commitments, the ones that really last, are made from within, not borrowed from without. However at the same time, they also choose outside experts and authorities whom they can really trust," Lucero continued. "As these students learn to bridle their impulses and passions, to judge righteous judgment to prove all things, [and] hold fast that which is good they become wise and competent leaders in building the kingdom of God."
For his final principle, Lucero promoted the application of the well-known scripture Joseph Smith followed: "If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him," and "the Lord...gave unto man that he should act for himself."
"Our university recently completed an extensive self-study of its own identity," Lucero said. "I was encouraged to note that everyone across the board agreed that one of our main responsibilities on this campus is to help students become more independent." Lucero held that too often students are depending too heavily upon teachers for their education rather that seeking it out for themselves. "This school will help you become more independent. Faculty, advisors, librarians, Honors Program, all will help you take charge of your own learning and set your own standards of excellence. Work supervisors and student leaders will give you every opportunity to get involved and develop your leadership."
Lucero also brought up successive ideals to becoming an independent thinker. First, "learning how to apply eternal principles and gain for yourself personal revelation...This ability to gain our own witness, our own guidance from the Lord, may be critical to becoming leaders and peacemakers the world is hungering for." Lucero also emphasized, as an essential development, interdependence "where two or more independent people who can pretty much take care of themselves decide to work together to achieve more like partnering on a research project or business venture, or becoming a part of a well functioning team."
"In summary, who are we becoming at BYU Hawaii, right here, right now? Leaders to build God's kingdom wherever he asks us to go. Men and women who can be trusted by both employers and employees, by both friends and competitors, and mostly by our families and our God—genuine gold; peacemakers who actively overcome differences to create harmony. How are we doing this? By learning to obey with exactness all God asks us to do and receiving the blessings; by proving all things and holding fast to that which is good, and bridling all our passions to be filled with love; and by learning to obtain and act on God's word for ourselves."
"President Eyring at this school said ‘...On this campus we can only become what God has set for our destiny if...the light of the gospel infuses every part of the curriculum, every experience of student and teacher. This campus will produce...young people...who will create little enclaves of peace wherever they go...because this university will not depart – ever – from its foundation, which is the word, the word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.' What blessings lie in store? Joseph Smith taught, ‘The near man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views and the greater his enjoyments till he has over come the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin'."
"I have a firm conviction that the Lord established this school through his latter-day prophets and church so that you and I can become peacemakers and leaders in His kingdom and more, to assist us in becoming even as He is," said Lucero. "He has and will provide all the support we need to become all that – including special laws and special people that will lead us to blessings reserved for us – right here, and right now."
— Photo by Monique Saenz