Brigham Young University Hawaii President Steven C. Wheelwright and his wife, Margaret, recently returned from a trip to Asia that included receiving an honorary professorship in China as well as meeting with Latter-day Saint Church leaders and BYUH alumni in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines.
President Wheelwright explained that when he was still with the Harvard Business School about five years ago he helped introduce a program "to train Chinese business school faculty how to teach by the case method," who otherwise were teaching through lectures. "Business schools in China were then less than 15 years old, and about half of their professors were trained in the U.S. and speak English; so we said we'd train that half in the top 20 schools in greater China, which means Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland." The program included translating hundreds of case studies into Chinese and publishing them in case book form, one of which he is showing in the photo above.
In recognition of that program, the president of China's prestigious Xiamen University in the Xiamen Special Economic Zone on the east coast, awarded President Wheelwright as well as his successor in directing the Harvard Program, Dr. Paul Marshall, with honorary professorships. "That's their level above an honorary degree," he said. China's Vice Minister of Education Zhang also came from Beijing to attend and speak at the presentation.
President Wheelwright (fourth from right), his wife Margaret, and Dr. Paul Marshall with faculty and friends at Xiamen University
"It was a great event," the president added, noting the rest of the trip was devoted to meeting with Church leaders, alumni, prospective students and their parents.
"For example, in Hong Kong all of the Area Seventies in that region were meeting with [Hawaii-born-and-raised] Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Area Presidency [as well as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy]. He had me speak to all of them about the mission of BYU-Hawaii. On Sunday morning four of the Area Seventies who spoke in the English-speaking ward I went to were all alumni of BYU-Hawaii."
"President Hallstrom gave the best pitch for BYU-Hawaii, and the four also talked about what they learned here — that it has been a foundation for the rest of their lives. It was wonderful." President Wheelwright said that evening he also met with 35 Church leaders and then held a fireside for alumni, friends and parents of current and future students.
In Taiwan, the Wheelwrights went to dinner with Kaohsiung Taiwan Mission President Bill Hsu, a business professor on leave from BYUH, and his wife. He later met with Seminary and Institute coordinators: "They're the ones who are providing us with email addresses for the pilot program we're running in Taiwan and Japan to promote distance learning and aid prospective students in their preparation to attend BYU-Hawaii."
"Taiwan has 1,000 Seminary and 1,200 Institute students," the president said. "Hong Kong has 215 in Seminary, and 240 taking Institute classes; and the Philippines are amazing: They have 18,000 Seminary students, 12,000 Institute students, and over 85,000 18-30-year-olds in the Church."
President Wheelwright also met with stake presidents and presented firesides in Kaohsiung and Taichung, Taiwan, and spoke to the faculty at one of the country's most prestigious private high schools about "developing a culture of service among your students."
"Clearly in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan we have great support, lots of leaders who have come here, and great returnability. It's all working," President Wheelwright said. "We also hope to develop wonderful alumni in Asia and China, who will be equally strong and supportive."
"In the Philippines our alumni [pictured at right] are saying there are lots of wonderful jobs. One of our recent graduates who works for IBM said he could hire everybody who knows anything about SAP [a German Systems, Applications, Products data processing company] and has an IT [information technology] degree — and it's a good job. Another recent alumnus is working as a financial analyst for an Australian firm."
"In a word, our alumni are fully committed to the school. They love what BYU-Hawaii did for them, and they're anxious to help in any way they can. They're willing to help us on the front end in finding and getting the right students. They're willing to help with internships, mentoring, jobs, placement and everything else," President Wheelwright said. "That's true for both greater China and the Philippines."