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June 2009 Commencement Speakers

Elder Snow

With more than 200 seniors graduating at BYU–Hawaii's Commencement exercises on June 6, those attending the ceremonies in the Cannon Activities Center will be able to hear from LDS Church general authority and one of the presidents of the Seventy, Elder Steven E. Snow (pictured right; photo courtesy of LDS.org), and BYU–Hawaii graduating senior and accounting major Alex Storms.

Elder Snow was called to serve as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy in March of 2001. He currently serves as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy and has supervisory responsibility for the North America Central Area.

A native of St. George, Utah, Elder Snow earned his bachelor's degree in accounting at Utah State University and his law degree at BYU in Provo. He and his wife, Phyllis Squire, are the parents of four sons.

Elder Snow has been a deputy county attorney for Washington County, Utah, and a senior partner in the Utah law firm, Snow Nuffer.

Over the years he has been actively involved in the support of education, having served as a member and president of his local school board, chairman of the Utah State Board of Regents, and chairman of the Western States Commission of Higher Education.

Prior to his call to serve as a full time general authority of the church, Elder Snow served as a full time missionary in the North German Mission, a bishop, and a stake president. He also served as the president of the California San Fernando Mission. In 1999, he became an Area Seventy for the Utah South Area. Elder Snow has also served as executive director of the Priesthood Department and as president of the Africa Southeast Area of the Church, according to church information.

The graduating student speaker for June's Commencement, Alex Storms (pictured left), is from Monroe, near Seattle, Washington. Being chosen as the graduating student commencement speaker did not come as a surprise to Storm, but the idea of speaking in front of so many people is a little intimidating, he admitted.

Storms has been at BYU–Hawaii for two and a half years as a transfer student from Cascadia Community College in Washington. While on his mission in Japan, he applied to all three BYUs, and BYU–Hawaii was the first school to accept him.

"The greatest benefit of attending here has been gaining a greater understanding of the world, in general," Storms said. His experience on a foreign mission and then attendance at BYU–Hawaii has taught him that the world is a small place. Seattle did not give him much cultural exposure, but "being at BYU–Hawaii has made the possibility of living outside the U.S. much more realistic."

Storms has been accepted into BYU's graduate program and will start on his master's degree in accounting this fall. As for his experience here, he stated, "It's been a great blessing."

--Photo by Aaron Knudsen