The morning after Adele returned from Girl's Camp, she and I were off to a quick trip to Hawaii to check out BYU-Hawaii! We have a busy June, and this was the only window to visit the school while students were still there and before school starts in the Fall and her life revs up again.
We haven't been to Hawaii in years. Adele remembered it through a 7-year-old lens and at the resort in Maui we used to go to every year when escaping the rainy winters of Seattle, so the hot and humid weather of summer and the local, small town of Laie was so different than we
both expected. We stayed in a small, cheap Airbnb that didn't have AC or a necessary cross-breeze, so we melted to sleep every night while there, observed the feeling of being in a different country and quickly adapted to our environs and fell in love with the place.
Sunday was our first full day there. We went to a student ward and then walked to the Temple. Wow is it beautiful! What a setting!
At the visitor's center we watched a short movie on the history of Laie that was so fascinating! Missionaries from our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, began gathering converts to this small town as early as 1860. It was a tight-knit fishing and sugar cane community and they worshipped together in a beautiful chapel. Somewhere around the turn of the century the chapel burned down. The villagers were devastated. They were poor and didn't have enough money to rebuild. They came up with the idea to invite tourists to Laie to eat traditional Hawaiian foods, perform native dancing to a song they wrote called, The Hukilau, and teach them to fish with the large nets that provided their livelihood. People came, and then they came in large numbers! And the "luau", as we know it, with Hawaiian foods and dancing, was born. The man who greeted the guests had lost his three middle fingers in a work accident. The children first mimicked his wave, and soon it caught on as a sign of mutual respect, love and goodwill...
Can you believe this history?! This cultural "business" rebuilt a new chapel in Laie for the faithful and hardworking Saints, and later it became The Polynesian Cultural Center, or the PCC. The PCC is the top visited site in Hawaii and one of the Top Ten Trip Advisor sites in America! We hadn't planned to visit the PCC during our short stay, but we sat next to a cute Laie resident on the airplane who offered to get us in for free, so of course we went!
This is really a fun place to visit! I went when I was 10-years-old and still remembered it! There are different "villages" of the Polynesian Islands, such as Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Aotearoa (Maori for New Zealand) and Tahiti, all with their own cultural, hands-on activities.
There was a show on the river at one point. It happened to be during a downpour. We stayed dry under an umbrella with this adorable Cambodian student selling pineapples who reminded us why and and how much we love the people from that country!
We took a boat ride through the villages and wandered through the fun shops and food vendors. We tasted our first Dole Whip. Oh my.
In the evening we attended a luau, which was super fun with delicious food and beautiful dancing.
Following dinner we went to the night show which has traditional dancing from all of the Polynesian islands. It was incredible. Let me pause here to say that BYU-Hawaii has 70 different nationalities making it the most diverse collage per capita in the United States. Most of these students would never have the opportunity to attend a university, let alone a university in the US, but the PCC was created to give them a place to work their way through school. This was a great opportunity for Adele to see the variety of students at BYU-Hawaii. They are energetic, fun, hard-working and committed. It was a youthful and energizing environment. What a place.
We met with the Director of Admissions at BYU-Hawaii who was extremely helpful, informative and overwhelmingly kind. We learned so many amazing things about this small but powerful university. It has an average of 2800 students with over 50% being international (from 70 countries!) Graduation requirements require a major and two minors (or certificates), allowing students to have a well-rounded education and a strong skill set. Because of the small student body, the classes are small and intimate; professors know all of their students well. The international representation contributes to insightful discussions and an expanding worldview. This is right up Adele's alley!
We took a tour of the small campus, took a peek into the dorms, met some nice students and had an overall very positive impression.
We were also both really inspired by the university's mission to educate and strengthen students from developing countries so they can return and build their own communities and countries. They get a loan and work (at the PCC) for a full-ride "scholarship". Each year they are back in their countries their loan is forgiven 25%, meaning after four years back in their countries their US university education is paid for. This is the incentive to get them back to build their home countries. In addition, they educate students in peace-building with the intention of spreading peace throughout the world. Lastly, the university and PCC are part of the Laie community with its rich history of unity and faith, and the community is part of the university and PCC. For example, the university library is the community library (Laie is very small!) and the students and residents are intermingled, often sharing the same dwellings. We loved this community feel. It is small and intimate. And it doesn't hurt that it is in view of the ocean! Yeah, SOLD.
Every morning we got a Bonzai Bowl acai bowl and ate them with a view of the sand and water. Soooo good!
We spent a few hours in Honolulu on day just to make sure a city was nearby with all of its action and amenities.
Our last day we explored the North Shore. We went snorkeling and read on the beach. We explored the little town of Haleiwa and had a delicious lunch, we stopped and browsed roadside shacks and shops and ended the day at the beach in Laie for the sunset.
It was short and beautiful and we accomplished the purpose of our trip: would Adele be interested in attending BYU-Hawaii. The answer was a strong YES.
