Dear alumni and friends,
We have been going through a period of change at BYU in recent years—the
demands of COVID-19, new hiring standards, a new approach to belonging, new branding, a new way to assess experiential learning, a new university president, a new strategic plan, new finance and HR software, the sudden ubiquity of AI, a new freshman course, a new medical school, and a new vision for general education.
As I reflected on what might help us adapt to such change, I was drawn to the idea of finding peace. Our cover story is from thoughts on personal peace I shared with faculty and staff at the beginning of the academic year. In this issue we also share a variety of examples of how our college community is contributing to our understanding of relationships, families, communities, and cultures—all of which inform how we create peace in the world around us, as our prophet has counseled us to do.
One effort we’ve undertaken to bring peace is through the Initiative for Peacemaking, launched through the Political Science Department with a President’s Innovation Grant. The initiative hosted an inaugural peacemaking conference this May and is supporting a new student association, The Peacemaker Project. We believe these efforts are helping us share our unique light. We look forward to sharing more about the impact of these efforts and other beacons of light during BYU’s sesquicentennial anniversary celebration in the 2025–26 academic year.
We are blessed to be part of a university that encourages each person to seek intelligence not only by study but also by faith. We are deeply committed to our dual heritage and to the call to courageously lead out as disciple-scholars.
We thank you, our dear friends, for your continued support in this great work. We’ve enjoyed seeing you on your visits to campus as well as across Big 12 territory as we participate in tailgates. Our students are blessed by the ways you reach out to serve, and we are consistently impressed with your faithful representation of the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences.
Sincerely,
Dean Laura Padilla-Walker