Of Disciples and Higher Education
The opportunity and promise of a higher education at BYU not only includes the highest quality instruction and meaningful research; it also includes the direct influence of heaven. The BYU experience aims to develop faith, intellect, and Christlike character in a quest that will ultimately—in the far distant future—lead to perfection.
A Certain Idea of BYU
“I hope you will seek holiness, seek learning, seek revelation, seek the best gifts, seek Christlike exemplars, and, above all, ‘seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written.’”
Take Heed and Go Forth
Take advantage of every resource and do your best to keep your spirit, your body, and your mind strong.
Connected for Good
BYU graduates before you have walked this path and can relate to what you are experiencing. You are not alone! The support you have felt as a BYU student doesn’t end just because you are graduating.
Humility, Hope, and the Work of Becoming Educated
Our commitment should be to be educated well—broadly with a humility that opens us to the widest possibilities for knowledge and hopefully, with an eye to how learning can enable us to contribute to a better future, not just for ourselves but for all the world.
Divinely Appointed Responsibilities, Heavenly Blessings
As we strive to fulfill these divinely appointed responsibilities as part of the Lord’s work, the Church provides a multitude of resources. These are blessings that are pouring down upon us from heaven.
Five Unexpected Things My Research Taught Me
Ramona Hopkins, recipient of BYU's prestigious Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Lecturer Award, discusses five things her research has taught her.
Faith and Science: Symbiotic Pathways to Truth
If learning scientific theories puts your faith in jeopardy, choose your faith! Choose your faith until you can better understand the science—or until science can provide better explanations. I firmly believe that both truths—religious and scientific—exist in harmony.
What it Means to Be Educated
What is it that you think you want to know to consider yourself an educated person, to be part of civic and professional life alongside people from different religions in this, the most religiously diverse nation in human history?
The Education of the American Mind
Melody Barnes speaks about the compatibility of science and faith while exploring what it means to educate the American mind.
Enduring and Trusting to the End
It is possible to reach your goals if you work hard, keep the right perspective, and use your challenges as opportunities to grow and develop.
“Be Not Weary in Well-Doing”
Quentin L. Cook charges BYU faculty to persist in "well-doing" by lifting their and their students' vision and building faith in Christ.
Gathering: Education in a Compact Society
You are a vital part of this gathering. You have something to gain from and something to offer in your interactions with those around you.
The Real Value of a BYU Education
A BYU education does not focus solely on the acquisition of knowledge, as important as that is. As our mission statement makes clear, a BYU education focuses on “the full realization of human potential.”
Creating and Conveying a Christlike Culture: More Than a Job
Elder Dale G. Renlund reminds the faculty of BYU that their responsibility to help students draw closer to Christ is more than a job—it is a blessing.
Enter to Learn; Go Forth to Serve
Service is not just connected to joy in some amorphous, general way. Service is an essential part of the refining process that makes true joy possible.
Paired Aspirations
Karl G. Maeser urged that “the spirit of the Latter-day Work” should infuse not only “teaching the alphabet or the multiplication tables” but also “unfolding the advanced truths of science and art.”
BYU: A Unique Kind of Education
There are at least two key ways in which we are already distinctive from most other universities. And when you put these two features together, I believe they make us truly unique in ways that are consistent with our prophetically approved mission.
Alumni of Your Alma Mater
In this setting today it is worth noting that the two terms we hear often at graduation—alma mater and alumni—both originally referred to a special relationship, one very much like but also different from that between a parent and a child.
Women and Education: “A Future Only God Could See for You”
Women’s stories are powerful, and they haven’t always been told. So I am going to tell you a little bit of mine.
The Lord’s Pattern
This is the Lord’s way. He asks us to do things that seem impossible or even unwise. He asks us to build ships that no one has ever built before and to go places that no one has ever gone before.
Inspiring Learning
Our efforts to enhance inspiring learning—the kind of education for eternity described in our mission statement—can have an enormous impact on all of our students. But it need not and should not end there.
“The Lord Requireth the Heart and a Willing Mind”
Adding heart to mind in our work will transform our teaching to learning, our knowledge to wisdom, our study to discovery, and our sacrifice to consecration.
Joy at Graduation
Only from Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of this world, can we obtain the living water whose partaker shall never thirst again, in whom it will be “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Faith and Reason: The Appropriation of Knowledge and Truth
Just as both wings are necessary and must be in working order for the dove or the eagle to fly, so too both faith and reason are necessary for the intellectual and spiritual quest and for the intellectual and spiritual life.
“And Thus We See”
No matter what challenges or uncertainties you face, I pray that you will always faithfully employ this essential spiritual element in your learning.
To Serve and Benefit the World
As we move forward into the world, we must continue to ask questions, create solutions, and pursue that which enlarges our souls and enlightens our understanding.
The End of Wonder in the Age of Whatever
Michael Wesch discusses the intersection of two knowledge machines—universities and the internet—and how without questions, students cannot learn.
Our Eternal Education
Our eternal education begins with an understanding of where we have come from, why we are here, and where we are going after this life.
Building Your Positive Business Career
Allison Davis-Blake teaches four principles of good leadership: empathy, courage, integrity, and drive. She gives advice on how to develop them.
Celebrations and Memories
All of you have a story
and are part of a grand legacy that will bless not only you and those with you today but will reach
on through the generations and over space to bless many others for years to come.
“That All May Be Edified”
The scriptures themselves are our best sources on learning and teaching—the Savior being the perfect model of a learner/teacher.
The English Word
David Norton, a scholar of the King James Bible, addresses BYU regarding the translation of the Bible and how it shapes our language today.
“That All May Be Edified of All”
An education that edifies does not destroy innocence but pushes back ignorance. It does not eradicate faith but enables educated believers to articulate reasons for the hope that is in them.
“Brighter Until the Perfect Day”
"If your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things." He will help us in our quest for knowledge if we will—as we have done here at Brigham Young University—center our learning on Him.
Scholarship and Faith
The Lord’s program is to make bad men and women good and good men and women better as He prepares us for eternal life. Participation in His kingdom here on earth can change us in wonderful ways if we are faithful.
An Education of the Whole Soul
You may have thought that you are here at this university to take a certain series of courses, obtain a degree, and then leave learning behind. If so, you do not fully understand. God desires the flourishing of your whole soul for the glories He has in mind for you, including an eternal family with children who will shine as jewels in His crown and yours, and that is why He intends to bless you, if you will exert yourself, with a soul-stretching education.
A Celebration of Learning
The doctrine of continuing and even continuous revelation is a fundamental and distinctive tenet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In it we find the seeds of the Restoration and also the basis for our understanding concerning the importance of learning. In fact, in the face of obvious differences between revelation from heaven and the kind of learning more common to our university experiences, we also find some significant commonalities of which we should be constantly aware.
The Journey of Lifelong Learning
Robert D. Hales teaches that learning is both a secular and religious endeavor; Latter-day Saints should pursue lifelong learning.
Learning to Love Learning
Today you become alumni of Brigham Young University and have the responsibility to help the world better understand who we are and what we do at this remarkable institution. How you live, what you do, and what you become ultimately define this university.
To Confirm and Inform: A Blessing of Higher Education
I believe that when an engineer, a musician, a social scientist, or anyone educated in a given discipline reads the scriptures, they too can gain insights and make discoveries unique to that discipline if they are looking for them and if they are observant. It is exciting to be a part of a community of learners who are doing so and then sharing their insights and discoveries with others. I hope you will develop the habit of being so observant—of regularly considering what your learning can tell you about the gospel and what the gospel can tell you about your learning.
A House of Dreams
President Kimball believed that there must be ongoing pruning for BYU to become more fruitful. We are trying to do this at the central level for university-wide programs and institutes.
Everything I Know about Being a Mormon I Learned from Running Universities
The text for this speech is unavailable. Please see our FAQ page for more information.
Beethoven’s Kiss: On the Odd Reasons for Brigham Young’s Excellent University
The mission of BYU is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life. That assistance should provide a period of intensive learning in a stimulating setting where a commitment to excellence is expected and the full realization of human potential is pursued.
Focus on What Matters Most
You will receive promptings, and, from my point of view, there is no education more important than learning to know and respond to the promptings of the Spirit. Stay worthy of and live for the companionship of the Spirit.
A Charted Course
Faith in a revealed religion does sacrifice the academic effectiveness of a university; it allows enhancement by giving it a charted course.
The Snow-White Birds
BYU has weathered much in the struggle to determine its mission of blending the sacred and secular—which our students, like snow-white birds, need to fly.
The Education of the Heart
We receive the most powerful education when we seek to answer the questions of our hearts, diligently taking both our efforts and answers to the Lord.
Upon Your Heads
"On this campus you have engaged texts and teachers. In the temple you can engage and commune with the intimate and ultimate Creator."
The Dream Is Ours to Fulfill
They fulfill their dreams by coming to this oasis of learning in a spiritually parched world, yearning to ask the young ruler’s question: What shall I do? And they come believing that the faculty and staff here will tell them what to do.
“All Those Books, and the Spirit, Too!”
"May we lay down our lives for those sheep, a day at a time, in a service that partakes of the most honorable cause that ever graced the pages of human existence."
Education: Molding Character
"God is the embodiment of the attribute of happiness. To be like him is to experience a fulness of joy. If we go contrary to that sacred nature, we go contrary to the nature of happiness."
Mt. Everest Found: What BYU and Undergraduate Education Can Do For Each Other
"The only constant across the entire time period has been our commitment to our unique combination of things spiritual with things secular."
A School in Zion
Jeffrey R. Holland expresses the necessity of a school in Zion and discusses how BYU students and faculty can fulfill its unique mission.
Education: Unlocking Opportunity
Here we are in these beautiful temples of learning with qualified teachers, countless books, and resources. All of this and the Spirit, too. May we each receive the knowledge that is here. Use it in wisdom to unlock eternal opportunities.
Renewal of Mind and Heart
Relielf Society General President Barbara B. Smith speaks to graduates of Brigham Young University, sharing how they can use their education to better themselves and better the world.
Looking to the Future
Robert Backman reminds us that there are many wonders yet to come to fruition. The upcoming generation has a responsibility to create and bring them forth.
Dedication of the John Taylor Building
Today we honor the third president of the Church, John Taylor, a man of courage and faith. Let this new building of learning remind us of his example.
Character—The Aim of Education
The aim of education is so much more than getting a job. Education has the capacity to shape our character—a blessing that cannot be replaced.
Count Your Blessings
Elder Jacob de Jager enumerates just some of the blessings we receive by being part of BYU. Count your blessings frequently, and strive to live up to them.
Reason and Revelation
Gospel learning comes both by the process of reason and revelation, and all must take care to learn by the Holy Ghost rather than be deceived by Satan.
Acquiring Spiritual Literacy
Make the most of your BYU education. Aquire not only a specialized academic literacy, but a spiritual one that will bless your family and the world.
Ten Characteristics of an Educated Person
Education is vital both here on earth and into the eternities. Elder Pinnock gives characteristics of educated persons and how they make the world better.
Bottles and Books
Food storage prepares us for famine, but are we prepared for emotional, mental, and spiritual famine? Books help us prepare for those times.
More Brigham Young on Education
The text for this speech is unavailable. Please see our FAQ page for more information.
The Second Century of Brigham Young University
President Kimball speaks of the dual responsibility of Brigham Young University, academic and spiritual, then dedicates the carillon tower and bells.
Education for Eternity
A BYU education is for more than just the intellectual growth that can be fostered in other institutions. It is also meant to educate the soul.
Brigham Young, the Educator
Like Brigham Young, the educator, we should seek to educate ourselves in a wide variety of spiritual and secular fields in order for us to progress.
What Are You Making of Your Life
What are you making of the many opportunities you have? Adam S. Bennion counsels students to take advantage of their time devoted to study and improvement.
Education: A Commitment to Responsibility
Striving for an education will not only help us gain worldly knowledge or advance in our vocational pursuits but will help us advance in the eternities.
Education Is a Part of Salvation
A man cannot be saved in ignorance; your learning is part of your salvation. Do not become complacent with your knowledge but seek education continually
Education and the Charge to Subdue the Earth
Your education and your obedience to divine law will enable you to achieve the potential God knows you can achieve—in this life and in eternity.
The Story of My Life
Thomas L. Martin humorously describes the main events of his life and highlights how the hand of the Lord worked to help him reach all his righteous goals.
