First Day Was Fun :)

Posted by Sini

My first day of classes was pretty easy and it was fun. I'm excited to be at school and you can call me crazy but I've honestly been waiting for school to start. I almost got bored being on a vacation. :) But I have to say I'm a little bit scared of the next semester and the next year. I just wrote down some of my assignments and tests to my calendar and there's a whole bunch of them. I wonder if I'm going to make it through the semester (with my poor English) and get respectable grades.

So far I've enjoyed my time at BYU and I really love everything about it. But then every once in a while I get scared, frightened, and worried. And for the first time in my life (even though I lived alone for four years before I came here), I've really missed my family. I'm not homesick, no, but just miss my dear family. They are so far away and I have no idea when I will see them again. Luckily these sad feelings and thoughts usually pass away pretty soon. I'm an optimistic person . . . I'm adjusting to the new culture and new country pretty good. And all the friendly people around me (including my WONDERFUL roommates) have made it so much easier. It is so comforting to know that I'm not alone and that everybody is willing to help me if I need help.

I'm honestly so thankful to be here! It wasn't the easiest thing to come here at all. And I'm so glad I made it! I'm excited for my freshman year and I'm looking forward to all the experiences it'll bring. It will be great (and maybe a little scary and hard sometimes, but that's life I guess)!

WOW!

Posted by Mitch

Hey, my first day of classes went well. Nothing to complain about, which is amazing. I still feel lost, but I think I will start to get it down by next week.

My Entre. Lect. series was awesome today. We had Don Watkins, CEO of Handstands, speak to us. He mentioned the "wow" factor. If your customer says "wow," then you know your product is going to be a hit. All I have to say for my BYU education experience so far is, WOW! I'm having a lot of fun and who would have thunk that Accounting would be motivational and have gospel principles.

I only pray that tomorrow is as much fun as today was.

A Whole New World

Posted by Laura

Today is a day I have worked and prepared my whole life to enjoy. It's a day that seemed like it would always be a picture in my head because it was planned so far in the future; yet, I lived this surreal day today as my first day of college and I loved it! It was full of so many neat experiences and opportunities.


One of the many differences when you compare college to high school is the number of students. I definitely felt like a very tiny fish in a macho pond. It was overwhelming to think of all the people that I didn't know in all of my classes. However, my perspective changed when I realized that I have the opportunity to meet all of those people if I put forth the effort. Even after just one day at BYU, I have gained an appreciation and love of its diversity. People from everywhere across the country and even across the world come to BYU for their education and it makes the class room environment so much more dynamic. I am slowly but surely getting a sense of direction of campus and all of the different buildings, including the advertisements to get involved: like the one in this picture. I am loving BYU!

P.S. As a pre-dietetics major, I am advising Braden to eat more than hot dogs while at BYU. :)

First Day of Class

Posted by Sarah

I got up at 6:30 to go to my 8:00 class after I stayed up half the night because I ate one too many of the doughnuts I brought home from work that morning. (Note to self: not such a good plan.) As soon as I stepped outside, though, I was wide awake. It was so cold! I almost miss Florida. I got to my Chem class; yes, I do realize I'm crazy for taking chemistry at 8 every morning, and we didn't even blow anything up! Dr. Asplund said we would tomorrow though. That just means I get an opportunity to take a picture. End of School. Aren't Tuesdays great? For the rest of the day I just kinda wandered around. Maybe I should start my homework . . .

Hot Dogs

Posted by Braden

Yesterday I cooked my fifth real meal here at BYU. In the process, I discovered the truth about hot dogs: they're not so bad after all; in fact, they're the very cheapest meat at the grocery store! They're not steak by any means, but they're not particularly disgusting either, and not bad for the price. So I cooked up some rice, microwaved the dog, melted some cheese, opened a can of peas, and ate up!

Meet Trevor Barrus ('14)

Posted by Jeffrey S. McClellan (BA '94), Editor

Hometown and High School: Alpine, Utah; Lone Peak High School

Applied To: BYU, BYU–Idaho, University of Utah, Weber State University

Major Plans: Undecided

Interests and Achievements: Received the BYU science fair scholarship for his project about liquefaction in Utah County; youngest of six (four brothers, one sister); shares a birthday with his immediate older brother; played violin in high school orchestra

Science Fair Fun: Fascinated with science, Trevor Barrus ('14) participated in various science fairs in high school. His sophomore year, he studied the Mozart effect, and his junior year, he and his senior brother studied bacterial growth on objects in students' pockets. The verdict? Cell phones carry the most bacteria, even more than mp3 players, hall passes (which were the cleanest items), and cash. His senior year, he collected soil samples from 25 locations in Utah Valley and studied liquefaction (the dangerous liquefying effect of an earthquake on certain types of soil).

BYU Bound: Until the BYU science fair in late March, Trevor thought he would be going to BYU-Idaho. He had applied to BYU and had been accepted, but he did not receive a scholarship and did not think he could afford to come to Provo. But at the end of the awards ceremony for the BYU science fair, sitting with friends and family, he was stunned to hear his name announced as the winner of the BYU Science Fair scholarship. And suddenly everything changed. He and his family celebrated with ice cream at the BYU Creamery, and Trevor began making plans for Provo.

Meet Elise Biancardi ('12)

Posted by Jeffrey S. McClellan (BA '94), Editor

Hometown and High School: West Linn, Ore.; West Linn High School

Applied To: BYU

Major Plans: Wavering between chemistry and music

Interests and Achievements: Thomas S. Monson Scholar; performed in every high school choir she could; competed on the high school mock trial team, which took third place in the state competition; went to state in the musical category of an acting competition; traveled to New York with the symphonic choir; writes music; plays the piano; can play two chords on the guitar.

The Calming Effect: A pianist and singer since second grade, Elise Biancardi ('12) loves music. But much of what she loves about it is its balancing effect on her personality. "I'm a little too analytical sometimes," she says, "and so it's good to have music--music for me is emotional and calming." She recently began writing words and putting them to music. "Even if I just write a verse and a half that I'm never going to finish, it's just a great way to get my thoughts out of my head." Though as a composer she writes what she calls reverent Mormon pop, when she plays music to respond to emotions, she opts for more traditional works. "When I'm upset or stressed I usually play Sibelius or Chopin, and I have this new Rachmaninoff that's really cool. And then if I'm angry I play this Mozart that's just like bangy and loud."

What to Study? On her high school mock trial team, Elise was both a prosecutor and a defender, competing against other schools in the Oregon state courthouse (sometimes as prosecutor, sometimes as defender). Her specialty was opening statements, and she helped her team claim third place. The experience gave Elise an interest in a possible future legal career. But then, of course, there's music. She loves singing and piano and musical theater and has thought about auditioning for Young Ambassadors at BYU. She also liked studying philosophy in high school, and as a senior she took AP physics and enjoyed being able to explain the world around her. "I would watch something rolling and I would think of the equations that we had used," she says, or she would find herself thinking, "I know why this is sticky and why this is doing that and why this one rolls and this one doesn't or why these things are falling." On her freshman schedule is chemistry 105, and she likes the idea of working in a lab. "I like figuring out how things work--which I guess is maybe more of a mechanical engineering thing." Sigh. With so many interests, it's tough to select a major.

Meet Sarah Egbert ('12)

Posted by Sarah E. Crane (BA ’09), Editorial Intern

Hometown and High School: Naples, Fla.; Gulf Coast High School

Applied To: BYU, BYU–Idaho, University of Southern Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University, and University of Central Florida

Major Plans: Chemistry teaching

Interests and Achievements: Played trumpet in junior high and high school; sang in choir and musical theater; went on a one-month summer excursion with Outward Bound in the Florida Keys, where she lived on a boat and learned survival skills.

Plans to Bring to Provo: A stack of medical mystery novels for any spare reading time

A Long Shot: “I wanted to get as far away from my family as possible, not because I don’t love them or anything, [but] because it’s nice to be out on your own,” says Sarah Egbert of her college aspirations. BYU was her dream school, and making it a reality wouldn’t come easy. “My high school grades weren’t exactly as high as they could have been, so I had to make up for it,” she says. “I took all honors and AP classes, anything I could find.”

Just to be sure, Sarah started her application seven months early to give herself plenty of time to meet the priority deadline—what she felt was her only real chance of getting in. “I started my application in July,” she laughs. “But they didn’t have most of the application online until the end of September.”

The essay portion of the application proved to be poignant for Sarah. “It was about different personal struggles in your life that had made an impact, events that have had an impact on your character,” she remembers. Not much of an essay writer, she began plugging away. She wrote about her parents’ divorce when she was 11, how she had to grow up quick when her father left and her mother went to work. About how she had to push aside the jump rope and the tree house to make room for laundry and dinners. She wrote about marching in her high school’s band and acting in plays with the drama department, how she had to get over her shyness to perform for people. Before she knew it, she was out of space. “The hard part about writing the essay was keeping it under 300 words,” she says.

Woohoo!: Because someone misplaced a form her seminary teacher had sent in, Sarah missed the priority deadline and had all but given up on going to BYU. “I had pretty much already decided that I was . . . going to BYU–Idaho,” she says. “[But] I was waiting for the letter, you know, just in case.”

Three weeks after submitting her application, Sarah checked its status online, just as she had done so many times before. “I was in my AP environmental science class, and we were doing a lab that day with computers,” she remembers. “I was like, really quick I’ll just check it.” What she found was hardly what she expected, or even how or when she expected to find it. “Sitting in the middle of science class and you finally get your college acceptance letter?” she laughs. “That turns some heads.” After all the months of worrying about applying to BYU, the end had come. “It was just kind of one of those ‘Yes!’ moments,” she says. “I didn’t really scream, ‘Yes!’ It was more a ‘Woohoo!’”

Meet Ashley Falcon (’12)

Posted by Sarah E. Crane (BA ’09), Editorial Intern

Hometown and High School: Kent, Washington; Kentridge High School

Applied to: BYU

Major Plans: Elementary education

Interests and Achievements: Ballroom dance; part of a multicultural dance club that performed for schools in the school district; volunteered as a teacher in a preschool and interned in a first-grade class; part Native American (Chippewa).

Plans to Bring to Provo: Her Spider-Man blanket and a set of miniature plastic dinosaurs

Waking Up to Religion: Religion wasn’t a major part of Ashley Falcon’s growing-up years; her parents had both stopped attending church when she was young. But as a teenager, Ashley found a group of friends at girls’ camp who were determined to make it a bigger part of her life.

“They bugged me every day to go to seminary at 6 in the morning,” she says. “I thought they were crazy.” Finally, they made a deal: “If I went to seminary for two days, they would leave me alone.” The next morning Ashley woke up, bleary eyed at 5 a.m., to sit in her stake’s seminary class on the stage in the gym. “I thought it was odd, but I liked it,” she says. “I went every day [after] then until I graduated.” Three months after she began attending seminary, Ashley met with the missionaries. Two months later, at age 15, she was baptized.

Don’t Sweat It: When her parents talked to neighbors and friends about where Ashley would end up in college, they joked she’d go to BYU—to get married, of course. “But then I said, ‘Actually, I think I want to go there,’” she says.

Unlike some high schoolers who fret and worry about applying to college, Ashley approached her application to BYU the same way she approaches everything—with her signature easygoing style. In fact, BYU was the only university she applied to. “Now that I think about it, that was probably not the best idea, but I was very calm about it,” she says. “It didn’t really start hitting me that that was a bad decision until the week [applications were due].” But true to character, Ashley didn’t worry much about not getting accepted anywhere. “I just kind of let it go,” she says. “I felt like this is where I needed to be—like this was it.” And, as it turned out, it was.

Meet Braden Hancock (’14)

Posted by Jeffrey S. McClellan (BA ’94), Editor

Hometown and High School: Fairborn, Ohio; Beavercreek High School

Applied To: Only BYU, but tempted by MIT

Major Plans: Mechanical engineering

Interests and Achievements: Performed twice in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, once as a Lamanite warrior and once as Lemuel; played drums in high school marching and jazz bands and performed in show choir and musicals; participated in math and science competitions and Advanced Placement classes; National Merit Scholar and Thomas S. Monson Scholar; worked two summers in the turbine division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, processing data from engine sensors.

Plans to Bring to Provo: Toby and Al—two of his collection of 29 gnomes. Toby was his first.

True Blue: “I was wearing BYU clothes before I knew it was even a college,” says Braden Hancock, whose father, mother, and two older siblings went to BYU. “It’s always been the plan—BYU is the place to go for an undergrad.”

Growing up in Ohio, Braden developed the belief that “Mormons go to BYU.” When he was about 9 years old, his family attended a BYU–Weber State basketball game while on a trip to Utah. Young Braden was surprised to see his Ogden cousins cheering for Weber State. “I don’t get it,” he said to his brother. “They’re all good members of the Church. Why are they not cheering for BYU?” With the added wisdom of a decade and his imminent status as a Cougar, Braden reflects on that experience anew: “I still don’t get it. Why would you not cheer for BYU?”

Optimizing His BYU Experience: With a careful life road map already drawn out, Braden plans to get an engineering PhD (and possibly pick up an MBA along the way) and work in industry doing optimization. “I love saving time, saving money—just complete efficiency,” he says, talking rapidly. But the immediate next step in the plan—the BYU experience—presents some sources of anxiety for Braden. “It’s kind of stressful, this first bit at BYU. There’s so much, and I can never do it again. I want to make sure I do everything right the first time. So there’s pressure to discover everything right away and not miss out on any programs.”

Braden’s views on optimizing his BYU experience are not confined to academics. He went online and selected a ground-floor apartment in the Heritage Halls building closest to campus. But then he received an e-mail from his bishop-to-be and learned he would be in a student ward that includes two buildings of men and one building of women. It doesn’t take a math wiz to know the odds weren’t ideal, and Braden went back online seeking to trade rooms. He found a taker in a ward with a better gender balance, but this apartment was in the far northeast corner of Heritage Halls, and Braden faced an optimization challenge: which do you favor, campus proximity or social potential? “I traded my first-floor, perfect-location apartment for the top floor of the farthest building—but at least it’s a one-to-one ratio.”

And while Braden anticipates engineering clubs, math classes, and research opportunities, he is also mapping out a few lighter activities. “Fencing club sounds fun,” he says. “It’s something where it’s not a huge time demand, but still, who wouldn’t like to sword fight?”

Meet Adam Jones (’14)

Posted by Michael R. Walker (BA ’90), associate editor

Hometown and High School: Layton, Utah; Northridge High School

Applied To: BYU, BYU–Idaho, and Utah State

Major Plans: Vocal jazz

Interests and achievements: Eagle Scout and honor student; plays guitar, piano, trumpet, and percussion (was a member of his school’s marching band drum line); sang in high school jazz choir, was president of the a cappella choir, and performed song parodies in school assemblies; acted in musicals every year of high school (once as Javert in Les Miserables); worked at an ice cream shop.

Plans to Bring to Provo: His Power Rangers blanket

Jazzed about the Cougars: Adam wanted to go to BYU for as long as he can remember. “When I was just a little kid, I was wearing BYU diapers and such,” he says. “Both my parents went to BYU and have always been Cougar fans. So they raised me right.”

Adam’s interest was bolstered when his high school choir had an exchange with the BYU jazz program. “I’ve always had a passion for jazz, and I got to know the professor pretty well, so I thought I’d go to the Y and continue in jazz studies.” Later, he took a day off school for a BYU campus tour. “I just wanted a reason to have a school-excused sluff day,” he explains. “But I remember being really intimidated and just overwhelmed at the idea of coming to the Y. I was really nervous. I was leaving high school, where I felt like a top dog, and diving into a much larger pool.”

BYU Bound: When Adam applied to BYU, he was in the middle of Les Miserables and choir performances. A lot of his close friends were also applying, and he helped them to complete their applications. “I frequently had to remind them of papers in the application process,” he says. “I got so caught up in helping so many of my friends apply that I barely made it to the post office on the day of the deadline.”

Adam calls the day he was accepted to BYU “the best day ever.” When he got an e-mail from BYU notifying him that his application status had changed, he went to check it out online, repeating this mantra in his head: “I’m happy if I don’t make it. I’m happy if I don’t make it. I’m not going to be depressed my entire life.” His mom and brother were nearby, enjoying a quiet afternoon at home. “When I saw that I had made it,” he says, “I just stood up and threw my arms up in the air and started screaming at the top of my lungs.” His mom and brother ran in, asking, “What’s up? What are you doing?” Adam beamed at them, “I got accepted!” After a moment of familial jumping around and shouting, Adam reports that he then “ran outside the house and around the block screaming, ‘I’m going to BYU!’”

Meet Laura Larsen (’12)

Posted by Amanda Bagley Lewis (BA ’09), Editorial Intern

Hometown and High School: American Fork, Utah; American Fork High School

Applied To: BYU

Major Plans: Either family, home, and consumer sciences (FHCS) or nutrition/dietetics

Interests and achievements: Section leader in the competitive marching band (even performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade) and in the wind symphony, where she played the flute and piccolo; American Fork High Sterling Scholar for FHCS; participated in a state Iron Chef–type cooking competition for high school students; senior class president; poetry club secretary; high honor roll student; outdoor enthusiast.

Plans to Bring to Provo: A lucky pencil for test taking and onesie footed pajamas, pink with a pattern of crowned cats—“absolutely hideous,” she says.

Generations of Cougars: Both sets of Laura Larsen’s grandparents met while attending BYU. Their courtships were just two of many BYU stories Laura and her siblings heard growing up, stories that played a major role in Laura’s determination to become a Cougar. Her mom’s fond memories of BYU and continued correspondence with former roommates; weekend stays with her older sister, Lisa (BS ’09), at Heritage Halls; and a myriad of BYU games, activities, and performances helped seal the deal in Laura’s mind.

“Ever since I can remember, I’ve always wanted to come to BYU,” says Larsen. “I like the environment at BYU—how you’re surrounded by people with the same values as you.”

Going to Work: Laura had heard it was hard to get in to BYU, so she went to work. “I tried to prepare myself by taking hard classes and doing well in all of them,” she says.

It’s not hard to imagine level-headed Laura hunched over her books. But her high school days were filled with more than tough classes; between homework and tests, she kept herself busy with band and FHCS activities. She competed in cooking competitions and made a wool coat for a sewing competition. She was also senior class president. “When you’re senior class president,” she says, “you have that responsibility to get to know people,” a talent she feels will come in handy in a sea of new faces at BYU.

Once she received her acceptance to BYU, Laura turned her focus to being financially prepared. The day after graduation she started working at a catering service. “Work is never a party, but this was hard,” she says. Over the summer, she used her earnings to gather supplies, clothes, and house wares. “Life is expensive—I learned that,” Laura says.

“When I was buying stuff, I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I just spent 10 hours working for this one little thing!’ I think the biggest shock for me was just how fast my money went—all that work.”

Despite the long hours, Laura was happy to be working toward her goal of attending BYU. As the summer wore on, she came up with a new list of objectives. “You set so many goals to get to BYU,” she says. “Once I [was] accepted, I made a list of what I wanted to do before I graduated [from BYU] and what I wanted to do each year. Before I know it I’m going to be graduated, so I’ve just got to take advantage of the opportunities.”

Meet Terrance Motley ('14)

Posted by Peter B. Gardner (BA ’98), Senior Editor

Hometown and High School: Albuquerque, N.M.; Cibola High School

Applied To: Arizona State, Oregon, Utah, and BYU

Major Plans: Broadcast journalism

Interests and Achievements: Terrance has always been a BYU fan; played high school football and was selected to a New Mexico all-star team as an offensive lineman.

Home School: For Terrance Motley ('14), trips to BYU's campus—for football camp and Especially for Youth—always felt like coming home. And why not? Terrance was born in Provo and lived there until he was 18 months before his family moved away and eventually landed in Albuquerque, N.M. But the draw to Provo as he approached graduation was more than just a desire to return to his old toddling grounds. "It's always been a dream of mine to be [at BYU] because of the atmosphere," he says. "It was just really cool to be in a place where you could learn and feel the Spirit at the same time."

And it didn't hurt that offensive lineman Terrance grew up a Cougar football fanatic. "At first it was the 'outcasted-ness' of liking BYU that interested me," he says. With his dad and just about everyone around him being die-hard University of New Mexico fans, Terrance's stance constituted a mild form of rebellion. And, though he wasn't recruited to play football for BYU, Terrance was eager to take a shot at walking on to Bronco Mendenhall's squad. "Football," he says, "is my passion."

Do Your Homework! "I was a decent student," says Terrance of his high school career. "But I kind of struggled my freshman and sophomore year. Then I started getting it together." He worried that a slow start would keep him from getting into BYU, so his acceptance letter was especially gratifying.

But as he prepared to go on his own at BYU, Terrance worried that he'd have similar struggles: "At home, I always have someone breathing down my neck: 'Do your homework! Do your homework! Do your homework!'" He says that, most of the time, this was motivation enough to be serious about his studies. He knows at BYU it'll be up to him to choose between homework and play. "There [will be] a lot of opportunities to play," he says, "but sometimes you've got to get your studies done."

Meet Sini-Tuulia Sohkanen (’12)

Posted by Brittany Karford Rogers (BA ’07), Associate Editor

Hometown and High School: Mikkeli, Finland; Eira High School for Adults and the Helsinki Conservatory

Applied To: BYU and Finland’s Sibelius Academy

Major Plans: Violin performance

Interests and Achievements: Received first violin at age 5; two-time finalist in the National Violin Competition; has performed in eight countries; speaks four languages (Finnish, English, German, Swedish); can out-fish her brothers; makes a mean meatball; cooks everything from scratch.

Plans to Bring to Provo: Diabetes meds (free to her in Finland, far from free in the United States)

Independent Woman: At age 14 Sini-Tuulia (pronounced “See Knee Doolia”) Sohkanen moved out of her parents’ house to live three hours away in the nation’s capital, Helsinki—closer to better teachers. “My mom was scared, of course,” Sini-Tuulia says, but her violin teacher told them that Sini-Tuulia would have to move to keep progressing.

In Helsinki Sini-Tuulia lived with two roommates, one 15 and one 23, until their party lifestyle led her to move into her own apartment at age 17. “It was, like, one room with a little kitchen and a shower so tiny you needed to stand in the corner so you didn’t get the whole bathroom wet!” Sini-Tuulia says. The best part was when all six of her family members would come to stay the night. “They would come to Helsinki for stake conferences or a temple trip or just to visit. The whole place was covered with mattresses.”

Not Your Typical High School: One of Sini-Tuulia’s high school classmates was 80 years old. “Most of the students were around 30,” she says, explaining that in Finland there are two options for secondary education: lukio, similar to high school in the United States, or ammattikoulu, vocational school. Sini-Tuulia’s life in Helsinki was a blend of the two; she attended a music conservatory, fitting in traditional classes at a lukio for adults. Finnish and English were required subjects, to which Sini-Tuulia added German and Swedish. “I read the Harry Potters in Swedish and German,” she says.

Not Different: Sini-Tuulia often served at the missionary outreach center in Helsinki—where she met just about every missionary serving in Finland. An elder from Sandy, Utah, was the first to put the BYU bug in her ear. She applied, despite knowing that universities in Finland are free and having already been accepted to Finland’s Sibelius Academy—one of the largest music universities in Europe. “It’s not Julliard, but you could compare it to that,” Sini-Tuulia says.

When it came time to audition for acceptance into BYU’s School of Music, Sini-Tuulia could have just mailed a tape. Instead, in January 2008 she flew to the United States to visit campus. “Probably if I hadn’t come all the way out, I wouldn’t be [at BYU],” she says. During her two-week stay, Sini-Tuulia navigated the Harris Fine Arts Center and played in orchestra rehearsals and performance classes. “We started the master class with a prayer,” she recalls. “It was the first time in my life to feel like I wasn’t different. I didn’t have to defend myself and my beliefs; I didn’t have to explain why I don’t do certain things, or why I do do certain things. The Church part, that was just awesome. I guess that’s why I could see myself [at BYU].”

Meet Mitch Staley (’12)

Posted by Peter B. Gardner (BA ’98), Senior Editor

Hometown and High School: Dillon, Mont.; Beaverhead County High School

Applied To: BYU and BYU–Idaho

Major Plans: Business strategy

Interests and Achievements: Hunting (deer, elk, bear, duck, geese—you name it); GOP politics (founded a high school politics club and served as a vice chair of the county Republican committee); was a page in Montana’s house of representatives; AP classes in history, English, and psychology; played high school golf; has type 1 diabetes.

Plans to Bring to Provo: A cooler full of beef

Finding His Voice: A quiet fifth-grader listened intently as his teacher bemoaned the outcome of the recent presidential elections, saying George W. Bush hadn’t fairly won. She must have appreciated the boy’s rapt attention, but she couldn’t have guessed where it would lead.

Too shy to disagree, Mitch Staley nevertheless felt something ignite inside him. This spark was kindled as he considered the political world around him, including the events of Sept. 11. “In middle school I exploded,” he says. “And freshman year I was a complete tyrant.”

His fire for politics led him, as a 14-year-old, to write letter after letter to the editor of the Dillon Tribune. His determined stances elicited spirited and lengthy responses from other readers and impressed the editor, who began interviewing Mitch when he needed a viewpoint for a political story. This gave Mitch a regular voice in the paper.

At the end of his junior year, Mitch founded his school’s U.S. Politics Club. His senior year, with state and national elections cycles revving up, he invited all the candidates for state offices to a forum at his school. Most came.

His enthusiasm landed him a vice chairman position in the Beaverhead County Republican Party, for which he was the chair of publications and a speaker at many an election-year rally for state and national candidates.

Learning Religion: Coming from a part-member family, Mitch was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and hadn’t thought much about BYU until he was 16. That’s when his Mormon cousin and hunting partner Kevin decided to serve a mission.

Sending Kevin off at the MTC was an extended family affair, and the clan made the trek to Provo. Mitch had respected the Latter-day Saints he knew in his family and community, but the MTC was his first encounter with a large group of Church members. “You could tell that they should be admired, looked up to,” he recalls. “That was pretty overwhelming there.” The family capped their Provo visit with a trip to the bustling BYU Bookstore. “Coming [to Provo] changed everything,” he says. “I never realized [the Church] was this big, that there were this many people.”

After they returned to Dillon, Mitch’s grandparents noticed an encouraging trend—he kept stealing a copy of the Book of Mormon from their home. They worked up the courage to ask if he was interested in meeting with the missionaries. He was, and he joined the Church a month later.

As a new convert, Mitch found that BYU quickly became part of his identity—and wardrobe. “In small towns, BYU clothes are what Mormons wear,” he says. When it came time to apply for college, he had only two destinations in mind, BYU and BYU–Idaho. When the acceptance letter came, he was thrilled for reasons academic and ecclesiastical.

“I needed the religion classes to boost my [gospel] knowledge,” he says. “I needed to grow in the Church and my religion.”