Aloha! My name is Lovely, and I was born and raised in the beautiful islands of the Philippines. I'm a full-time international student working part-time at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. My parents taught me to dream big and work hard for it. At my current standing, being able to study here in my dream school put smiles on my parents' faces. Everyone does not get to study abroad in my home country. After my 18-month missionary service in 2019, I decided to return to school immediately. I have two choices: go back to my previous university since I only have a year left before I graduate, or try and apply again to BYUH. After much prayer and careful planning, I told my parents that I wanted to pursue my childhood dream, to go and get my bachelor's degree at BYU-Hawaii. My parents were supportive of me and my siblings, especially when it came to our education interests. I'm the first in my family to do this, and it was a proud moment for my parents, including my extended family, when I shared with them this fantastic news of being admitted to BYU-Hawaii. Although my experience of going here differs from Malgorzata's, I can primarily relate to her struggles coming here to the US for her dreams! Last 2020, COVID happened. The day I was supposed to have my visa interview, the president of our country announced a lockdown. Although my first yr was solely online, it was tough. Here I am, a new international student whose time difference from Hawaii is 18 hours and who never used Canvas in her entire life. Even so, I was blessed with so many excellent professors, and they helped me with my transition to going back to school after three years. This experience taught me to be patient and humble. I learned to be more open and ask for help when needed. My professors always reminded me not to be shy to ask for help. Since I'm the eldest among five siblings, I'm not used to asking for help because I constantly extend help to others. So asking for help is always the last thing on my mind, and my professors helped me realize that asking for help is not a sign of weakness or laziness. It is the start of building trust and good relationships with other people. Because of these, I've never been more prepared and more brave, especially when I got to the beautiful islands of Hawaii and continued my academic journey here at BYUH. Ever since, I have never asked for money from my parents because I can support my education through my academic scholarships and from my meager bi-weekly salary. One of the reasons I'm studying so hard is to one day be like you—changing the lives of our other brothers and sisters by allowing them to receive a high-quality education that will forever change their lives. I am forever indebted to donors like you who support a young believer like me. I want so much more because I want and feel this sense of urgency to give back to my family and country when I graduate. I share the same hope with my university's motto: "Enter to learn; go forth to serve" and help the future generation do the same. With this, Malgorzata and I are more alike than we think because we are examples of believers and achievers of big dreams!

Aloha! My name is Lovely, and I'm studying at BYU-Hawaii as an international student from the Philippines and majoring in Biology. I'm the first in my family to study abroad. I came to BYU-Hawaii to get a degree that would enable me to serve my family, my community, and my country more effectively. I'm a full-time student working part-time to help fund my schooling. One of the reasons I'm studying so hard is to one day be like you—changing the lives of our other brothers and sisters by allowing them to receive a high-quality education that will forever improve their life. Growing up in the Philippines, I'm lucky enough to experience both worlds. What I meant by this is living a life of comfort in the city and living a life in a simple way on the farm. My maternal grandparents are both farmers, and I'm of them because I learned how to be resourceful in many ways, like growing our food to caring for the land that gives them their livelihood. I took the Conservation Biology class last Winter 2022 semester. One day my former professor, Dr. David Bybee, also the director of Kumuwaiwai Center for Sustainability here at BYUH, emailed me about an event in Thailand. I submitted my application to our school for approval. I was blessed enough to be chosen as one of the six participants in my current university, BYU-Hawaii, to attend the GREEN SUMMIT A FUTURE TOGETHER at the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok, Thailand, last December 13 to 16, 2022, organized by Humanitarian Affairs Asia. I learned a lot from this conference which increased my desire to learn more projects about sustainability and conservation. Speakers like Miss Joanna Broomfield, Founder of Root the Future, helped me think about the need to figure out how to feed billions of people with fewer resources on a changing planet. From Mr. Felipe Queipo, Communications Officer Department of Global Communications United Nations, New York, who I look up to help me learn how to talk to people who do not care about sustainability. This talk is probably my biggest takeaway from the conference because when I moved here to Hawaii, promoting the conservation and preservation of resources was hard if one lived in abundance. Back home, in the Philippines, it was easier because we know what it's like to be living in conditions when all of our resources are gone, especially after experiencing natural calamities like typhoons. A friend of mine commented when I encouraged him to avoid food waste, and his comment dumbfounded me. He said, "We're here in America now. No need for us to worry!" Even with this comment, during the event, I made friends from different countries, from Lebanon to Australia to Israel and many more, who share the same passion and desire to protect and preserve a more sustainable world for the future generation. Why must I reduce my carbon footprint? Because I love our planet, and as stewards of God's creation, we are responsible for caring for it. I learned how their little way of helping the environment they call home. I want to learn all that I can about this topic. I'm planning to get as much education as circumstances allow and go back and give back to my country when I graduate. I am forever indebted to donors like you for making my dreams a reality. May God bless you for sharing some of your blessings to change lives forever.