After decades of waiting, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture (the NMAAHC) is being built and will be completed by 2016 in the National Mall in Washington D.C., according to the NMAAHC website.

Waimea Bay, a popular beach spot for tourists, locals and BYU–Hawaii students, faced a major tragedy on Feb. 7 leading to the disappearance of a Swedish visitor, raising questions about beach safety. BYUH students and lifeguard react to the incident by advising beachgoers to not overestimate their abilities during rough ocean conditions.

Third Culture Kids, or TCKs, are students who were raised in a culture outside of their parents’ culture for a significant part of their childhood. Born in one country and raised in another, TCKs grow up living in a country outside that of their nationality and find it difficult to classify themselves as only one culture. Many TCKs move often and have lived in several different countries. Other people have a hard time with TCKs too, they said, because TCKs aren't easy to categorize. Rica Revillo, a sophomore majoring in business management, is a Third Culture Kid who was born in the Philippines but has also lived in Japan, Ohio, and Singapore. For her, home isn’t a place. It is a people. She usually tells people the Philippines is her home because her extended family lives there. However, Revillo doesn’t think it will stay that way for long. She said, “A lot of my family members are going to move somewhere else outside of the Philippines—California, Salt Lake. So I feel like in the future I won’t call Philippines home anymore once everyone moves out.” Sophomore Phoebe Wardle, a sophomore majoring in hospitality & tourism management, said she is from Shanghai. Wardle speaks fluent Mandarin and English and has lived in Shanghai her entire life, even though her family is American and she was born in Minnesota. Wardle said she only lived in the Midwestern state for three months and feels no ties there. “All I know about it is the Mall of America,” she said with a laugh. Wardle said she feels like she didn’t get the “normal American teenager” experience like she’s seen in movies, but she is grateful she had the chance to experience so many different cultures. Wardle described Shanghai as a melting pot of European, American, and Asian communities, and said by living there, she’s become more open-minded and accepting of different cultures. She explained, “I feel like I have a combination of cultures. I identify with both. I can’t identify with just one.” Megan Sanders, a sophomore majoring in social work, has spent the last 12 years living in Dubai, and was born in Utah but has also lived in Ohio and Japan. She said one of the reasons she chose BYUH is she is used to living in places with lots of diversity. “I’ve never been around a lot of white people… There’s just so many different cultures and races [in Dubai.] My school was an international school and it had over 60 different nationalities in it.” Most people are confused by the TCK experience. Sanders explained, “It’s annoying when people ask you where you’re from and you’re like, ‘I’m from Dubai,’ and they’re like, ‘No you’re not. You’re American.’ No one knows what a TCK is. No one knows how to identify with them.” Revillo added, “The majority of the population are people who’ve only been raised in one country. So when teachers ask questions like, ‘Why is your English so good?’ they’re like, ‘What [nationality] are you really?’” Defining a nationality is tricky. Third Culture Kids often find it difficult to feel like they belong in the country they have citizenship in because they don’t live in that country. They can also feel like outsiders in the nation where they live. For example, Wardle said it was hard to feel accepted by the Chinese people because she is white. “If you don’t speak Chinese, they’ll be kind of rude about it, and then for you to speak Chinese in China it’s like, ‘This girl’s amazing!’” Revillo said the greatest challenge is saying goodbye to so many close friends. For TCKs, saying goodbye as they move from place to place and letting go becomes routine. Revillo explained, “You make really strong relationships with people from around the world, but I don’t think a person can ever get used to saying goodbye to a country, a place where they lived in and have made friends. I thought it was crazy hard.” Sanders added knowing so many people allows her to be open to new ideas, concepts and cultures, more so than people who have lived in the same place their whole lives. “We have a different view than most would, and we’ve witnessed and had firsthand experiences with people. “And sometimes it makes me so sad because people are like ‘Muslim. Terrorist,’ and I’m like, ‘No, my school was mostly Muslim and I had best friends who were Muslim.’” Revillo said the most important thing she has learned from living in so many different places is respect. Although those who come to BYUH straight from their home countries may experience some culture shock and have a hard time understanding people from other cultures, Revillo and TCKs don’t: “For me it’s like, ‘Oh well, that’s their culture.’ I went to international schools my whole life. [TCKs] know what’s different, so I’m used to people having different mannerisms.” All three of the above-mentioned TCKs found that, in moving to Hawaii, there were little things about the new culture and setting they found strange. Sanders said, “It’s hard to explain, but in Dubai, light switches are different, doorknobs are different, every single thing is different.” Wardle laughed, “The coins still mess me up. It’s terrible. In China there’s only two coins. Whereas here in the States, they’re like, ‘This is a dime.’ Why do they have different names for them? Why can’t you just say 10?’”Uploaded May 6, 2016

There are 26 sites on Oahu for whale watching, according to the website of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. The organization functions under the National Marine Sanctuaries and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hawaii received a B- for providing clean energy, according to a rating from the Blue Planet Foundation, with public transportation being responsible for most of the fossil fuel emissions in Hawaii, according to Hawaii Public Radio.

The BYU-Hawaii women’s volleyball made it to the national championship game but had a heartbreaking end to their season losing to repeat champs Concordia-St. Paul in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in December. The No. 4 ranked Seasiders fell short of the NCAA Division II Championship to Concordia-St. Paul 3-0 (15-25, 14-25, 20-25). Entering into the final match, the Seasiders (29-2) had won 22 matches in a row. However, the Golden Bears of Concordia-St. Paul (35-3) proved too much to handle as they claimed their seventh consecutive division II championship. Despite the defeat, the Seasiders have a lot to be proud of after a historic season and impressive tournament run. First-year head coach Mona Ah-Hoy lead BYUH to a Pacific West Conference Championship, West Region Championship and National Championship appearance. “I am so proud of our team and all that they have accomplished this past year. We set team goals at the beginning of the season, and one of our main goals was to get back to Nationals and win! It was just amazing to watch these girls train hard and eventually find a way to get better each game,” said Ah-Hoy. For the second season in a row, Stella Chen was named a Daktronics NCAA Division II First Team All American. Chen was the only underclassman and one of only two players to repeat as a Daktronics First Team All-American. She also brought home Third Team All-American honors as a freshman. Chen led the PacWest and was second in the nation in scoring and kills average, while also earning West Region first team honors for the third year in a row. She tallied 472.5 points on 425 kills, 28 aces, four block solos, and 31 block assists during the regular season. She also was seventh in the PacWest in hitting with a .319 percentage rate and sixth in aces per set with a 0.34 mark. Michelle Chen also had a stellar season and earned Daktronics NCAA Division II Second Team All American honors. She amassed 966 assists this year, averaging 11.64 per set, which led the conference. She also was second in aces per set (0.45) after recording 37 in 83 sets. Equally impressive, was her 11.64 assists per set, that ranked 11th nationally. Chen also repeated as a second team honoree, having received the nomination in back-to-back seasons. She ranks top in the PacWest, and 11th nationally in assists per set at 11.62. The majority of the team will return for the Seasider’s next season, with just two seniors graduating, Melanie Manutai and Erica Willes, graduating.Following deep tournament runs the past two years, the Seasiders will look to break through and win the National Championship behind an experienced roster in 2014. Looking forward to next season Coach Ah-Hoy said, “We have our best days ahead of us and we are going to take it one day at a time. We are currently in our off-season training and the team is excited to get back to work and get better. I am looking forward to another great year.”

What is your favorite part about political science? Delfin said he likes studying foreign relations and crime. “I like to learn about the need for law and why government and countries are the way they are and what led them there. Even history and facts are also really cool to learn about because it shapes how people are now and the way people think now.”

It was business as usual when Hurricane Ana downgraded to a tropical storm on Oct. 20 as it passed south of Honolulu and left only heavy rain and wind in her wake. However, even though Ana passed by Oahu, her power was heavily felt in the Northwestern Islands of Hawaii, and the storm was predicted to cause erosion and changes in marine life habitats. Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, of the Associated Press, reported, “A hurricane watch remained in effect Monday for portions of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, located about 1,200 miles from Honolulu.”Most people forget about a storm once it passes inhabited islands, and according the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Deputy Superintendent Randall Kosaki, a hurricane hit from Ana could pulverize coral reef and sandbars where green sea turtles and monk seals nurture their young. If this were to happen, the only way the coral could grow back is if humans build protective infrastructure for the reef. In terms of Ana, Kosaki said, “Workers earlier [in the week] moved some Nihoa Miller birds from Nihoa island to Laysan island as a precaution…there are some plants and animals on Nihoa that aren’t found anywhere else in the world.” "It was a fortuitous track," said Chris Brenchley, a Laie resident and meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Honolulu, about Ana turning away from the inhabited Hawaiian islands.Although Ana passed by the North Shore, BYUH students were worried about their dorms being flooded while also hoping for class cancellations. The only damages from Ana were minor flooding the McKay classroom buildings as well as some overflow of drainage canals throughout campus. Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. reported the outer islands of Nihau and Kauai fared well, thanked everybody in disaster preventative efforts, but cautioned everyone to stay prepared. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides guidelines and tips for preparing a 72-hour kit or otherwise with money, ample food and water on its website: https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage/frequently-asked-questions?lang=eng#10In terms of preserving the wildlife from tropical storms and hurricanes like Ana, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument calls to action volunteers who have excellent communication skills and have an interest in the Monument and marine ecosystems and environmental issues. The Monument’s website includes other ways of getting involved in volunteer preservation work and can be found here at http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/involved/involved.html

Students shared how social distancing brought on by COVID-19 helped people see the importance of family, friends and social situations. They said they learned to spend quality time through online sites while building stronger relationships with God.