“When I graduate I will…” were the words posted on a giant chalkboard outside the McKay Auditorium and Aloha Center on Nov. 18 and 19. The words invited students to come and write down their dreams, hopes and goals for the future. This colorful chalkboard brought nothing but smiles to all the passersby. Chelsea Ralph, a freshman in art from Laie, said, “I think it connects the students [together]. I love the colors. It makes me feel happy.”
Employees at the BYU–Hawaii Institutional Research Department developed the idea for giant chalkboard.
Ralph said, “You get to put your ideas of what you want to be after you graduate and also see other peoples’ ideas.” Ralph added she felt students who wrote “serious goals” would go on to complete them, and that writing goals down provided an added motivation to go out and actually accomplish them.
According to Ileva Fa’apoi, a senior in psychology from New Zealand, the International Research Department decided to put up this giant chalkboard to “get some feedback on what students plan to do after they graduate. This was one idea that we had and we’re just trying it out, and it seems to be working and attracting a lot attention.”
Thankfully all of this attention was positive, said Joye Bascara, a sophomore in psychology from California. “I think it’s been great,” Bascara said. “It allows the students to be creative and reflective on what they would actually do after they graduate.” She continued, “Since I think we’re always in school and we’re focused on the now, it encourages people to think ahead a little bit. It’s exciting and I think it’s really cool just to see that people have really positive things that they’re planning to do, and some really want to make a difference.”
Bascara also said she noticed some of the students’ goals talked about the importance of family. “I think it’s really neat how at a BYU campus you see that a lot of them [students] want to have families and kids, and I think that in a lot of the other universities, that’s not something you see in common.”
The International Research Department is thinking of repeating the chalkboard idea again before the semester is over. Fa’apoi said, “Depending on how it goes, we may consider putting it up for a third day outside the library. Possibly after Thanksgiving we’ll try again, since that’s closer to graduation, and see what students have to say.”