Emily Sinkovich’s connection to BYU-Hawaii is what led her back to Laie. “The job itself kind of fell into my lap, but it felt like exactly the right thing to do,” Sinkovich explained. As a visiting faculty member, Sinkovich will teach Intercultural Peacebuilding at BYUH for a year. “I feel so connected to this school that I think I knew I would be coming back in some capacity. I just didn’t know how,” Sinkovich said.Originally from Utah, Sinkovich attended BYUH from 2006- 2010. “I met my husband here, I found my passion for peace building here and a lot of the friends that I have come from here. It changed everything,” Sinkovich said of her time as a student at BYUH.After graduating with a TESOL major, Spanish minor, and peace building certificate, Sinkovich got married and moved to Oregon to attend graduate school at the University of Oregon. At that university, she obtained her master’s degree in cross cultural conflict. Her master’s degree is what allowed her to return to BYUH as a professor. Sinkovich said she holds her time at BYUH in high esteem. “I think my experience as a student here really changed my whole perspective on what I wanted to do,” she explained. “I probably wouldn’t have gone to grad school if it wasn’t for my interest in peace building. I think it shaped every good thing I’ve got going on in my life right now.”Sinkovich used her TESOL major to be an English teacher in Japan for a year. Although she had done short internships teaching English in Thailand, Mongolia, Utah and Hawaii, Sinkovich said Japan was completely different.“It was an eye-opening experience. There were many things that were hard about it, like I didn’t speak Japanese going there, and I still don’t speak it well. That was hard socially, not being able to communicate with people. I always felt like an outsider,” Sinkovich said.Although she experienced hardships in Japan, Sinkovich said she learned valuable lessons that have helped her in future endeavors. “I learned how to love people without being able to communicate perfectly with them, and make friends that way,” Sinkovich explained. “I felt like there was a lot of kindness shown towards me.”Sinkovich believes passion is a key component of receiving a good education. “Find a part of your education that you are passionate about and is really meaningful to you, because otherwise you are just in school for the grades and for the degree, and there’s not meaning to it,” she said. “And don’t only find something that you are passionate about,” she continued, “but find a way to apply that to serving others, whether it be teaching English and helping people take that linguistic journey, or helping people find peace and strengthen their relationships.”Sinkovich said, “It shouldn’t be all about you. It should be about learning so that we can serve other people.”
Writer: Emily Halls ~ Multimedia Journalist
