Inspired by an internship in the Pacific and work with SWATT, Emmalee Smith, a senior from Virginia majoring in biology, said she wants to empower those in need through conservation and sustainability.
Through her time at BYU–Hawaii, Smith shared she started a BYUH women empowerment club and learned about the power of combining science with religion.
“I’ve always wanted to do something to make an impact in other people’s lives,” noted Smith. “I love SWATT because it’s all sustainable projects, all very green and has to do with biology and helping the environment. It also has that aspect of people. Whatever we do, we just try to make an impact on people.”
Smith said she started working for SWATT (BYUH’s Special Waste Action and Technology Team) more than a year ago and is currently managing the beehives around the community.
Les Harper, a sustainability manager at BYUH, “Emmalee has a very thoughtful approach to her work that shows her passion and enthusiasm. She definitely takes her work seriously.”
Smith said working in conservation is something she has wanted to do her entire life. After doing an internship in Kiribati and Tuvalu and coming to BYUH, she said she developed a greater desire to do more to help people in need.
While in Kiribati and Tuvalu, Smith said she taught people how to use hydroponics to grow fresh produce. Typically to get vegetables to those islands, they have to import them from Fiji, which can be expensive, said Smith.
“You see the impact of [the projects]. We helped families learn about hydroponics and how it’s helpful.”
“Emmalee is very service-oriented,” said Esther Xavier, a BYUH alumnus, “She’s also very passionate about conservation. She believes in the values that SWATT has in helping others and the environment.”
Xavier said she and Smith were roommates for three semesters, and whenever she was sick, Smith always would make sure she was taken care of and had everything she needed.
“She’s just as helpful and caring to those around her. She’s always willing to help anyone with almost anything within her capacity even if she has to go out of her for it.”
Along with working in conservation and sustainability, Smith is passionate about women’s empowerment. She has volunteered with Ho’ ōla Nā Pua, an organization that helps young girls who have been trafficked. Smith shared she did not realize how large of an issue human trafficking is until she came to Hawaii.
Along with volunteering, Smith also started the women’s empowerment club on campus.
“One of the reasons I started [the club] was because I realized that it is really hard for women to speak up in their communities.”
Smith said she believes her life would be much different if she did not attend BYUH. Aside from working with SWATT and the people on campus, she said she is grateful to study science in a spiritual environment.
“I think in other universities, scientists can be atheists. Learning science in this university, it was able to strengthen my testimony of God and how he played such a major role in creating the earth and everything in it. Everything we study, we just see that amazing thing in it that goes back to Heavenly Father and the creation.”
Smith said she transferred to BYUH from a community college in Virginia but initially had no interest in attending the university.
Smith said she changed her mind after hearing about the diversity on campus and was given a photo of the Laie temple by a former Young Women’s leader. She said she still carries that photo in her wallet today.