Dr. Isaiah Walker of the Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts will be the first Hawaiian appointed as academic vice president of BYU–Hawaii. His wife, Rebekah Walker, an adjunct member of the Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts, said if there is anything that qualifies her husband for the job, it’s his aloha.
“He loves this place. He loves the students and he loves the people. I think that [love] will be what guides him.” Rebekah Walker said Isaiah Walker’s upbringing in Keaukaha, Hilo, Hawaii, has prepared him to give back to the Hawaiian community.
Isaiah Walker’s students said they recognize his aloha too. Malayah Thompson, an alumna from California who majored in history, said Walker is “definitely a great example of the aloha spirit. Even if you’ve just met him in passing, you can feel that energy from him.”
Sione Tu’ikolovatu, a junior from California majoring in Pacific Island Studies and hospitality and tourism management, said, “Brother Walker is the man. ... He’s super intelligent but so caring. He comes off like a true local, super friendly and nice.”
Walker said he hopes students will be able to relate to him because of his experiences as a teacher and student. “I’m kind of still a student at heart.” He has a long board sitting outside his office he uses to skate to and from meetings. “A lot of students I will see at the beach or in the water [surfing], and will double-take and ask in shock, ‘Aren’t you the academic vice president?’”
Tu’ikolovatu said he thinks Walker’s Hawaiian roots will help him contribute to the school’s leadership in unique ways because he has “been a long-time member of this community. He was born and raised and lived in Hawaii his whole life, so he knows all the cultural protocols that will help BYUH be a place of refuge, not just for students here, but also for community members.”
The next wave
Walker, a BYUH alumnus, said he was not looking to be vice president, but knows the Lord has a plan for him in the job. “To be honest, I feel like the Lord’s hand was in it. Not only in the Lord influencing the people considering me, but also the Lord convincing me to want to do [the job]. A lot of that had to do with my love for this school.”
He said he thinks of his appointment as a kuleana, or a stewardship and responsibility. “I feel like this school has given me so much, not only as a professor but as a student.”
Walker said he attended BYUH right after graduating from high school and was totally responsible for paying for his college. BYUH supported him by offering an affordable education in a place he could work to support himself. He said he got a Seminary Scholarship, which paid for his tuition, and lived with his hanai, or blood relatives, in Laie.
Walker said he thinks his experience as a teacher and student will help broaden his perspective and be a strength for him as academic vice president. He said it is exciting to tell students he remembers taking the classes they are in or took a class from a retiring professor they love.
Rebekah Walker shared why her husband being the first BYUH alumnus appointed as academic vice president means so much to Hawaiian locals. “We have always had people come from the outside. To have people [in leadership] who feel and love this place is a big deal.” She said it helps local people feel seen.
Being the first is not easy, she noted, explaining how Isaiah Walker and President John S.K. Kauwe III both carry the weight of peoples’ expectations as the first Hawaiian leaders at BYUH. She said she is excited for the school to be led by two highly qualified, local leaders.
“The whole mission of this place has always resonated with me,” Isaiah Walker said. He described BYUH’s mission as a gathering place for people to come to gain an education and become leaders who establish peace. “To me, that story has meant a lot. I don’t think many people understand the impact the vision David O. McKay had on the entire Church.”
He explained further, “David O. McKay sort of represents a shift in the vision and trajectory of the Church.” Walker explained the Church was very focused on building Zion in Utah before the prophet established Laie as a gathering place.
“When McKay came to Laie in 1920,” Walker continued, “he saw the future of the Church. McKay saw a group of saints who represented what the Church would become. Instead of just gathering in a city, McKay saw a gathering across the world in the stakes of Zion.
“Today we use the term ‘stakes of Zion.’ That sort of represents that shift in perspective, the idea of an international Church,” said Walker. “I believe David O. McKay’s experience was a paradigm shift in how the Church saw itself in a global context instead of just an American context.”
Surfing
“A lot of people think of me as the surfing guy,” said Walker, but he said his research presents a deeper meaning behind the sport. Walker said he was not born and raised a member of the Church.
His parents were divorced, and he said he spent most of his time living with his father who was not a member. “My religion was surfing as a competitive athlete,” Walker explained.
Walker said when he was 15 years old, he won fifth place in the United States Amateur Surfing Championships. He competed against hundreds of surfers from the United States and came out on top.
The teenage Walker dreamed of becoming a professional surfer, he said. When he joined the Church at 16, he planned to prioritize his surfing career over a mission. He said he thought, “Well, when I win a surf contest, maybe I’ll bear my testimony or something.”
Walker explained, “When I was confirmed a member of the Church, I remember really clearly the person who was giving me that confirmation told me I was going on a mission. When he said it, the Spirit confirmed it in that moment, … It was cool because I was okay with it.”
Walker said from that point on, he focused on serving a mission. After his mission, he said his emphasis became education, even though he said he continued surfing.
Walker said he consecrated his hopes of becoming a professional surfer to the Lord, and the Lord helped him live his dream in a more meaningful way. “In many ways, the Lord still granted me my wish, just in a very different way than I ever would have imagined when I was 17 years old,” he explained.
“Today, surfing is my profession in a way. I travel around the world. I’m known as kind of ‘the surfing expert.’” Walker spoke of calls from the New York Times and emails from hundreds of people wanting to interview him about surfing, especially now when surfing is making its debut in the Summer Olympics. He said he works as a commentator at professional surfing competitions as well.
Love of the community fuels you on a different level.
“I’m still around professional surfing, just in a very different way, and it’s super cool. I think this version of my profession in surfing is way better than what it would’ve been,” Walker smiled. “I consecrated that dream that I had, but then [the Lord] ended up blessing me with a cooler one.”
Walker said he is glad he listened to the Spirit. “The Lord knows you. There are cool opportunities for blessings that maybe you don’t even envision for yourself.
Rebekah Walker said the ocean has always been a place of inspiration, peace and calmness for her husband. She said she loves that he shares his love for the ocean with their children. “When he is there with our children, they learn the ocean is a place for healing and peace and inspiration.”
Service
Thompson said a few years ago, she listened to Isaiah Walker present a paper he wrote about surfing history that showed her he is a passionate educator. “I remember the vigor with which he presented, and it impacted me.”
When she listened to the presentation, she said it was her first semester in college, and she was still deciding if she wanted to study history. “I remember getting the strongest impression that … remembering and honoring history is important. His vigor and enthusiasm for the topic motivated me to care about it.” She said the way Walker taught made his classes enjoyable and impactful. “You felt like you were really learning about important things,” she elaborated.
In the classroom, Thompson said Walker invited student discussion. She explained he garnered strong relationships with his students by talking with them instead of at them.
“The way he teaches is so focused on the material, but he teaches in a way that makes you care.” Thompson said people think of history as dates and events that don’t matter, but Walker “makes you care about it and makes you care that it happened.”
Motivated by Walker and other history professors who mentored her at BYUH, Thompson said she graduated with a bachelor’s in history and is applying for law school.
Thompson said she believes Walker will excel in his new position, and added she thinks he embodies the University’s motto “Enter to learn, go forth to serve.”
“We are blessed to have an amazing school in Hawaii and to have a Hawaiian [vice president] who really loves his job and loves what he does. I think it is the epitome of the school’s mission. Not only does he serve the students by teaching and fostering an enjoyable education, but also he’s serving the community around us,” Thompson said.
Rebekah Walker said their family does a lot to involve themselves in the Laie community to teach their children about their ancestry. “There are some things we just really believe in. We felt it was important that our kids be able to speak Hawaiian, that they could have access to their ancestors.”
She explained their children have all gone through the Hawaiian immersion program. “We too have taken every opportunity to support their education, which means we’ve been involved in working [with the school]. … I’m doing some volunteer cultural research management.”
Thompson said she believes the Walkers serve because they have aloha. “They don’t do it for recognition or a paycheck. They do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
She said Walker will go the extra mile in his new position because he is fueled by aloha. “Love of the community fuels you on a different level,” she explained. •