BYUH has always been a place of growth, learning and transformation since being a student and now an educator, says two alumni and professors
From students and mentees to educators and mentors, BYU–Hawaii alumni and professors shared the university has always been a place of growth, learning and transformation. Brent Green and Kamoa‘e Walk, both alumni and educators of the university, said they have found themselves teaching where they once sat as students years ago—carrying forward the legacy that once shaped them.
“What I hope students will retain from anything I share centers on the characteristics of BYUH’s mission, because my desire is to help them become disciples of Jesus Christ and leaders in their chosen fields, communities, families and in the Church,” Green said.
Teaching for the people
“I always wanted to teach English at BYUH and that came from my very early days as a student. Coming back and teaching here is a dream job to me,” shared Brent Green, an EIL and TESOL professor in the Faculty of Education & Social Work and the associate academic vice president of accreditation, assessment and curriculum. He said his motivation for teaching TESOL will always be people—his love for teaching academic English to people from all over the world.
Green shared the scholarly process he went through before finding himself back at BYUH. After graduating from BYUH in the 90s with a degree in TESOL, he went to BYU in Provo to get his masters in the same program. The effort he put into his studies, he said, was because he wanted to teach in college. “So I worked as an EIL lecturer for seven years, and among those years, three were spent on the Pacific Islands,” he shared. They spent two years in Tonga and one in Samoa, he said, until the program was eventually closed due to the low number of participants.
Green said he was called to return to BYUH while he was working on his Ph.D. “Because I studied language testing, BYUH asked me to come back. I helped out, and the test reformation was the one I used as a case study for my dissertation,” he shared.
Green said his experiences—including a mission in the Marshall Islands, a vacation with his friends to Hawaii when he was a teenager, and the influence of his bishop who was a TESOL professor—cultivated his desire to obtain a TESOL degree at BYUH and, eventually, come back and serve as an educator.
Reflecting on the path that led him here, Green reminisced on his experiences as a student that influenced his teaching. He said he went through three-week student-teaching experiences as a TESOL major— an activity that taught him he still had a lot to learn. “I didn’t understand forms yet at the time, and as I was teaching, one of the students told me I was confusing the class,” he shared.
Green said it was an experience that filled him with frustration and doubt in his ability to finish the degree. “I went to my professor, and I told him that,” he shared, “And he just told me, ‘Brent, if we’re not confused, we can’t learn. We have to go through confusion in order to progress, in order to make it to our understanding.”
Green also talked about the impact of learning about “scaffolding” and social constructivism on his teaching method. His philosophy is to share knowledge through social interactions, he explained. Looking back, he said he could have used a more solid foundation of understanding from his professors, especially as a student learning the subjects from the ground up. “In learning theory, Lev Vygotsky talked about scaffolding—about how buildings need bricks to stand. In the context of learning, students can continue to learn more with help from their instructors,” he shared.
Now a professor, Green said he had to constantly adjust his teaching style to the changing times. Classes that once found verbal lectures adequate now need the aid of technological tools, such as computers and PowerPoint slides. “Also, we would take so many notes back then. But now, I would be lucky to have my student’s attention for five minutes,” he added with a laugh.
Quoting the famous linguist Noam Chomsky, Green emphasized the importance of adaptability in the teaching profession: “If a teacher is teaching today the same way they were teaching 25 years ago, they should get into another career.” If a teacher is averse to transformation and change, he added, they could never hope to become an
effective educator.
I always wanted to teach English at BYUH and that came from my very
early days as a student. Coming back and teaching here is a dream job to me.
Desire to build Hawaiian studies
Kamoa‘e Walk, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts and the Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian & Pacific Studies, said the spirit of the Lord and the desire to establish a program for Hawaiian studies led him back to BYUH. “I was already doing well in University of Hawaii (UH) at Manoa, but an aunt of mine had heard from her sister who worked here at BYUH that the school was looking for a Hawaiian language professor to start a program, and that was what brought me back,” he shared.
When Walk attended BYUH as a student, the university offered Hawaiian language courses, but no formal program that tied them all together, he shared. It wasn’t until 1996, when he returned to teach as a professor, that the Hawaiian studies program was established. “I was very interested in the Hawaiian language while I was here, especially when I worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) in the Hawaiian village,” Walk said. “There were a lot of native speakers, and I spent a significant amount of time and energy trying to learn it.”
To continue learning the Hawaiian language, Walk said he had to take evening Hawaiian language classes at Windward Community College, as BYUH did not offer them at the time. He said he would always take the bus to Kaneohe after school and work to attend these classes. “But the professor teaching the course went to law school, which left a gap,” Walk shared.
Walk said he was later offered a position as a special instructor of Hawaiian language during his time as a student at BYUH. “Before I graduated, I was teaching the Hawaiian language class that I had learned just a year earlier,” he shared. This, coupled with his innate love for Hawaiian culture, inspired him to further his studies in Hawaiian language despite graduating with a degree in business management, he shared. “After graduating, I went to the University of Hawaii and took higher-level language classes that I couldn’t access before,” he said.
As a pioneer in Hawaiian studies at BYUH, Walk said it was humbling to return to the institution that had shaped him, and he deems it incredibly rewarding to now help others reconnect with a culture and language that was once nearly lost. “I’m also very happy that I’m at a university where we’re able to acknowledge and foster the spiritual aspects of our culture hand in hand with the gospel,” he expressed.
Walk emphasized the most important lesson he learned at BYUH: that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the most essential parts of life. Whether students are learning Hawaiian studies or not, he said it’s important to understand that their kupuna, or ancestors, embraced the gospel and passed their values down through generations. “Knowing we are part of God’s plan—that’s the real knowledge that matters in this life and beyond,” he said.
Meente's point of view
Aliah Flores, a senior majoring in business management with an emphasis in marketing and TESOL from the Philippines, said being taught by BYUH alumni gave her confidence in the quality of her education. Flores, a student of Brent Green in TESOL, said Green often shared personal career experiences that highlighted how BYUH prepared him for success. “My favorite story was about his admission to a language testing program at UCLA, where he worked with one of the top experts in the field,” Flores said. “Hearing those stories made me realize how far BYUH education can take someone and strengthened my belief in my own potential.”
Flores said she observed a difference between professors who are alumni and those who are not. Alumni professors, she noted, empower students uniquely. “All of my professors are empowering, but those who studied here seem to offer an added level of encouragement,” she shared. “Brother Green, for instance, not only taught content but also introduced us to career opportunities, professional presentations and projects he was involved in. He would often tell us, ‘You can do this too,’ even when it seemed out of reach.”
Flores said she also saw how alumni professors reflect BYUH’s mission. “They truly embody the university’s mission in the way they teach, modeling how to use education to serve, lead and uplift others,” she said. “Their testimonies, encouragement and lived examples show BYUH’s mission is not just a statement but something that shapes lives and careers.”