LEADERS IN LEARNING


CAMBRIDGE-STRATEGIES.ORG BYU.EDU PROVO, UTAH, USA


“BEING ABLE TO WORK ON IMPORTANT, DISCIPLINE- DEFINING RESEARCH AS AN UNDERGRADUATE IS BY NO MEANS UNUSUAL FOR BYU STUDENTS”


BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY


AT THE FOOT of the Wasatch Mountains in Provo, Utah, a young man walks among a field of beehives performing a regular inspection. To the casual observer, Bryan Merrill is one of the many beekeepers in the area producing honey. But Bryan is in fact an undergraduate molecular biology research student at Brigham Young University (BYU), and he may have solved one of the most troubling episodes in beekeeping for decades. Under the careful mentorship of his faculty—and with research support


from the university—Bryan has discovered a natural, antibiotic-free way of treating one of the diseases that is wiping out bees. Similarly groundbreaking research has been taking place elsewhere


at the university. Cameron Schmutz is the sole undergraduate co-author of a research paper, published in the highly respected scientific journal Nature, heralding the discovery of gene variations that double a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life. And a BYU professor– student team working as part of a new worldwide collaborative study has found that, contrary to commonly held ideas of “junk DNA”, 80 per cent of human DNA plays a functional biochemical role. Their research was part of The ENCODE Project, and was published in the scientific journal Genome Research.


RESEARCH EXCELLENCE “Being able to work on important, discipline-defining research as an undergraduate is by no means unusual for BYU students,” says BYU Academic Vice President Brent Webb. “Approximately 40 per cent of our graduates report having been engaged in an extracurricular research or creative project through the university’s mentored learning emphasis. The university provides significant financial support in the form of grants to help foster this effort.” Students in the Capstone Program of the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology have garnered national attention for their


impressive work on solving real-world problems as undergraduates, while winning national competitions and setting records along the way: an electric car built by BYU engineering students has once again set a world land- speed record, this time improving on the previous mark by nearly 50mph. Another group could be saving potentially hundreds of lives a year with an innovative and affordable portable ventilator. “BYU has several programmes dedicated to fostering creativity and


success across a wealth of disciplines,” says Webb. “Whether it’s the Center for Animation producing another Emmy Award-winning film, or the Center for Entrepreneurship fostering ideas for a new start-up company, BYU’s academic programmes are committed to preparing students for their professional futures. They do well because of the educational environment they experience.”


A SPIRITED DELIVERY That educational environment includes 180 undergraduate degrees, more than 60 master’s degrees and nearly 30 doctorate programmes. But there is one other feature that sets this university apart. Within the campus stands a statue of Brigham Young, founding father of the university, who stated that secular education would be given “with the Spirit of God”. BYU is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—also known as the Mormons—and with that affiliation comes principles that are integral to academic and student life at the university. These include an honour code to maintain the university’s high behavioural standards, as well as a moral code that serves the students’ spiritual development. Indeed, BYU is recognised for having some of America’s happiest students with the best quality of life. BYU graduates are also ranked among some of the top-rated graduates


by recruiters, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s because, much like Bryan Merrill and his work on bees, graduates have the knowledge and experience to tackle the real life challenges of the world.

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