BYU kicks off yearlong 150th anniversary celebration: ‘Your light is unique and the world needs it’

In mid-August, a special issue of BYU’s alumni magazine devoted to the school’s Sesquicentennial landed in the mailboxes of many of its 460,219 former students around the world.

A couple of weeks later, the school unveiled a new flavor of ice cream, “150 Swirl” — the dining services website calls it “the best ice cream in 150 years” — during the annual University Conference for faculty and staff.

And Tuesday, BYU held its “Sesquicentennial Kickoff devotional,” a day before students flood Brigham Square at lunchtime to play games, eat treats and pick up swag related to the 150th anniversary.

The school’s founding in 1875 wasn’t directly mentioned at the devotional. Instead, BYU is firmly looking forward through the lens of a speech given during its centennial celebration in 1975.

Advancement vice president Keith Vorkink played a clip of the late President Spencer W. Kimball’s “Second Century Address,” in which the then-president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called on BYU to be a unique school dually devoted to secular learning and spiritual growth.

Now, Vorkink said, “the second century is half spent. What have we become? And, more importantly, what are we still becoming? Do our eyes remain fixed on the destiny described by prophets?

“President Kimball taught that BYU would distinguish itself, ‘not simply because of the size of its student body or its beautiful campus, but because of the unique light BYU can send forth into the educational world.’”

President Kimball said BYU faculty and students in its second 100 years should have a double heritage and dual concerns with the secular and spiritual.

“As LDS scholars, you must speak with authority and excellence to your professional colleagues in the language of scholarship, and you must also be literate in the language of spiritual things,” he said in the clip played at the devotional. “We must be more bilingual in that sense, to fulfill our promise in the second century of BYU.”

Halfway through that second century, Vorkink said this year is a natural moment of reflection.

“A kind of midterm assessment, and I’m sorry for using that phrase so early in the semester,” he said to laughter.

“On its own, this milestone carries with it a weight and a sacredness brought by the words of prophets, seers and revelators who have seen the destiny of this place, and who have taught us about your role in that destiny,” Vorkink said to 13,702 students at the Marriott Center.

BYU President Shane Reese couldn’t attend the devotional, but in a video he told students that President Kimball’s talk was a prophetic map of what BYU would become.

“When faith in Jesus Christ is paired with a world class education cultivated here at BYU, it sets you apart in ways that people see and notice, but more importantly, it equips you to serve others more effectively,” he said.

“When we rise to that sacred stewardship, you and I will do more than honor the past,” Reese added. “Together, we will hasten the fulfillment of the prophetic promises to become the Christ-centered, prophetically directed university of prophecy, 150 years in the making.”

Reese’s wife, Sister Wendy Reese, said in the same video that BYU students don’t make it to the school by accident.

“You are not here only to earn a degree, you are here to become a beacon of light in your discipline and in your discipleship. Your light is unique. Only you can shine it, and the world needs it,” she said.

At the start of the devotional, Vorkink led the students in singing “Happy Birthday” to church President Russell M. Nelson, the chairman of BYU’s board of trustees, who turned 101 on Tuesday.

“As we think of President Nelson, we think of the prophetic influence that has always set the course for this university,” Vorkink said. “President Nelson’s emphasis on education and the pursuit of knowledge, so that we can serve the world better, is ever with us as it echoes through the spirit of support given to Church Education and to BYU over the many years of its long history.”

Vorkink also played a clip of President Kimball speaking about the students of BYU’s second century.

“Its students are idealistic, and they have integrity, who love to work in good causes,” he said. “These students will not only have a secular training, but will have come to understand what Jesus meant when he said that the key of knowledge which had been lost by society centuries before was the fullness of the scriptures. We understand, as few people do, that education is a part of being about our Father’s business, and that the scriptures contain the master concepts for mankind.”

Vorkink issued an invitation to BYU’s students related to President Nelson’s teaching on service and President Kimball’s call for BYU to be a unique light to the educational world.

“I invite you to think about the responsibility that each of you has, first to kindle, then to strengthen and then to share that light, to become, in fact, beacons of light to the world beyond these walls,” he said.

The devotional included videos from several alumni and several students were assigned to take to the stage on the Marriott Center floor to read quotes from church and BYU leaders read by students.

Sharon Eubank, director of Humanitarian Services of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, described the way she was affected when, for the first time in her life, her education was a single whole that included scripture, labs and English literature.

She said she braided the experiences together in her mind and learned what it felt like to combine them all.

“I was really grateful for my education at Brigham Young University, because it strengthened my faith — my faith in secular knowledge, my faith in the temple, my faith in the scriptures, my faith in my experiences, because they were all together,” she said.

To learn more about upcoming activities related to BYU’s Sesquicentennial, visit 150.byu.edu.