Author: Jane Tallmadge

Jane Tallmadge

Successful entrepreneur and founder of PowerSchool returns to graduate from BYU

Greg Porter’s story began during high school in the 1980s. Now, decades later, he will be speaking at this year’s College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences convocation, at which both he and his son will graduate. Since his beginnings as an ambitious teenager, Porter has experienced adventure, success, hardship and risk.

As the student body president of Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California, Porter was aware of the inefficiencies and challenges facing education. When he and a classmate enrolled in a computer programming class, they created record-keeping software to help teachers and students keep track of grades. Upon hearing about the innovation, other schools paid the two teenagers about $300 to use it in their own programs.

“When I was a kid, I acquired confidence that told me I could pursue anything I wanted,” says Porter. “It wasn’t much, but I learned so much just by stepping out into the real world and starting something on my own.” In his heart, he knew he was meant to become a businessman and intended to find that future in higher education.

Upon coming to BYU, Porter changed his major three times before deciding on Psychology, saying, “If you are drawn to something, check it out. BYU offers the perfect testing ground to explore and learn what your interests and passions are. Don’t run yourself into the ground thinking some majors are better than others. Do what you love.”

Rather than graduating, Porter left school with one class left, deciding to make his fortune and become an entrepreneur. “That’s when I went out and started PowerSchool and started working with the software. I’m not a great programmer myself, but I couldn’t afford to pay someone else to do it so I just dove in and started working on it,” says Porter. “That required me to work without a salary for a year and a half to two years, and I just funded myself.”

Soon he found investors, and PowerSchool became widely popular among school administrators, teachers, students and parents. Gaining momentum across the country, the company was acquired by Apple, Inc. In making the transition, Porter met regularly with Steve Jobs to plan for the future. “I’m so grateful that we found a strategic partner… rather than just somebody that just helped us do what we’re already doing.”

After finding success as an entrepreneur, father, and business owner, Porter came back to BYU to enroll in one final class and earn his degree. On Friday, April 26th, he will not only be the Family, Home, and Social Sciences convocation speaker, but will also graduate alongside his son.

Jane Tallmadge

Creating Change: Women in Civic Engagement Spring Workshop

Often times we look at our world, our nation, our city, our neighborhood and see things that we want to change or improve. They can be as simple as a couple potholes or as wide-reaching as tax law. The problem that inhibits us from fixing these things is the lack of knowledge in how to make effective and lasting change.

On Thursday, March 28th, stop by the Spring Civic Engagement workshop to discover how you can make an impact on your environment. The conference is free for anybody to visit and learn from the various panels on women in civic engagement. Featured speakers include women such as the mayors of Provo and Draper, a member of the Utah Department of Commerce and a current and former Utah State Representative.

This event will show people that anyone, especially women, have the power to making lasting impacts and changes for the better. Attending the workshop is a valuable opportunity to learn how you can make your community a better place to live, no matter who you are.

The purpose of any political position is to represent the people in an honest and accurate way. When women run for office, they help better represent their constituents. Regardless of whether or not they become elected officials, running brings new issues and perspectives to light that may help provide ways to begin the enactment of change.

For a view of the full schedule, visit the Office of Civic Engagement website.

Jane Tallmadge

Mentored Student Research Conference 2019: A chance for experience, learning and prize money

Concerns on the minds of BYU students include (among others) spicing up the resume and filling the wallet. Fortunately for those in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, the upcoming 15th Annual Mentored Student Research Conference and luncheon on Thursday, April 11th is a perfect opportunity to make it happen.

What is the Mentored Student Research Conference?

This mentored research conference, funded by the Mary Lou Fulton Chair, is a chance for any student (graduate or undergraduate) in the college to submit a research project, gain valuable career experience and perhaps even win prize money.

Student posters don’t have to be done for a class, but they can be. However, the research must be mentored by a member of the faculty, and students can submit as many posters as they’d like.

Not only is the annual conference a great way to enhance presentation skills and gain vital experience, it’s an opportunity to practice professionalism and enjoy a free luncheon. The conference will be held in the WSC Ballroom on April 11th from 8:30 – 11:30 a.m. with a lunch to follow in the Garden Court.

The winning posters from each department are awarded 300 dollars, and runners up have a chance at prize money as well, from 50 to 200 dollars.

Winners from previous submissions include “A Peculiar People: Split Ticket Voters among Latter-day Saint Millennials” and “Happy Wife, Happy Life: Spousal Support as a Predictor of Life Satisfaction.”

Students can learn more and submit their posters at fultonchair.byu.edu. The deadline for poster submissions is Tuesday, March 26th at noon.

Jane Tallmadge

Hickman lecture 2018: How passion can change your life and relationships

Relationships aren’t only meant to be enjoyed in the next life. They are conditions of salvation itself. This is why passion is so significant in our journey through life. In the 13th Annual Martin B. Hickman lecture, Professor of Family Life, Dean Busby highlights the ways in which passion is crucial and beautiful in our lives and relationships.

Busby, Dean 28
Professor Dean Busby

To begin his discussion, Busby teaches the importance of passion from the perspective of its difficulties, asserting that passion is hard to hold onto. “You need people who can give you examples,” he says, “and inspire and show you that it takes courage.” One such example is Andrea Bocelli, a blind singer passionate about opera. He was told his dream to sing opera was impossible; he wouldn’t be able to see the conductor or engage with the audience. Originally, he was discouraged until he found a master who taught him to be guided by his passion in order to achieve excellence.

What is passion? According to Busby’s definition, passion is something you sacrifice and “exert substantial effort towards.” It “becomes part of who you are or what you identify with,” he says. A passion isn’t an interest you dabble in occasionally; it is a pursuit in which you wish to improve and enjoy further, and for which you will lay aside other aspects of your life. Passions are “central to identity” and “represent each person’s unique and fundamental way of being who they are.”

Busby says, “We are drawn to people who are passionate…Who we are has no meaning except in relationships with others.” This is why passions are very relational, and therefore, vital to our happiness in this life. We must cultivate them now to grow and expand our intellect and spirituality, as well as to become like God. Passion isn’t important just to bring us pleasant satisfaction, it’s essential to life on earth, says Busby. As President Hinckley said, “Life is to be enjoyed, not endured.”

Passion asserts itself in multiple styles. Low passion or lack thereof is known as over-regulated or inhibited, while excess passion is called under-regulated or obsessive. The ideal amount of passion is a harmonious balance between the two. According to Busby, there are many types of passion, including creative, physical, emotional, relational and spiritual/ intellectual. Sexual passion encompasses all of these and is a central factor in healthy relationships, and all passion types contribute in different ways to a fulfilling life. While following passions in areas of work, school and family can be difficult, the right amount of passion brings satisfaction not found any other way.

For the full 2018 Hickman lecture, click here or watch below.

Jane Tallmadge

More than a Manger: MPC combines culture and religion in holiday exhibit

See how different cultures celebrate Christmas at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures’ “More than a Manger” exhibit. Open now until February, the exhibit showcases 21 nativities from 10 unique regions in the American Southwest.

Other Christmas traditions and celebrations displayed in the exhibit include the Mexican nativity play Los Pastores, hanging ristras (bundles of red peppers), tamales and handmade nativity craft work.

46165965_975609215956828_2817372587670110208_n.jpgVisitors will also learn about the history of Christianity among the native communities of the region and find deeper meaning in the Christmas season.

Discover how Christmas not only unifies Christianity but also influences people and their cultures through the sharing and celebration of Christmas traditions.

A nativity set is more than a group of figurines and a manger; nativity details reflect the heritage and history of the hands that made them. Become immersed in cultural traditions while reflecting on the Christmas story by attending this exhibit.

Additional nativity celebrations across campus

Artist Brian Kershisnk will discuss his painting, “Nativity,” on Monday, December 10 at 7:15 p.m. at the BYU Museum of Art (MOA).

The BYU Bookstore will display a 1,000+ piece Fontanini, an Italian hand-crafted and world-renown nativity. The nativity will be located on the bottom floor of the bookstore from December 1 through 30.

Jane Tallmadge

Foundations of success: Psychology student receives award for excellence

“Nothing in life worth having comes easy.”

This was the philosophy Kara Duraccio had growing up on a small farm in Idaho. Though neither of her parents had finished college, they supported and loved their children by teaching them the importance of earning what they wanted in life.

Today, Duraccio is a new mother and the recipient of the Deseret Book Award for Excellence. This prestigious award is only given to one BYU graduate student every five years. Deseret Book requires that the recipient “incorporate into their lives… traits of excellence that will allow them to make a worthy contribution to the communities in which they live.”

Respected as both a teacher and student of clinical psychology at BYU, Duraccio is driven by a passion for childhood development and adolescent behavior. Her compassionate desire to help others is seen in her excellence in leadership and academia.

Throughout her life, her foundation has been the principle of compassion and care. “As cliché as it sounds,” says Duraccio, “I have always known that I wanted to go into a profession that emphasized helping others.”

Duraccio began higher education with the intention of studying nursing, but quickly ended up dropping the major. She remained undeclared until she took Introduction to Psychology, saying, “I knew psychology was the field for me when I ended up reading the entire textbook only a few weeks into the class.”

With her newfound passion, she became involved in research labs and saw the impact this research could have in application. “While I loved psychological research, I felt that a career path that was solely focused on research lacked the depth that could be obtained by entering into clinical psychology,” she says.

Believing in the power of action, Duraccio began working with Dr. Chad Jensen in his pediatric obesity lab. “I love the career that I have chosen,” she says, “because not only do I get to research childhood behaviors, but I then get to put the things that I learn from my research directly into my practice!”

According to Duraccio, the principles of psychology expand beyond the academic discipline: “I feel that it is so useful to teach future and current parents about normal child development, where development can go wrong, and, most importantly, what to do if it does go wrong.”

Recently, Duraccio has been able to see this reflected in her own life as a new mother with both the perspective of a clinical psychologist and a parent. “It is so easy to become consumed with all of the things that we need to do as parents,” she says. “Limit screen time, make sure your child is eating enough fruits and vegetables…foster self-esteem and self-efficacy…and the list goes on and on.”

However, motherhood has taught her what can’t be learned in a research lab. “I truly believe that successful parenting boils down to one simple practice,” she says, “love your child…and everything else should fall into place.”

Jane Tallmadge

100 years later: Find out who in your family was a World War I veteran

moroni2.jpg
Moroni Seth McConkie

Joshua Seth Hunt grew up knowing he carried the namesake of his great granduncle, Moroni Seth McConkie, who was killed in a French train accident while serving in World War I.

“My middle name to me not only serves as a reminder about my great granduncle’s service to preserve peace, it also serves as a reminder to me of all those that came before me and their hard work and service,” said Hunt, a BYU computer science major.

Hunt is part of a BYU team who — in time for the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day — just released Vet Finder, a Web application that will tell people who in their family tree are veterans of World War I. For the project, computer science professor Mark Clement, economics professor Joseph Price and four other computer science students spent the past five months creating a machine-learning feature to scan more than 32 million 1930 census records (for nearly 137 million people).

The census had been previously indexed, but much of the data had been left out, including individuals’ veteran status and the war they were veterans of. So the team created handwriting-recognition programs (a challenge, with such a range of handwriting styles) that would ultimately link veteran status to a person’s name and other already indexed info (birth date, birth place, death date, death place and relationship).

“This does something to give more visibility to the sacrifice of veterans,” said Clement, who has three people in his family line who served in World War I. “One of the purposes of our lab is to get people interested in family history, so this is another thing that hopefully helps them to learn more about their ancestors.”

Students on the team — Hunt, Maxwell Clemens, Jesse Williams, Iain Lee and Adam Warnick — were supported by mentoring funds from the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

“It’s so easy to generically think and study about the past,” said Hunt. “But this project helps us understand how we connect to it. The fact you can figure out that you have an ancestor who gave service like this helps you more deeply understand the importance and significance of their service and the war as a whole.”

Because the team to this point has focused on census records, people who were killed in the war aren’t yet linked with this application, but within the next few months, team members will have those records included as well.

This project offers a glimpse into one specific element of an individual’s family history, Clemens said, but handwriting recognition will increasingly help computers more quickly and efficiently provide significantly more family history data.

-Andrea Christensen, University Communications

Jane Tallmadge

Debate of the Dead: History Department to highlight World War I soldiers

People debate history all the time, but the best arguments come from historical figures themselves. On Monday, November 12 at 4 p.m. the History Department is holding the fourth Debate of the Dead at the Varsity Theater.

Past debates have included dead queens, religious reformers, and presidents (not to mention an incident in which Freddie Mercury was rejected from the event by Empress Dowager Cixi).

This year, to honor the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of 11 November 1918—the armistice that ended fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and their opponents—history professors are taking on the personas of soldiers in the trenches.

“History still lives with us,” says History professor and debate moderator Ed Stratford. “The idea is to increase historical consciousness on campus.”

The soldiers will answer questions posed by the moderator and reflect on their memories in the trenches, as well as share their opinions on how we think of war today. This debate is a unique opportunity for students to learn more about the past as well as gain food for thought about today.

Knowing ourselves in the context of God’s plan means knowing who came before us. “I firmly believe that the restored gospel implicitly demands attention to the history of the human family,” says Stratford. “We understand the nature of the Atonement better by coming to understand the breadth of its beneficiaries… This event is just another opportunity to do just that.”

For additional information about the Debate of the Dead, call the History Department at 801-422-4636.

Jane Tallmadge

Passion for life, passion for others: 2018 Hickman lecture to teach the place for passion

Life is a constant search for balance.

Especially in religious living, it can be difficult to find a place for passion. But passion for what we love improves our minds and makes relationships beautiful.

At the 2018 Martin B. Hickman Lecture on Thursday, November 1 at 11 a.m. in 250 KMBL, BYU School of Family Life Professor Dean Busby will speak on how we can appropriately use passion to foster appreciation for life and loved ones in his lecture “The Place of Passion in Our Lives and Our Relationships.” The lecture is a free event and is open to the public.

Professor Busby has a Ph. D. in Family Therapy from Brigham Young University and taught Syracuse University and Texas Tech University before returning to BYU. Since his return, he has played a prominent role in the School of Family Life as the Graduate Coordinator of the Marriage, Family, and Human Development M.S. and Ph. D. programs, as well as the Director of the School of Family Life.

The lecture is in honor of Martin Berkeley Hickman, a BYU political science professor who served as the dean of the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences from 1970-1986. He helped make possible the Women’s Research Institute, the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and the Family Studies Center. As for teaching, Hickman is recognized as the father of BYU’s American Heritage program. Hickman was renowned for his loyalty and dedication to his family, the Church, the college and BYU.

The Martin B. Hickman Scholar Award is given annually to recognize a notable college faculty who follows Hickman’s example of service and dedication.