Earlier this year, wildfires broke out all across Southern California, ravaging the community, killing 29 people, forcing more than 200,000 to evacuate, destroying over 18,000 homes and structures, and burning over 57,000 acres. The economic loss as a result of the fires has been estimated to be between $250 and 275 billion. In the wake of the fires, many people were left confused, not sure what to do next, and the appropriate steps to take to piece their lives back together.
Upon hearing the devastating news, John Kent, Educational Outreach Administrator at Brigham Young University (BYU), decided to act. Reaching out to a number of schools located in the areas affected by the fires, Kent learned about Palisades Charter High School, located in Los Angeles County, which tragically burned down as part of the ongoing disaster. All of the students, faculty, and staff were forced to work remotely due to the destruction of their school building.
Learning about the hardships Palisades Charter High School was facing, Kent, in collaboration with the marketing management team, looked for a way to support the community in their time of need. Kent reached out to the dean’s office and BYU administration for approval, and, after receiving permission, extended the opportunity to students at Palisades Charter High School to enroll in BYU Independent Study (BYUIS) courses completely for free.
“That was a very generous statement by the university. I’ve been with the university for over 20 years, and I have never seen anything like this before,” said Kent. “It was a tremendous thing that BYU had [the] heart to do and have charity to help those in need.”
Since the offer was extended, several students have taken advantage of the opportunity and have both enrolled in and completed coursework through the program. This offer provided students with the ability to continue their education, giving them a source of stability while so much else remained unclear. This reaffirmed just how powerful education is at inspiring hope in times of uncertainty.
For Kent, education is the key to opportunity. “If a student really wants to progress and to do well in their future, education, in our opinion, is the answer,” he said. “Education will open doors to their future that they might not otherwise have opened to them.”
With over 2 million high school enrollments, BYUIS has continually grown over the past 28 years since it was first established, particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this belief in the transformative power of education remains at the heart of BYU IS’s mission, which is to “[provide] spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, and character-building high school education and student support for a wide variety of students in safe online learning environments where qualified teachers, leaders, and student support educators utilize best practices for online learning.”
As communities in Southern California have now begun the long road to recovery, it’s acts of compassion like BYU’s offer to Palisades Charter High School students that serve as a reminder of the importance of coming together to lift one another up. And for Kent and others at BYU Continuing Education, it reaffirmed their commitment to using education as a means to go forth and serve even amongst difficulty. “The best and most enjoyable aspect of my job is being able to meet with people [who] have a sincere desire to help students,” he said. “That’s what we want to do too.”
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth103/node/1043
https://abcnews.go.com/US/la-wildfires-aftermath-insurance-housing-rebuild-update/story?id=119209482
