Marry Me and Move to Tokyo
Kevin Sites told his girlfriend he was hoping to take a position in Tokyo. “Then I asked if she’d marry me.”
Change people's lives at home and around the world
January 2021
In high school, Ryder Seamons was a voracious reader. When it came time to apply for college, he wasn’t quite sure what to study, so his mother suggested English. “I came to BYU and declared as an English major on the first day,” he says. Following a two-year mission to Taiwan and three years as a research assistant at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute, Seamons is still an English major, but now he is also studying Chinese.
Seamons has had several inspiring learning opportunities along the way: he published a paper in an undergraduate research journal, his team placed second in a business-plan competition conducted in Chinese, and his research was recognized at a conference. Seamons also directed public relations for last year’s BYU China Conference, and today he is preparing applications for law school.
“I see myself working in civil rights, environmental law, or perhaps international law. I crave something meaningful,” he says. “I have found so much meaning in English studies and research.” Seamons says his work at the Maxwell Institute has defined his BYU experience, “Being part of a community of thoughtful scholars of differing faiths has enriched my life.”
Kevin Sites told his girlfriend he was hoping to take a position in Tokyo. “Then I asked if she’d marry me.”
Brittany Strobelt excels as the only English major in the Chinese Flagship program.
If you attended BYU within the past 50 years you almost certainly enrolled in some humanities class. Through that class, and in many other ways since then, you are a participant in the broader human conversation. The College of Humanities is a nexus of giving, a place where we learn and grow through varied conversations. Thank you for your generosity in all its forms - for all you contribute to the ongoing human conversation.