On Thursday, the BYU-Idaho Career Center hosted its 10th annual Power to Become conference with presentations from guest luminaries and a special musical performance by Disney’s Adassa.
President Meridith enjoying p2b with BYU-I volunteers Photo credit: Chester Chan
Starting the night off, the campus hosted a tailgating party with a rock wall, games and free food. President and Sister Meredith visited the party — they went around giving hugs and getting to know the students.
As the conference began, emcee, Ben Watson, introduced the guest luminaries that would present and perform. The night was filled with many career-focused presentations and a few games and raffles to get the audience on their feet.
Rob Eaton Photo credit: Chester Chan
Rob Eaton
Rob Eaton is a visiting professor at BYU. He worked as an attorney for many years. At Power to Become, Eaton discussed the power of being intentional.
He compared life to a river. He said that a person could either be a twig that floats through life or a kayaker who paves their own way.
He gave three ways to be intentional:
— Be intentional about transcending the daily grind.
— Be intentional about growth.
— Be intentional about ranking identifiers.
Kevin Brower Photo credit: Chester Chan
Kevin Brower
Kevin Brower is the current dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts at BYU-I. He is also the conductor of the BYU-Idaho Men’s Choir. In his presentation, he talked about doing good in the world.
He compared harmony in singing to doing good.
“Doing good is a lesson in harmony,” Brower said. “And harmony is a lesson in doing good.”
He answered three questions on how harmony can impact someone’s life:
— How do I create harmony in my life and the lives of others?
— How do I keep my life in harmony with laws and commandments of the gospel?
— How are harmony and doing good part of the power to become a disciple of Jesus Christ?
“Doing good often requires sacrifice,” Brower said.
Chris McChesney Photo credit: Chester Chan
Chris McChesney
Chris McChesney is the global practice leader of execution for Franklin Covey and is a Wall Street Journal #1 National Best-Selling Author of his book, “The 4 Disciplines of Execution.” His Power to Become presentation focused on three career traps.
He used the example of his nephew, Brandon, who worked for Cisco Technologies and the strategies he used to own his own technology company.
He discussed three career traps:
— The Urgency Trap
— The Uncertainty Trap
— The Reward Trap
He taught that overcoming all three traps requires faith.
“Do not worry if life is fair, worry about making a contribution,” McChesney said.
Adassa performing a musical number amongst the crowd Photo credit: Chester Chan
Adassa
Adassa is a singer-songwriter famous for her Latin pop music and more recently, her role in the Disney movie, Encanto, where she voiced the character Dolores.
As she performed some of her Christian songs, “Almighty God,” “The Great I Am” and “On A Mission,” Adassa shared the story of getting the role of Dolores. And she talked about an unexpected illness that befell her as she was in the audition process that left her voiceless and paralyzed. As she recovered, she relied on the scriptures and God’s grace to help strengthen her.
Adassa performing with the Rexburg Children's Choir Photo credit: Chester Chan
The conference concluded with Adassa singing her song from Encanto, entitled, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” accompanied by the Rexburg Children’s Choir.
Annimona came to learn and be entertained at Power to Become. Photo credit: Chester Chan
“I … loved when Adassa came out into the audience, it was very interactive,” said Annimona Cruzan, a freshman studying geology.
