Students filled the Marriott Center on Sept. 9 for Brigham Young University’s sesquicentennial devotional, marking 150 years since the school’s founding.
Keith Vorkink, who was appointed advancement vice president in May 2020, conducted the devotional.
He began by leading the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who turned 101.
“While 150 years of BYU would be a cause for celebration all on its own, this milestone carries with it the weight of prophets, seers and revelators who have seen the destiny of this place,” Vorkink said.
Vorkink said the sesquicentennial celebration draws upon BYU’s “dual heritage" taught by former President Spencer W. Kimball in 1975 in an address looking toward BYU’s second century.
“Your double heritage and dual concerns with the secular and the spiritual require you to be bilingual,” President Kimball said.
That theme of dual heritage inspired the sesquicentennial theme: Celebrating Gifts of Light.
“Embracing our dual heritage is the way that we will come to shine a special light that characterizes this institution,” Vorkink said.
He encouraged students to participate in campuswide service projects and activities planned throughout the year, promising they would be “richly blessed” as they share their light with others.
Looking back at the school’s growth, Vorkink posed two questions to the audience: “The second century is half spent. What have we become? More importantly, what do we still need to become?”
President C. Shane Reese and his wife, Sister Wendy Reese, also addressed students through a virtual message.
President and Sister Reese emphasized the role each student plays in the fulfillment of BYU’s future.
“Together we will hasten the fulfillment of prophetic promises to become the Christ-centered, prophetically directed university of prophecy 150 years in the making,” Reese said.
The devotional included remarks from University Communications’ Audrey Perry Martin, a musical number by Lisa Valentine Clark and Korianna Johnson and an address from Office of Belonging representative Lita Little Giddens.
“If you look for the light of Christ in the area you study, you will find it,” Giddens said.
Students also watched a video featuring alumni such as NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young, Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid and former Relief Society leader Sharon Eubank, who reflected on their BYU experiences and the light they have carried into the world.
Vorkink closed the devotional by inviting the students to distinguish themselves from the world by spreading their light and embarking on the journey of a dual heritage as students of Brigham Young University.
“It is ours to shine the unique light of BYU into the world,” he said. “What beacons of light you will be.”