How alumni use their BYU educations to serve their communities, neighbors, and families.
Cindy Goodwill (left) and her husband (center) were brought together by their love for mathematics. Now they use their education to tutor youth in their ward.
Do the Math
After graduating from BYU, I taught junior high math in Utah. My future husband was teaching math at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. A mutual friend decided that we needed to meet based solely on the fact that we both loved teaching math. Amazingly enough we hit it off right away and were married four months later.
After settling into our Rochester-area ward, we began getting requests to help the youth with their math homework. So we began a math-tutoring night at our house once a week. The youth sit at our dining room table, eat snacks, and work on their math homework. My husband and I help them when they get stuck, speak with them about their lives, and teach impromptu lessons. It’s great to be able to serve our ward doing something we both love. And I am keeping up the skills I learned at BYU so that after my kids grow up, I can go back and teach math again.
—Cynthia Blunck Goodwill (BA ’00), Rochester, N.Y.
A Healthy Education
Many people think of exercise as drudgery—another thing to check off on an endless to-do list. Studying at BYU for a master’s in health promotion taught me that our bodies are a precious resource to be taken care of and that we can have fun while doing it. In an effort to pass these ideals along to my children, the basement family room has been turned into the Family Fun and Fitness Room. It is equipped with a treadmill, free weights, bouncy balls, riding toys, and a mattress that serves as an indoor trampoline.
Three to four mornings a week, we get up early and head down to exercise. A typical morning finds Mom (me) on the treadmill, Dad lifting weights, and various kids trying to copy us as they do push-ups, sit-ups, and other exercises.
By showing my kids how fun exercise can be, I hope that a healthy lifestyle will become second nature to them. Besides, there is no place I would rather be than jumping on the mattress trampoline with my kids.
—Heidi Atwood Greenhalgh (BS ’96), Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Tip: Smart Saving
One BYU class taught me a great personal finance tip. With a bill that fluctuates during the year, like a heating bill, take the highest amount you pay, and put it into your checking account every month. Pay the bill, but don’t spend the excess. It will slowly build up to enough to have some emergency money if you ever need it.
—Teri Janss Forsyth (’83), South Jordan, Utah
