Going Forth

The 2025 BYU Distinguished Alumni Award recipients share foundational stories from their lives.

By feeding and serving people in need, a BYU grad opens doors of opportunity.

After struggling to return to work as a middle-aged mother, Heather Nemelka now helps others make the transition.

A doctor combines the scientific and the human to improve outcomes—one childhood cancer patient at a time.

When political disagreements arise, an alumna advocates for kindness and curiosity.

Each year an alum donates a home makeover to a neighbor in need.

A Chinese couple has exported “the BYU way” of music performance to their homeland.

A mother made it her mission to improve accommodations for children with vision impairment.

Paul Solouki’s love of service powers him through heat and mess while he cleans up after New Orleans’s latest hurricane.

An immigrant herself, Natalia Benjamin's Minnesota classroom is a safe haven for refugee and immigrant students.

These alumna sisters are teaching young girls about the women in the Bible in their book, Dear Divine Daughters.

Karl Johnson plays bass trombone in the United States Marine Band, the country’s oldest professional music organization.

Toxoplasma gondii—a deadly, if mostly unknown, parasite—has the full attention of researcher Kjerstie Olson.

Pro soccer forward Ashley Hatch has created an organization that donates lightly used cleats to needy youth players.

A grad is helping the western monarch butterfly avoid extinction.

Tiffany Ivins Spence sees dignity and divinity in people everywhere. Read how she and other alums go forth to serve.

BYU alumni put their talents to use on the dance stage, in the rescue-plane cockpit, and in a classroom for the blind.

Daniel Wallentine hoped to make it big on Broadway. When that didn't pan out, he used his voice in NYC to serve.

A doctor, an English teacher, and a float creator share how they are enriching their communities through service.

BYU alums go forth serving by expanding literacy and creating community via music.