Marshall Henrie's Resolve

This week, I had the opportunity to interview a man with an incredible story. Marshall Henrie was only 10  years old when his older brother James died in a terrible accident while hiking in the twins peaks mountains with his friend.

The Sheriff called the family, informing them of a distress signal received by Eric, the family was instructed to wait at the entrance to the mountains.

"The first news, we knew something was pretty bad,
was when Eric, my brother's friend came down, was life-flighted to the hospital."

After that, Marshall remembers waiting quite a while longer, more family members arrived at the base of the mountain. They were all talking, just shooting the breeze when the sheriff came back and spoke to his father. "I'm sorry, but there are no signs of life in your son." the sheriff said.

Eric had slipped and fallen nearly 200 feet and had survived by landing in a ravine, which broke his fall. James while attempting to get down to Eric to help, slipped and fell himself, falling over 400 feet in a straight drop, to his death.


There weren't many times in his life that Marshall had seen his father cry, this was one exception.

Marshall distinctly remembered his brother, Tanner, saying "We need to do whatever it takes to get back [to the Celestial Kingdom] so we can see our brother again."




The words stuck with Marshall, shaping him into becoming the man he is today. It was a short time later, that his family would go to the ochre mountain temple to be sealed to the newest addition to their family, a young adopted daughter from china, who was only 1 year old when her brother James fell to his death.

"knowing that families are eternal, when you see it with your own eyes, it has a much more lasting impact."

https://soundcloud.com/aaron-endy-684270772/sounds-from-monday-evening-2/s-NZzuj

https://soundcloud.com/aaron-endy-684270772/sounds-from-monday-evening/s-5CUhG

STEM FEST

Robot cars trying to pick up balls and boxes, and just generally smashing into one another.

Today in Sandy, the Second annual STEM fest took off in full swing as kids piled in from nearby counties to interact with the various booths and experiments set up around the Expo Center. There were booths with Robotic cars which picked up and moved balls and various other pieces of equipment, which the kids could of course play with. There was a “vortex cannon” which was simply a trash can, with plastic taped over the top and a hole cut in the bottom.

Logan with his snazzy hat, pictured above

“Stem is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and I think it’s pretty cool because it helps you get into careers that need those [skills] to help you excel in what you can," said Logan, a 13 year old boy, who had just finished testing out the vortex cannon, which is a cannon that can produce smoke rings which are capable of knocking cups off of tables, or in this case, human heads.


Seen Above: Logan getting ready to test out the Vortex Cannon.

He described how being at STEM FEST had influenced his decision on which way he wanted to go as far as a career path. Currently Logan is planning on becoming an engineer. And, upon talking with other children, I quickly found that they felt the same way. “It’s pretty neat,” said Thomas Waller, “Right now I could go and take a robotics class, I think would be kind of cool with C-Tec.”  He described the experience of STEM fest as being “Ingenuitive.”


Scott Dilbert pictured center.

Scott Gilbert who works at IN-Flash, described the goal of today’s events in a nutshell. “We’re trying to get kids excited about Math, Science, and Technology because we’ve got great jobs in engineering and technicians.” “It’s cool to get kids thinking about… if I’m interested in math, science, or technology, I could actually apply it with what I do in my job every day.” After the interview, they then let me try on a large “kid sized” engineering suit. I have to say that I felt like I had to do yoga just to get into the thing, but I won out in the end.



Pictured above, Aaron Endy in a Engineering getup

At the end of the day attending STEM fest was a lot of fun. I was able to interview several people, and learn a bunch of new things. Of course, as I said before, this is about the kids. So, I wanted to know what BYU students and faculty could do to help with the program.

Tamara Goetz, executive director of the STEM action center told me “BYU students could be involved in the program by being a mentor, and helping with after-school activities and to create a culture at the University of working with K-12 children.”

When talking about STEM fest, she said this:
"We want them to learn more about STEM, and we feel that the best way for them to do that, is to meet the companies in their own backyard, so to speak, that do STEM, because you can’t be what you can’t see,"

My first experience in the capitol!

The Utah State Capitol building in SLC, is an amazing place, filled with rich history and amazing people. But all I could think about most of the time, was "Where are the caffeinated beverages!" My adventure began early in the day, and ended shortly after lunch-time. I took the train up to Salt Lake City, and was bussed to the capitol. Since there weren't currently any sessions being held, I was able to view many of the rooms that would normally be jam-packed with people.

There is a sense of urgency that one can feel at the Capitol, as everything seems to be on a tight deadline, with reporters and politicians alike following strict schedules. All in all, it is was a relatively new experience for me, the majesty of the building, the rich history, and the feeling of being part of something larger than myself. Those are the only ways in which I can describe the experience.