Dr. Norman “T-man” Thompson III graduated from BYU–Hawaii with a degree in English before earning his master's and PhD. Today, he serves as an Assistant Professor of Pacific Studies. A devoted husband and father of five, Dr. Thompson's journey has been shaped by faith, persistence, and a second chance that changed everything, to give his students the kind of classroom he once needed himself.
Missing More Than Class
T-man Thompson grew up on Oahu with a strong sense of purpose and belonging. In 2001, he came to Brigham Young University–Hawaii for the first time to play for the school's water polo team.
Thompson struggled. "I felt like my professors didn't really understand me," he says, looking back. "The material we read and covered didn't feel relevant to where I was at the time." By the second semester of his freshman year, he had stopped attending classes; he made the hard call to leave.
In 2002, Thompson received his mission call and headed to Charleston, West Virginia. He came home in 2004 and found work back on Oahu.
Then, he met Rena Andrus, who would become his wife. A Kahalu’u girl, she had attended BYU Provo before returning home to BYU–Hawaii, and at the time she was working at the Polynesian Cultural Center, dancing in the Māori village. The two met and hit it off. They were married in March 2006. "We just made 20 years," Thompson says with a smile.
The Write Way Back
Thompson tried different jobs and directions, but nothing felt right. "Even though I did poorly in school the first time, I felt like school was where I needed to go."
By spring of 2009, he walked into the BYU–Hawaii admissions office, sat down across from the Dean of Admissions at the time, Arapata Meha, and Asai Gilman, and expressed his interest in coming back for Fall semester later that year.
They gave him this assignment: write a letter explaining why the university should give him another chance. Thompson went straight home, wrote it, and was back at the office two hours later. The admissions team asked him to sit outside while they read his letter together. Then Gilman walked out and asked a question Thompson was not prepared for.
Would he be willing to start in the spring? "I was like, 'You mean spring as in a week or two?'" Thompson recalls. He said yes on the spot.
A New Perspective
Walking back onto the BYU–Hawaii campus in spring 2009 felt nothing like it had in 2001. The way professors taught and how the university engaged its students changed, especially its Pacific students. "When I came back the second time, my experience was much different," he says.
He credits the university's continued improvement today to the renewed focus President Kauwe brought, a deeper commitment to the cultures and communities BYU–Hawaii was built to serve.
"I think they've done a really great job finding professors who are committed not just to teaching but committed to having a more familial approach to being on campus," he says.
The Accidental English Major
Thompson was enrolled as a social work major. Professor Anna Christensen, who still teaches in BYU–Hawaii's English department today, ran a class that felt unlike anything Thompson had experienced in school. Thompson started showing up not because he had to but because he wanted to. "English, of all my classes, was the one I feared the most," he says. "But it was really her encouragement that instigated me switching majors."
Christensen saw something in him before he fully saw it in himself. He changed his major to English. And from that point on, his direction became clear. "I knew I wanted to pursue being a professor as a career," he says. "And so pretty much after that first class, I knew if I'm going to be a professor, I got to get a PhD. That kind of set the tone for the coming years in terms of the course of my family’s life from that point on."
Life Between Classes and Cribs
What followed was one of the most demanding and rewarding stretches of Thompson's life. With a two year old daughter already in tow, the Thompson’s welcomed a son, Tane, a month into the semester, then another daughter, Rhyze, in 2011 all while still students in TVA housing. "It presents different challenges. But I think it also helped my family to set a precedent in valuing education, discipline, hard work and all the things that it takes to go to school and get these degrees." He says.
Thompson attended classes during the day, worked at night, came home for breakfast with his family, and then got ready to do it all again. His wife would go to work when he came home. He would go to school when she returned.
Thompson also served in the student ward bishopric and on the high council. "I've always been one to believe that the more that you give to the Lord, no matter what your shortcomings are with any other aspect of your life, things are going to work out," he says. "As I've dedicated my time to the Lord, He's always made a way for the other parts of my life to flourish," he says.
Thompson finished his bachelor's degree in English in three years, went straight into his master's program, and then straight into his PhD. Eleven consecutive years of school. "I had a feeling that if I stopped, I would be done," he says. "If I took a break, I would just lose the passion and fall out of it." So, he kept going until he finished.
The Message Between Miracles
After completing his PhD, Thompson was in a season of waiting. He was picking up lecturing work where he could.
One afternoon while on shift at the Laie Hawaii Temple, his phone buzzed. The message was from a friend who taught at Kamehameha Schools. There was an opening in the English department. The problem was the application closed the very next day. Thompson stood there, then thought. "I'm in the temple," he says, "What other clearer answer do I need?'"
He went home that night and he and his wife pulled everything together. They worked through his application materials, wrote his letter of intent, and got it all submitted before the deadline. Thompson got the job.
Back to the Beginning
Thompson spent five years at Kamehameha Schools teaching English. He loved the work and loved his students.
When a Pacific Studies faculty position opened at BYU–Hawaii, he knew right away. He applied, got the position, and came back to the campus where his own story had started. "Basically the job of my dreams," he says.
He is now finishing his second year on faculty. "Everything about my teaching is centered around the Pacific and Pacific values," he says. "I try to do my best to incorporate that not just in a theoretical way, but in practice as well. We talk about it in class, but I also want students to understand these are real, living things, values and skills that they can embody."
Teaching Beyond the Syllabus
Thompson uses Talanoa in his classroom, a Pacific tradition of open dialogue, as the foundation of how learning happens in his courses. He selects readings from Pacific literature and poetry. He thinks carefully about every assignment and what it is he is asking students to contribute.
"Historically, college education is just a lot of lecture style," he says. "It's very subjected to the whims of the professor who leads the classroom. I try not to lead my classes that way."
"I don't position myself as someone who is there to spit knowledge and have the students soak it in," he says. "It's more like we're in this thing together."
It is the classroom he wished he had walked into in 2001. He is building it now for the students who need it the way he once did.
If You Think You Can
Thompson remembers what it felt like not knowing if he was going to get a second chance. His advice is personal, stemming from his own growth in his education.
He encourages students to treat their study time the way they treat church. Study block deserves the same level of commitment. Set the time, protect it, and do not negotiate with it.
Keep the Lord at the center. "As long as you keep the Lord first, the path will kind of make its way known to you," he says. "Keeping the Lord at the front will always be the best thing you can do."
And then there is the advice he would have wanted someone to say to him. "If you think you can, you can. If you don't think you can, you may not ever."
Norman Thompson came back to BYU–Hawaii after years away. Today he teaches on this campus every day, doing exactly the work he always knew he was meant to do.
