Michael Angelo Busania earned an Interdisciplinary Studies degree in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from BYU–Hawaii in 2021. Today, he leads Seris Food Manufacturing, a growing company that reaches shelves across the Philippines and hires members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His journey is guided by faith, service, and a firm belief that the best place to build is the place you call home.
A Test of Possibility
Busania was serving his Philippines Cagayan de Oro mission when his mother started researching universities on his behalf. Back home in the Philippines, she had been asking around about a university in Hawaii, talking to families whose relatives had gone there in the 1990s and 2000s.
"It was actually my mom," he says. "She was the one who pushed me to apply for BYU–Hawaii."
He scheduled a day with his companion and walked into the mission office, where a CES coordinator was giving the entrance exam.
"I was just kind of intrigued and interested in what BYU–Hawaii was," he says. "I wanted to learn more."
Another coordinator sat down and explained that the scholarship, tuition, and housing were covered, so long as he was willing to work part-time. Until that moment, a school in the United States had felt like someone else's life.
"It was kind of like a light bulb for me," he says.
Waiting for the World
He arrived on campus in 2018 and met his future wife the same year. They married in 2020, flying home to the Philippines so both families could attend the wedding. It was the right decision, made at the worst possible time. COVID closed the borders behind them, and they spent a full year unable to return to BYU–Hawaii.
Home meant lockdown; permits required just to step outside.
"It was a little bit depressing, because we couldn't do anything else," he says.
So, they held onto the one thing still moving: school. Classes went online, and they joined from wherever they could find a signal, sometimes even his wife's family farmhouse.
"We just had to focus on our classes, our online meetings, and try to be with our families," he says.
In January 2021, they finally returned for their last year on campus. After graduation, their path was not straightforward. His wife, Rina Jornacion-Busania, completed her studies first, and together they relocated to Layton, Utah. During the 18 months they spent there, he completed his remaining coursework through BYU–Idaho online. Once he finished, he transferred his credits back to BYU–Hawaii to receive his diploma.
A Recipe for Returning Home
Now back in the Philippines, Busania was sorting out what came next. His mother's baking business, started in 2018, was ready for its next chapter. And he had already felt where he was headed, months before, while he was still in Utah.
"I remember a distinct feeling at that time, months before we went back home, to take over the business," he says. The family landed in the Philippines that December. He took the reins in January 2024.
He started with what his mother had made and imagined it bigger. Under him, the business grew into a food manufacturing operation, Seris Food Manufacturing, built around products with a long shelf life.
He led with the condiments Filipinos keep within arm's reach at every meal: spiced vinegars, chili oil, hot sauce, and white vinegar.
"In the Philippines, we love sauces," he says. "You partner it with every food."
A beverage concentrate called citrus honey ginger tea, which includes only fruit — no green or black tea — became one of their bestsellers. The whole thing runs out of a plant beside his parents' house, on the same family ground where it started.
The Taste of Growth
The products now travel across the country. More than 20 partners, resellers, distributors, and direct-to-consumer channels carry them from the north to the south, onto shelves in pasalubong gift centers and grocery stores. Two conglomerates are currently in talks with Busania over the beverage concentrate; one wants it in roughly 31 establishments, including major grocery chains .
Busania is the first to say he didn't do it alone. A partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry has put the business in front of buyers at major trade fairs, where the biggest conversations began. "We are partnered with government agencies for us to scale faster," he says. He is honest about the odds, too.
"They always say the failure rate of startups is high," he says. "We're in our second year, so we're actually doing okay. We're doing great."
The Business of Belonging
For all the growth, the achievement he’s most proud of is supporting his Church.
"One of the big accomplishments I think that we had was when we employed members of our ward here," he says. The company hires members of the Church in their area first so that they can provide for their families.
"We want our members here to be employed first and have work," he says, "so they can provide for their families and for themselves."
They also have a culture where the staff attend and participate inside the temple once a quarter. And it has come full circle — two members of his staff have since gone to BYU–Hawaii, walking the same road he once did, now in their first semester on the campus that started it all.
Friends Before Favors
He credits BYU–Hawaii with preparing him for all of it, naming several professors, especially Paul Wilson.
"Professors here helped me develop myself and develop my critical thinking skills," he says. "My experiences at BYU–Hawaii prepared us for this moment. I don't think I would have this if I chose to go to my local university."
His advice to students is the lesson he wishes he'd learned earlier: connection is not a transaction.
"Building connection doesn't mean waiting for the right time to ask for a favor," he says. "It means you be friends with them, and in the future you might partner with them."
It has paid off in ways he never planned. When he began sourcing materials from overseas, it was friends from his BYU–Hawaii years who helped him find his footing.
"I wish I had learned this even when I was a freshman," he says, "not just to make connections, but to sustain that connection throughout your journey and even after your time in school."
Genuine Gold, Brought Home
What Busania loves about BYU–Hawaii is the balance it asks of you.
"You get your education, you learn from your major, and at the same time you don't forget your spiritual side," he says.
He hopes more Filipino graduates will carry that balance back to the communities that need it. He reaches for President McKay's phrase to describe them: the Philippines needs "Genuine Gold."
"I hope the Filipinos get to realize that they can get their education and be of service when they go back," he says.
