Aaron Shumway, Director of Religious Education, Faculty of Religious Education
"Nevertheless"
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Aaron Shumway was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, on June 8, 1971, while his father was on a two-year leave of absence from the Church College of Hawaii to study for a doctorate at the University of Virginia. The family moved back to Laie when Aaron was 1 year old. He grew up in Laie, running around the community barefoot with the other neighborhood children, buying candy at Goo’s Store, and playing Little League baseball at Laie Park. He attended Laie Elementary School and Kahuku High School up through ninth grade. The summer he turned 15 his family moved to Tonga where his parents had been called to oversee the Tonga Nuku’alofa Mission. He attended Tonga High School and Liahona High School, graduating from the latter in 1987. He received the David O. McKay scholarship to attend BYU–Hawaii but decided instead to attend one more year of high school in California to take subjects like U.S. History and U.S. Government that were not taught in Tonga. He graduated from Pinewood High School in Los Altos Hills, CA, in 1989.
Aaron attended BYU-Hawaii his freshman year and worked as a canoe guide at the Polynesian Cultural Center before being called to serve in the Taiwan Taichung Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Following his missionary service, Aaron returned to BYU-Hawaii where he met and fell in love with Eliza May Villanueva, a student from the Philippines. They married in the Laie Hawaii Temple in 1993. Aaron worked for another two years at the Polynesian Cultural Center, this time as a tour guide. Following their graduation from BYU-Hawaii, Aaron and May moved to Virginia where Aaron attended Washington & Lee University School of Law in Lexington. Upon graduation in 2000, Aaron began practicing business and real estate law at Ashford & Wriston LLLP in Honolulu. He and May settled in Ewa Beach and lived there for seven years before moving back to Laie in 2007.
In 2012, Aaron left the practice of law to take a position with Seminaries & Institutes for the Church. He taught religious education classes to college-aged young people, trained volunteer teachers who taught religion classes to high schoolers before school and worked with church leaders to strengthen young people in their faith. Beginning in 2013 he taught a “Fundamentals of Gospel Teaching” class at BYU-Hawaii as an adjunct professor in Religious Education. On August 1, 2021, Aaron began his service as the Director of Religious Education at BYU-Hawaii.
Aaron and May are the grateful parents of six children – Kenner (Brinley), Reyna (Sam), Regina, Rachel, Rhiannon, and Gabriel. Aaron enjoys spending time with his family at the beach, eating together, playing board games, or just lying on the grass looking at the stars. When his body can handle it, he also likes to play basketball.