When Tyler Shumway was a student at Brigham Young University, he admired the casual confidence of his economics professor Richard Butler, who would walk up and down the department hallway in his socks, deep in thought. But the lack of shoes wasn’t the only aspect about his former professor that intrigued Shumway—Butler contributed to more than 200 research papers in his career, and Shumway decided that a career of continual learning would be a career of continual rewards.
So after graduating from BYU, Shumway jumped into research by earning a PhD in business from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His love for learning cemented a career in academia, and he began teaching at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
During the 25 years he was in Michigan, Shumway sometimes found opportunities to showcase his faith alongside his faculty status through a conveniently placed Book of Mormon in his office. He would answer the occasional student question about the gospel, but otherwise, faith didn’t often intertwine with academia. “I feel like there’s this view in the world that anybody who’s smart is going to be an atheist,” Shumway explains. “But I’m a reasonably smart person and very much a person of faith.”
Coming to the BYU Marriott School of Business to teach finance provided a stark contrast. “It’s nice to be in a place where we do research and care about academic pursuits but also take the gospel seriously,” says Shumway. “I believe in the mission of BYU. That’s a big part of why I came back.”
Shumway explains that the combination of faith and scholarship allows him to form deeper relationships with his students. “I talk to them as they’re making the kinds of important life decisions that all students have to make,” he says. “Here, we care about people’s spiritual growth as well as their professional goals. It’s always nice to feel like I’m contributing to students’ lives.”
Shumway believes that his capacity to help students is enhanced as he continues to learn. “I am a strong believer that there is a lot of synergy between doing good research and teaching,” says Shumway. “Research benefits students because it keeps us aware of what is going on in our fields and it keeps us thinking about new things.”
While Shumway has learned from his academic research over his career, he’s also realized that as a professor, he doesn’t have a monopoly on sharing new information. “I learn a lot from students,” he says. “They’re interesting, engaged people, which makes teaching fun.”
That’s why seeing crowded Walmart aisles in September as students come back to Provo keeps Shumway energized. “Being a professor is never boring,” he says. “There’s always new stuff to learn.”
For Shumway, learning is what makes life fulfilling. “Some people don’t like to study textbooks, but they’re happy to learn how to cook a new food or repair something,” he says. “I think part of the purpose of life is to learn, so it is inherently rewarding."