Traveling through Europe, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and North America has been his “biggest form of education,” said Samuel Egbert, a graduate in hospitality and tourism management from Utah. Such travel experiences gave him skills for establishing peace, said Executive Director of the Center of Hospitality and Tourism David Preece. Preece said, “There probably is no better way to get to know the world around you and people and cultures that are different than yours than travel. Travel is the best way to see and experience firsthand other ways of living and thinking and even believing.” There are more than a billion people who travel every year, according to Preece, and Egbert is one of them. He said in the past eight to nine years he has been to 24 different countries. “Every ounce of money I get, I save and put it towards travel.” He added Morocco and Iceland to the list after graduating. Egbert said his urge to travel and experience the foreign and unknown has been with him as long as he can recall. “I remember back in second grade, instead of going out to recess a couple times a week, I would stay in and look at maps and read books about other countries. I was obsessed with foreign countries. I remember reading a book about Chinese people and how I couldn’t get over that their eyes looked different from others.” Preece said, “I think fundamentally what it comes down to for leisure travel is curiosity. Curious people are interested in travel.” Travel is more accessible than ever in the 21st Century because of globalization. “The ability to go places is so much easier,” said Egbert. “When my mom was my age, she had never been outside of Utah. It was expensive and the freeway system wasn’t good. They didn’t hear about other places so they didn’t care about other places. But nowadays, we hear about the whole world through the news and the internet.”The Need to see the Other Side Preece said, “One of the really important aspects of travel, in addition to becoming more familiar with other places and people, is that it can be a force for peace. As you travel and get to know other forms of governments and living, even if it is a place that may have a natural competition with your own country, it personalizes the place and it makes it less likely that people are going to fight with each other.” Benjamin Garcia, a BYUH alumnus from Mexico and Egbert’s former roommate, said, “You can learn much by reading. However, it is not the same when you experience it firsthand.” While living in Israel, Egbert found himself adopting the local pro-Jewish sentiment. “There are big stereotypes about that place, about safety and people,” he said. During his time at the BYU Jerusalem Center, he said, “One experience completely changed how I felt about the Muslims and humbled me. Some friends and I were down at the Kedron Valley and the Mount of Olives when a couple of kids came up picking olives. They came up to us because they wanted to practice their English.” Although he first thought they would either pickpocket them or ask for money, one of the boys invited them to their homes. Egbert thought it was a trap. But the boy insisted, saying, as Egbert remembered, “I would be very offended if you would not accompany me home and meet my parents.” With some fear, Egbert and his friends followed along and met the boy’s family. The parents didn’t speak any English, but the eldest son was brought in to translate. “The father greeted us with a kiss and they wanted to know more about us. We spent a couple of hours with them, and they eventually fed us dinner. They invited us every week after that. We even went for the mom’s birthday party. We got such a close relationship with that family!” Egbert said. When he and the family talked about the stereotypes of news broadcasts in Europe and the United States, Egbert remembered the mother rolling her eyes, saying, “We are good people. We are just trying to live happy lives.” As a parting gift, the eldest son, a jeweler, forged Egbert a ring. “He asked me what lessons I learned while in Jerusalem. I responded, ‘Courage from the Jews and dedication from the Muslims.’” The ring reads dedication in Arabic on one side and courage in Hebrew on the other. Garcia had a similar experience on a recent internship in Haiti. “You read about Haiti, and on Google they will show you earthquakes, poverty, famine and medical problems, but when you are there, you become one of them. The media doesn’t really portray what is happening. Yes it is bad, but I met people who, despite those problems, were the most genuine, grateful people I have ever met in my life. They were so tied to their families and religions. They didn’t have expensive cars. They slept on the floor, but they were grateful for what they had. That is something the media doesn’t tell you unless you are there by yourself.” Egbert said while traveling, “the biggest thing is following the golden rule. Other people are human too.” While on his internship at a hotel, Egbert said he had to deal with frustrated managers and employees and was able to listen, understand and communicate the conflict properly on common ground. “But that didn’t happen until I saw them as humans. I learned that as a tour guide [at the Polynesian Cultural Center.] In the future, I definitely want to apply that. In a hotel, you get so many different cultures.” The Education of DistanceThe way to BYUH was a long one for Egbert. “This is university No. 5 for me.” After hopping between Utah universities Snow College, Utah Valley University and BYU at Provo, he said he wanted to do something international and got accepted to the BYU Jerusalem Center. He stumbled into the HTM program of BYUH after going to the BYU Jerusalem Center. “I applied a month late,” Egbert recalled. “They told me it was already past the deadline, so I called again and said, ‘I really, really want to get into this program.’ They sent me an [acceptance] email the next day.” Egbert praised BYUH for its internationality. As a student in Laie, “You see that life works in other places for people with different values you can definitely learn from. It becomes an education.” He said he enjoys learning how Mormons from other countries live their faith in their respective environments. “The frustrating thing with Utah is so many people haven’t even left the state [so] they are so close-minded. There is only one way to live life. There is only one way to do things. Life would be so much more enriched and fulfilled if they’d know what is out there.” He continued, “I found the more time I spend with people from other cultures and the more I get out of the white American groups, the more I learn from them. I have a Mongolian friend who really has taught me what it means to be a loyal friend.” Preece said Doctrine and Covenants 88 teaches members of the church to learn of “things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms.” Preece said of this scripture, “I think you could reasonably translate that to an admonition to travel. God wants us to live peacefully in the earth, and if we want to live peacefully, we have to understand other people and other cultures and other places. When we do that, we do our part to contribute toward peace.”
Writer: Eric Hachenberger
