Refugee crises past and present have set the stage for Christopher Udall, a senior from Arizona graduating in international cultural studies with an emphasis in peacebuilding, to find his calling in the world.
Although seniors tend to feel a sense a fear about the future as graduation creeps closer, Udall seems to lack all aspects of it. He plans to go to Jordan and help refugees there by showing the conflict of the area through photojournalism. He drew parallels to the refugee crisis in Myanmar.
“The refugees in Myanmar are Muslims who have been persecuted by the Burmese. It’s like a whole genocide. All of my ancestors were religious refugees in the United States and half of them fled to Mexico. I have a passion for refugees who are refugees because of their religion, and Islam is so close to Mormonism,” said Udall.
“My family was in the church since Joseph Smith days. My great grandfather was a polygamist. My grandfather fled and was an illegal immigrant,” Udall said. “He always said when he was my age, he lived in a refrigerator box on a railroad track. He crossed the border from the United States to Mexico when he was 12. His mom died on the way so he ended up being by himself.”
Classmate Alex Graff, a junior majoring in ICS from Utah, added about refugees, “A lot of it has to do with their country of origin. You need some safe space to come back… There can be rules and laws passed for the refugees to stay for a certain amount of time. Ultimately, you want to provide an opportunity for them to return back home. We need to love them as people as much as we can and help them. If we kick them out, they are just going to be refugees in a different country.”
Udall has a firm vision of his life goals. He said, “I would like to have life focus on dealing with the refugee crisis because the United States has done a great job [messing] up the world.” He said he wants to help in whatever way is needed, whether it is through photography or something that requires further schooling. “So I plan to move over there to Jordan, find out what’s going on, find out where I can be of use, and then prepare myself for that.”
David Whippy, instructor of peacebuilding, said, “We all have these assumptions about how we can help people. The best thing to do is to talk to people. People who make decisions and also people on the ground who don’t make decisions.”
Whippy said most decisions in communities come from above and “are made with financial figures. Often those people up top don’t even go down to these communities. The best thing to do is to start talking to people and getting involved in volunteer work with people on the ground.”
When asked about his unshakable faith in the future, Udall said, “My father always taught me opportunities come to those who take it. So when an opportunity comes your way and you don’t take it, you can’t really expect more opportunities to come your way. Why would God bless you with more opportunities when He knows you are not going to take those that He has already given you? So I have always tried to take every opportunity, no matter what it was.”
Speaking of the difficulty of finding ground in a field as new as peacebuilding, Udall said, “I got a degree that certifies me for feeling good. A degree that says, you’ve got good intentions. But the more cultures you understand, the more like God you are, because God is probably the most intercultural dude out there.”
Whippy said a lot of people have a misconception of doing conflict resolution on the big scale. “You have to realize that there is a lot of hard work. Our peacebuilding work starts with our families and those small communities. Chris is that kind of guy. He’ll get on his bike, go to a place and say, ‘Hey, what can I do?’ He is a people person. He is multi-talented. That’s the way he can build his connections. We shouldn’t romanticize the view of peacebuilding.”
Whippy said Udall is a modern-day Ammon from the Book of Mormon, making a comparison of Udall’s endeavors with refugees. He said Ammon started his mission among the Lamanites with simple service, and Udall will do the same. Uploaded Feb. 19, 2016