BYU Ambassadorial Insights Lecture Series Brings Foreign Ambassadors to Utah

By Erin Stewart
Freelance Writer
As BYU’s model United Nations team headed off to New York several years ago, they were prepared to represent Russia by the man who knew all the ins and outs of the country –- Russian Ambassador Yuli M. Vorontsov.

A former ambassador to the United Nations, Vorontsov clued BYU students in about U.S.-Russian relationships and answered questions about how U.S. decisions impacted Russia’s view of American politics.

“How many students really have the opportunity to hear first-hand from an ambassador?” says Erlend Peterson, associate international vice president at BYU. “There’s the educational opportunity of being in a lecture where you have a senior government representative to the United States speaking on the contemporary issues between the U.S. and that country.”

Such experiences lie at the heart of the BYU Ambassadorial Insights Lecture Series, which aims to bring country representatives to Utah to teach students, meet with state leaders and foster personal relationships between foreign countries and the state.

“We’re looking at countries that are of highest importance to the parties involved: to the state, to BYU, to businesses. So we’re looking for key players that we’re really following,” Peterson says.

The program started in 1996 as part of Utah’s Statehood Centennial Celebration and brought 42 ambassadors to Utah. More than 50 invitations were originally sent to countries that topped the list of Utah’s trade partners.

“As time went on, the ambassadors talked to each other. When they started having these experiences, they’d go back and share them and it would encourage the other ambassadors to accept,” Peterson says. “Utah has such an international environment. We could find a businessman who was either native to the country, or had lived there. That really impressed them that we were able to have people that had lived in their country and could speak their language as their host.”

At the end of 1996, BYU picked up the program on its own dime to keep the visitors coming. “We have a dual function. One is an educational mission and the other is building bridges for the state and the [LDS] church. It’s a natural fit,” notes Peterson.

Three ambassadors usually visit via the BYU program each semester; 150 representatives from 88 countries have now visited Utah since the program began. Each ambassador has brought a current topic to discuss with students, most of which are majoring in political science or international relations.

“We’re getting a higher number of our students that are going into international positions and to the State Department,” says Peterson, who adds that the Panamanian ambassador visited BYU through the lecture series and ended up helping one student find a position at UNISCO.

While the core purpose of the visit is to speak to students, Peterson says the trips are also a time to showcase Utah to foreign dignitaries and build world trade relationships.

On the two-day trips, ambassadors not only speak to students at BYU and the University of Utah, but also meet with the governor, tour local businesses, rub shoulders with Utahns originally from their countries and meet with the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

For example, Pierre Vimont, the French Ambassador, is in Utah this week. He visits BYU to speak on “French Diplomacy on the Eve of the European Presidency” today at 3 p.m. in the Hinckley Alumni Center. Vimont’s whirlwind tour of the Wasatch Front includes a stop at the Missionary Training Center to meet LDS missionaries heading to France, a visit to the Family History Library to look up ancestral names and a luncheon with members of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and World Trade Center Utah. Vimont will also meet with Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker, a stop he requested largely because of Delta Airline’s new non-stop flight to Paris, Peterson adds.

The visiting ambassadors are always impressed with the people they meet in Utah and how friendly they are. “They can’t believe how diverse we are here in terms of language and experience,” he says.

BYU’s Ambassador Lecture Series will also bring Paraguayan Ambassador James Spalding to speak on Paraguay-U.S. Relations this Thursday, March 27, at 11 a.m. in the Hinckley Alumni Center at BYU. The German ambassador is scheduled to speak at BYU on May 20.

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