According to the Reuters News Agency a recent Gallup poll, hope and optimism can still/again be found among Americans. While it's not immediately clear why some areas hold more hope than others, the sum of the data still concludes: "Together, the data suggest there is likely a combination of factors that can create optimism about a community."
Topping the list of American optimism is the Provo-Orem area in Utah where 76% of the population agree that "Their area is becoming a better place to live." In 2010 Orem, Utah was named 5th and Provo, Utah was among the top 10 cities in which to raise a family by Forbes magazine.
Provo, Utah is home to the Brigham Young University (BYU), one of four universities/colleges run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). BYU is the largest religious university, the third largest private university in the United States and offers programs in liberal arts, engineering, agriculture, management and law.
"Education is the power to think clearly,
the power to act well in the world's work,
and the power to appreciate life."
-- Brigham Young
According to Fall, 2011 statistics, the average BYU student GPA was 3.82 but not only good grades make the average BYU student stand out. All students are required to adhere to a Code of Honor of academic honesty, dress and grooming standards, abstinence from drugs, alcohol and extramarital sex. This is not an optimistic honor code but it does serve to build a foundation for both hope and optimism.
Provo also houses an LDS Missionary Training Center (MTC), where each week approximately 475 missionaries enter to begin 3-12 weeks training, preparing to serve in one of the 345 missions around the world, taking their message of hope with them wherever they go. Every day of every week, 52,000 missionaries are sharing that same message of hope, first given by our Savior Jesus Christ. Many of these missionaries learn a foreign language while attending the MTC in preparation to serve a multitude of nationalities. The Provo MTC is one of 17 such centers around the world, teaching missionaries how to best share their message of faith and hope to all who will listen. Perhaps it's mostly a matter of choice if you wish to share in that same hope and optimism?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints currently has 136 temples around the world, one of them in Provo, Utah. While the Provo temple is not the biggest of LDS temples, it is the busiest of all the LDS temples. More people go through the Provo temple than any other LDS temple in the world. On October 1, 2011 President Thomas S Monson announced that a second LDS temple in Provo would be built, restoring what was once known as the Provo Tabernacle.
The many sources for the optimism found in the Provo-Orem area are far from exclusive but based on principles that can be replicated anywhere in the world. The Gallup poll states that "What works in some of the best performing cities could provide an example for other regions to follow." Most important, optimism is an attitude found in people not things and people travel, giving hope that the optimism found in Provo-Orem might one day come our way. The missionaries taught and trained in Provo, Utah also travel and when you meet some in your neighborhood you must remember that somewhere in their message is a source of hope and optimism.
Bibliography:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-usa-optimism-idUSBRE82C0ST20120313
http://www.lds.org/?lang=eng
http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/statistics/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provo,_Utah
http://home.byu.edu/home/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary_Training_Center
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
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