Utahn awarded for volunteer work

Standing in a line four hours long just to get the essentials from a grocery store in Russia taught a young Emily Smoot there had to be so much more to life.

YouthLINC's 2009 Young Humanitarian has kept that experience at the back of her mind throughout the past 16 years and uses it to help countless families of refugees find their own way of life in a sometimes very foreign land.

"For an individual like that, it's like going from one hard life to another hard life," Smoot said. The now 23-year-old was recently awarded a $5,000 scholarship for her outstanding volunteer work in Utah and abroad. She is currently assisting at least 10 Bhutanese families in the Salt Lake area complete various day-to-day tasks like trips to the grocery store, filing paperwork for jobs and other resources and basic skills the rest of America sometimes takes for granted.

"It's educating them about a new culture and way of living," Smoot said. "Sometimes it's teaching them how to flush a toilet or how to sleep in a bed, just simple tasks we do every day without thinking."

Service isn't new to Smoot, who was raised in a home where everyone was "raised with a mentality of concern" and taught by the example of kind-hearted parents to do whatever they could, whenever they could and in any situation. Earlier this year, her father earned a lifetime humanitarian achievement award and Smoot said he is credited for giving his children "exposure" to the world and all the issues in it.

Although she was born in Hong Kong, lived in Russia as a young child and spent considerable time in Ecuador digging wells and teaching English, Smoot said "you don't need to travel to a foreign country to see the kind of inequality and poverty that exists in our world. It's right here in our own backyards."

Smoot works 30-40 hours each week with the Catholic Community Services assisting refugees to find new jobs, negotiate city streets, attend doctor's appointments and show up to school activities.

"She has taken on advanced advocate roles and tackles problems that are beyond the expectations of a volunteer," said Aden Batar, resettlement director at CCS.

With her award money, Smoot said she plans to finish her final semester at the University of Utah as well as participate in some volunteer work "at a real refugee camp" in Nepal. Working so much with people has caused her to see the world differently, cutting out many of the unnecessary things in life.

"We live better than the kings of old," she said. "Never has there been a time in history that people have had access to resources like we do here in America." That access, Smoot said, brings with it "tremendous responsibility" to help others.

Four Young Humanitarian finalists — Billy Ruter, of Ogden, Catherine Lake, of Sandy, Caleb Larkin, Layton, and Elham Nazzal, Holladay — will receive $1,000 from sponsors Chase, XMission and the Deseret News. YouthLINC is a nonprofit service organization.

At first Smoot didn't like the idea of "getting a payoff" for her volunteer work, but she said she hopes the recognition incites more people to get involved.

"There's a wound and you can either put a Band-Aid on it or you can go in at a deeper level and heal it," she said. Smoot hopes to continue working with refugees, giving them knowledge along with the promise of a better life wherever they end up living.

E-MAIL: wleonard@desnews.com