“Umbrellas! Come get a free umbrella!”
On the first of October’s cold, drizzly days, Fritz-Carl Morlant (’24), president of the BYU Student Association, stood outside the Wilkinson Student Center, offering umbrellas to soggy students.
The gesture, explains BYUSA vice president Gabriel J. S. Abello (’24), embodied their slogan: “Let’s Show the World ‘Y.’”
“ Christlike leadership . . . can help us do bet-ter and be better , whether that is doing better on a test or [planning better] service projects,” says Morlant, who instigated the first-ever Utah College Day of Service in 2023.
Morlant grew up helping his parents run an orphanage and educational nonprofit near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haiti’s 2010 earthquake brought them injury and food scarcity— hardships that forced Morlant to grow up quickly. He moved to the United States at age 14.
After coming to BYU he cofounded a startup that provides translation services for refugees. Following a summer as a software engineer at Goldman Sachs, Morlant served as the vice president of the BYU apiology club. “I felt like an outsider at BYU, coming from Haiti,” Morlant says. “I never thought I could do any of those things.”
Serving helps Morlant appreciate BYU’s mission “to assist individuals in their quest for perfection,” made possible by a “Savior [who] is able to see our potential,” he says.
People who’ve experienced hard times often carry themselves differently, says Abello. “The work they render is seeking for the best, not for self-gain. That’s what I see in him.”
