While most members of the Class of 1998 will return to the College this fall to face crowded housing conditions and long wait lists for classes, freshmen Jason Kemp and Morgan McKeown will be in the Philippines and Argentina.
But Kemp and McKeown will not be on vacation. Rather, these two men will be on their Mormon missions. Mormon men, typically at around 20 years old, spend three years in another country on a mission.
"We'll be performing a lot of service tasks on these missions," Kemp said. "A lot of door-to-door service, asking people if they want to learn more about Jesus Christ and if they say yes, we can teach them what we know."
"I'm going because of what I believe in, to help people and to share what I have," Kemp said.
McKeown, who is going to Buenos Aires, Argentina, said he believes it is his duty to go on a mission.
"In church, they encourage and stress you to go, but I'm going because I believe in what I'm doing," he said.
Kemp, who leaves for the Philippines this summer, said during the mission, "we switch around from place to place -- we won't live in the same place longer than a few months. We'll be living in whatever is given to us -- in the Philippines I might be living in a grass hut."
McKeown said Mormons are not sent on their missions alone.
"Each person has a mission companion who is the same age as them," McKeown said. "Within every mission, there is a mission president who is older ... and helps run the program."
Kemp and McKeown, both from Utah, will not return from their missions until 1998, the year they were supposed to graduate from the College.
"I'll definitely miss Dartmouth," Kemp said. "A lot of my friends on the basketball team, from my dorm will be graduated, which will be tough to deal with," he said.
" But, in another sense, I'll get to meet new people," he said. "I'll miss Dartmouth, yes, but not enough to keep me from going."
