Katherine Brown has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints her whole life, but today she’s the only person in her family who’s still practicing. Since starting college, the University of Minnesota graduate student learned about many different religions and viewpoints, made friends outside the church and married a man outside her faith.
“It’s a time when you have to decide, ‘Do I really believe this? Do I really believe that?’” Brown said. “You need to build up what you believe for yourself, not for anyone else.”
As a very small population on campus, many Mormon students find themselves branching out into new territory in college, where they are commonly misunderstood.