Jennifer Shiner is director of the Youth Philanthropy and Service program at the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The program promotes leadership and involvement by youth in the giving of time, money and talent to their community.

Alexander W. Astin is professor of Higher Education Emeritus at the University of California. He is a co-principal investigator of “Spirituality in Higher Education: A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose,” an ongoing study by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Read an Aug. 23, 2013 ABC News story about Camp Quest Northwest summer camp and the haven it provides for nonreligious “freethinkers” and atheists.

Mark Weldon Whitten is the author of The Myth of Christian America: What You Need to Know About the Separation of Church and State. He teaches religion and philosophy at Lone Star College – Montgomery in Texas. He says new research has shown that the founders had mixed opinions on the role of religion in the […]

The Hindu Heritage Summer Camp is a summer camp program designed to help Hindu youth reconcile their religion with what it means to be an American. It is an example of one of many Hindu camps across the country. The India Community Center in Rochester, N.Y., runs it. Padmanabh Kamath is the camp’s president.

Gerrald B. Silverman is CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp in New York City.

Bob Kobielush is president of the Christian Camp and Conference Association in Colorado Springs, which has regional contacts.

Peg Smith is chief executive officer of the American Camp Association, which includes Christian and Jewish as well as secular camps among its 7,000 members. The mission of her camp experiences is to enrich the lives of children and adults.  

Eugene C. Roehlkepartain is co-directors of the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence in Minneapolis. Roehlkepartain specializes in the role of religious institutions and spiritual development in young people’s development.