“Love Thy Neighbor: The Role of Faith in Volunteer Motivation,” a study by the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, found a very high correlation between religiosity and volunteer service.

Michelle Nunn is president and CEO of the Points of Light Institute, which mobilizes millions of volunteers to help solve social problems in thousands of communities.

James Youniss is Wylma R. & James R. Curtin Professor of Psychology at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Youniss has studied teens’ engagement in community service and politics.

Julie Chavez Rodriguez is is the Associate Director of Latino Affairs and Immigration for the Office of Public Engagement at the White House. She is also programs director at the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization that works to engage youth to live out the values of her grandfather, Cesar E. Chavez. A lifelong volunteer, […]

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.