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News last week that seven Bowling Green State University students pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the alcohol-related hazing death of sophomore Stone Foltz at a Pi Kappa Alpha event will hopefully refocus America on the issue of underage drinking and begs the question, “Why is this still happening?” (Wilkinson, 2021). There are biological antecedents (adolescent…

Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed, and Chrissie Kahan, MS Ed Across the land, schools and summer camps have embraced a movement to better understand trauma and how it affects a child’s ability to learn and self-regulate their behavior. As that knowledge becomes available to counselors and instructors, camps have a greater ability to move from…

Rarely, it seems, does a day go by when we do not bear witness to the tragedies of boys – and men – behaving badly. From the famous (think Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and many more) to the infamous, such as Brock Turner and Owen Labrie, they collectively beg the question: how are we raising…

  With rolling spring breaks coming to a rest and kids rounding the turn into the final stretch of another (somewhat irregular) school year, summer planning is increasingly on their, and their parents’, minds. For a lucky bunch, a return to the well-known routines and relationships of summer camp will retake their position at the…

The Center for Adolescent Research and Education (CARE) and Total Brain, a mental health and brain performance self-monitoring and self-care platform, have released the results of a study of youth mental health and cognition. The Total Brain assessment was completed by more than 1,100 high school and college students, the results pointing to the effects of the Coronavirus on America’s…

Dear Camp Counselor: This summer you will join, figuratively, with more than 320,000 staff working at some 2,400 accredited camps serving more than 7.4 million children nationwide (ACA, 2013). And, suffice it to say, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Why? Because you will greatly influence young lives. And, in my opinion, there’s no…

With March upon us and Valentine’s Day, when we celebrate love of others, behind us, perhaps it makes sense to take note of a similarly powerful kind of love: leadership. When you love to lead, great accomplishment probably lies ahead. If nothing else, as the saying goes, “If you love what you do, you never…

My congratulatory handshake to colleague Jake Labovitz, who along with his wife, Kerry, owns Windsor Mountain Summer Camp in Windsor, New Hampshire, was commentary on a highly successful season. Jake’s reply? “Thanks, but you’re only as good as your last batch of muffins.” What Jake was referring to is called “recency” — most recent —…

As we round out National Mentoring Month, it’s a good time to take stock of the many positive outcomes of these important relationships, maybe especially those of the peer-to-peer variety. During my fifteen-plus years at the helm of, arguably, America’s largest youth peer-to-peer education, prevention, and activism organization, I saw firsthand the remarkable capacity young people have…

Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed, and Leann Mischel, PhDJanuary 2019 In a world filled with out-of-school time options for young adults, new research from the Center for Adolescent Research and Education (CARE) in collaboration with Coastal Carolina University points to the enduring, and positive, outcomes of leadership training for teens in both traditional and specialty…