Aloha, Princeton, and the Impact of Sleepaway Camp
Across the country, young people are struggling with rising rates of anxiety, loneliness, and stress—pressures intensified by constant connection to phones and social media. Families, educators, and youth-serving organizations feel the urgency. What’s needed now are solutions that are not only hopeful, but proven.
The Aloha Foundation is proud to partner with two leading social science researchers—Professor Betsy Levy Paluck of Princeton University and Professor Donald P. Green of Columbia University—to rigorously study what we have long believed and witnessed firsthand: that a high-quality, screen-free, outdoor sleepaway camp experience can change a young person’s life.
This “medical-grade” randomized controlled trial will examine how sleepaway camp affects youth mental health, social-emotional development, personal agency, and sense of purpose. The focus will be on youth ages 10–13, including participants from underserved communities. The research will take place at two well-established, mission-driven organizations: the Aloha Foundation in Vermont and Kieve Wavus Education in Maine.
If findings confirm meaningful benefits, this study could build powerful evidence for expanding access to sleepaway camp as a scalable, effective intervention for youth well-being—helping more young people grow into resilient, connected, purpose-driven adults.
Why This Study Matters
Sleepaway camp—especially the kind that replaces screens with community, nature, and belonging—is widely understood to support healthy development. Yet despite decades of lived experience from families and camp professionals, there is limited rigorous research to justify large-scale investments from policymakers, philanthropists, and funding agencies.
This study aims to fill that gap with gold-standard evidence. The results could deepen national understanding of how immersive outdoor experiences strengthen well-being and could influence decisions about where to invest in youth mental health—especially for young people who face barriers to accessing these opportunities.
At Aloha, our mission is to inspire youth and families to lead lives of purpose and positive impact. We believe camp can be one of the most powerful environments for that growth. This research offers the opportunity to demonstrate that impact in a way that can open doors for more children nationwide.
Study Design
The study will recruit motivated youth ages 10–13 who are interested in attending sleepaway camp. Camp directors consistently see this age as an ideal entry point—when young people are ready for independence, open to new friendships, and eager for challenge and discovery.
A lottery for camperships will be held for public school students who wish to attend camp, have parental permission, and are appropriately screened through each camp’s standard enrollment process. The lottery will randomly assign youth to:
- Treatment group: 30 campers who attend sleepaway camp (at Aloha Foundation or Kieve Wavus Education)
- Control group: 60 participants who do not attend sleepaway camp that summer
This random assignment ensures an unbiased comparison between youth prepared to attend camp and those who, by chance, did not receive a campership.
Researchers will conduct multiple interviews with youth in both groups through the camp summer and the following school year. Parents will be interviewed as well. Interviewers will remain blind to participants’ group assignment to prevent bias in data collection and analysis. Participants will receive modest compensation for interviews to honor their time and support consistent involvement.
With additional funding, the study could grow in future years by increasing the number of campers, continuing follow-up surveys and interviews, and expanding to additional camps across other regions. This longer-term approach would help determine how camp shapes youth well-being not only in the moment, but over time.
Potential Impact
If the study finds meaningful benefits, it could pave the way for expanded access to sleepaway camp for youth who would not otherwise have the opportunity—starting in Maine and Vermont, and potentially scaling nationwide through partnerships with outdoor education programs and schools.
At a moment when young people need belonging, confidence, and hope, sleepaway camp may be one of the most practical and powerful tools we have. This research could help ensure that more children—especially those from underserved communities—can benefit from a transformational summer at camp.
Funding the Pilot Year
To launch the pilot year, the project requires $325,000 in term funding.
- $300,000 will provide 30 full camperships (15 at each camp) at $10,000 per camper.
Each campership covers full tuition, transportation, and essential gear and clothing so that every camper arrives ready to thrive.
The researchers are donating their time, so research costs are limited to necessary operational expenses such as travel, participant compensation, and trained Princeton interviewers to collect data from families. The project will undergo ethical review and monitoring by Princeton’s Institutional Review Board.
This is a rare opportunity to invest directly in two things at once:
- life-changing camp experiences for children, and
- evidence that can unlock broader systems-level support for youth mental health.
Meet the Team
Betsy Levy Paluck
Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology & Public Affairs at Princeton University and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow. Professor Paluck is internationally recognized for research on social norms and networks, with work that has shaped approaches to reducing bullying, discrimination, and conflict in settings from U.S. schools to post-conflict communities abroad.
Donald P. Green
J.W. Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and a leading expert in social science field experiments. Professor Green’s work has advanced understanding of persuasion, prejudice reduction, and mass media effects, and his methods have influenced research across psychology, economics, and education.
Aloha Foundation & Kieve Wavus Education Leadership
Senior leaders and trustees from both organizations are committed to helping young people build confidence and character through hands-on, outdoor, relationship-rich experiences guided by inspiring role models. Both camps welcome youth who may be entirely new to immersive environments and provide safe, supportive communities where children discover strengths they didn’t know they had.
Treby Williams
Retired Executive Vice President (COO) of Princeton University. Treby brings deep leadership experience and a long-standing commitment to addressing the youth mental health crisis. Over the past year, she convened and guided the development of this partnership to explore how sleepaway camp can support healthy youth development at scale.
Pam Jensen
Retired senior development professional with more than 30 years at Princeton University and former trustee of Kieve Wavus Education. Pam shares Treby’s concern for youth well-being and helped catalyze this project out of strong belief in the transformative power of sleepaway camp.