Before launching into a month of all things journalism, Caitlin Perrone attended a weeklong church camp where she prayed and studied the Bible with her youth group.
           
Perrone, a non-denominational Christian, worried that she wouldn’t have time to continue her religious practices during the five-week journalism program at the National High School Institute. So she brought two Bibles, three booklets from church camp and a Christian fiction book with her – just in case.

“Good thing I did,” Perrone said, after seeing her first weekly schedule.

But cherubs like Perrone, of Warsaw, Ind., found time to attend religious services, pray and practice religion.
             

“I was surprised I was able to make time to go to church,” Perrone said. “I thought we would have an absolutely crammed schedule.”        

Sometimes making free time required careful planning, Ellery Kauvar said. Because Kauvar is Jewish, his Sabbath falls on Friday evenings and Saturdays, times that many cherubs used to complete assignments. Kauvar of Scarsdale, N.Y. said he couldn’t use electricity or write during the Sabbath, so he had to complete his stories earlier in the week.

Kauvar said he also prayed three times a day and followed the Ten Commandments.

“I never stole or murdered. There was no adultery,” he said.

Other cherubs saw Sunday as their day of rest.

Jasmine Atwell, Marielle Collins and Perrone attended church together at the First Presbyterian Church of Evanston on two Sundays.

Atwell, of Boynton Beach, Fla., woke up at 6 a.m. on Sundays to work on assignments and departed for church at 9:40 a.m. She took advantage of free time to work on her assignments, before or after church. Only once did Atwell find a timing conflict with a journalism assignment and religious service.

On one Sunday, Atwell took her story with her to the service and edited right up until the sermon started, she said. Otherwise, Atwell said church was a sanctuary where she could reflect, listen and be inspired.

“During the week I was more stressed, so I felt peaceful [at the church],” Atwell said.

Cherubs agreed that their religion provided an outlet for rest in a busy schedule of rotating rewrites, reporting and mandatory fun. Kauvar, for example, said that praying was like a connection to home for him.

“I knew that my friends were doing the same thing,” he said.

“[Praying] is really calming and comforting,” Perrone said. “I haven’t been anxious, stressed or homesick once since I’ve been here.”

Even though cherubs worshipped with strangers, Atwell said she was confortable.

“We all have the common goal of worshipping God,” Atwell said. “As long as we have that, I didn’t mind being in a different church.”

For Perrone, the change in location meant a change in experience. At home, Perrone attends three religious services Sunday morning, youth group Sunday evening and Bible study on Wednesday. Her church services in Warsaw are usually packed with hundreds of people, but the First Presbyterian Church was tiny in comparison, Perrone said.

“It was 100 people at most, and it wasn’t even packed full,” she said.

Despite the differences, Perrone was glad to attend a church service other than her usual one.

“It’s a nice change to hear how other churches are doing,” she said.