As Americans United’s awesome team of summer interns heads back to college, they reflect on their summer of standing up for church-state separation and the rights of women, religious minorities, the LGBTQ community and many others.

For the past three weeks, the Religious Freedom Center, a branch of the Newseum, hosted “Religious Liberty, Religious Literacy and Civil Dialogue: A Summer Bootcamp For Interns.” AU intern Emily Midyette joined nearly 60 others participating in the event by attending lectures over three Friday mornings.

Rimpal Bajwa’s essay titled “A Rising Tide Of Religious Discrimination In America Threatens To Wash Away America’s Tradition Of Tolerance” is awarded first place in AU’s third annual student essay competition! Bajwa cites the Muslim Ban and the growing Islamophobia in American government as the biggest threats to religious freedom.