Luminari Summer Camps for Teens

Luminari Summer Camps for Teens offers in-person and online weeklong camps where teens take part in cooking demonstrations, writing prompts, public speaking skill building, and activities that explore everyday and global diplomacy and leadership. Camp Delicious includes hands-on kitchen work such as knife skills, following a recipe, organizing a meal, cleaning up in a kitchen, utilizing a commercial kitchen, and a cooking competition or cookoff competition. Other activities across the camps include recording, producing, mixing, and mastering with top-of-the-line equipment, learning about body language and communicating effectively, and engaging with speakers and guest speakers.

• Ages: 12–18 years old
• Schedule: Weeklong camp sessions

In Camp Delicious, teens receive step-by-step instructions to de-scale, de-bone, and cut a whole fish, learn recipes for salmon, and get step-by-step instructions to make mac-n-cheese with an upscale twist. They also learn about growing, caring for, and cooking with fresh herbs, and how to start themed gardens such as a “pizza garden,” “tea garden,” and “salsa garden,” along with recipes using fresh herbs. The camp director for Camp Delicious is Chef Roger Levine, who is a culinary arts instructor and is well-respected in the culinary community, and instruction also comes from Chef Edwin Smith, Executive Chef at Monterey Bay Fish Grotto in Pittsburgh, PA, and from educator, environmentalist, and gardening enthusiast Will Tolliver Jr.

The “I Want to be an Ambassador!” camp includes public speaking, learning about body language, communicating effectively, and negotiation. Participants in this camp meet with diplomats and visit embassies, including meeting ambassadors from the People’s Republic of China, the Ukraine, and Mexico, and visiting the Ukraine, Chinese, and Mexican embassies, as well as visiting museums and restaurants in Washington, D.C. Testimonials describe teens gaining experience with communication and leadership skills, engaging with teachers and guest speakers who are passionate about their subjects, and forming friendships during the week of camp.

Luminari also offers FREE, fun, and innovative online camps for teens that provide short, dynamic educational experiences, activities, and skill builders similar to four in-person camps: I Want to be an Ambassador, Speak & Tell, Teen Writer, and Camp Delicious. These online offerings include cooking demonstrations and recipes that can be duplicated in a home kitchen, writing prompts and exercises to invigorate creative writing, and tips to increase confidence and master public speaking skills. Food in the program is described as having the power to connect, teach, and lift people up, and teens gain skills and confidence in the kitchen.

Luminari runs the Luminari Award, an annual scholarship competition open to students in grades 7–11 in southwestern Pennsylvania, which is anchored to the “I Want to be an Ambassador!” summer camp. Luminari Award recipients are selected through an annual essay competition that challenges young people to reflect on diplomacy, leadership, and the power of communication in a global society, and the award includes ESL Merit Scholar and Merit Scholar distinctions. Luminari is a registered 501C3 organization.

Last updated July 14, 2026.