Over the past year, photographer Sarah Blesener has been visiting patriotic youth groups around the country, from teens being trained as border guards in Texas, ROTC chapters in New York, a patriotic church camp in Utah, and a young woman in Nebraska preparing to head to the military once she graduates from high school. Her aim has been to explore how different combinations of religion, love of country, and military-style training come together in the teaching of “new Americanism,” which Blesener defines as a renewed embrace of the centuries-old theme of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny.

One group that Blesener followed was the Hanover, Pennsylvania chapter of the Young Marines, a nonprofit group which has 300