UCLA

Santa Monica Daily Press

As appeared in Santa Monica Daily Press

March 17-18, 2007

Bigfoot won’t trouble these summer campers

By Irene Manahan

Summer camps were once synonymous with campfires, smores and cumbaya.  But kids today might be left to ponder the purpose of all those sleeping bags and tents.

Traditional summer camping, complete with all its familiar outdoors trappings, remains a summer standby, though some Santa Monica parents have found it to be, well, old school!  The camping experience is new and improved.  Nowadays, whether it’s theatre, surfing or intense gaming that piques their interests, there seems to be a summer camp for every kid.

This year, let them leave the bug spray and propane lanterns at home.

Modern camps often introduce their youth to creative and professional jobs.  Internal Drive, or iD Tech Camps, is the nation’s largest, most recommended summer computer camp.  The family-owned Silicon Valley-based company is in its ninth season.

“Like sports or religious camps, iD Tech is a summer technology camp,” said Karen Thurm Safran, VP of Marketing for iD Tech Camps.  “Students sign up for different courses to learn how to build robots, make 2D and 3D video games, or make Web sites or movies in just a week.”

Beat that, popsicle stick birdhouses!

Beginning in June, iD Tech Camps will offer week-long, day and overnight summer computer camps for more than 17,000 students, ages 7-17.  This summer, camps will bring life to 22 U.S. states in 50 prestigious universities throughout the country, including Brown, Stanford, Columbia and Georgetown.

Santa Monica residents can send their campers to UCLA, Pepperdine University and Cal Lutheran University.  Not too far from the bay, at UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz, iD Tech’s ‘Surf and Tech’ program allows campers to spend half their day surfing and the rest creating a video game or Web site.

“It’s a different way for them to articulate their creativity,” said Thurm Safran.

With only five students per staff member, students have the chance to use their own computers and other industry standard products.  The hands-on, project-based curriculum allows campers to complete a project by the end of their session.

“We’re different because students really take something away with them,” Safran said.  “It’s a lifelong learning experience.  After their session they may get hired by their parents or use their skills for the school.  In the future, our campers may have a side business or become successful entrepreneurs.”

iD Tech only uses the leading, cutting edge products in their courses.

Adventures in Comic Creation, a course for 7- to 10-year-olds teaches students about taking pictures, creating images, distorting faces and making comic books using Adobe Photoshop and Wacom templates.

RoboContenders is a popular program that teaches kids about robotics.  Using VEX, thousands of kids throughout the country create their own robots.  Thurm Safran said it takes just a couple of days to create it and throughout the week students compete to do different things with them.

“Every year we listen to the kids and parents to see what they want,” Safran said.  “Last year, we learned that there are some very serious gamers out there who want to learn more about actually making a game and who may even want to make it their profession.

“Kids are having fun and their self-esteem blossoms,” she continued.  “Parents are happy.  The staff is happy.  You can’t surpass kids learning in a fun, stimulating environment.”

Striking Close To Home

CREST (Child care – Recreation – Enrichment – Sports – Together) Camps at Virginia Avenue Park offer more interaction for summer campers through physical and creative activities.

At CRET, up to 120 campers participate in each specialty class or activity.  Parents and kids can choose from different themes that will challenge the campers’ minds and bodies.

With classes in both the morning and afternoon, counselors create the curriculum for their 8- to 14-year-old campers.  Participants don’t spend the night at this camp, but rather, they come from day to day during their session to enjoy activities during spring or summer.

CREST’s theater program ranges from musical to improve to comedy, according to Adrianna Torres, community services specialist.  The visual program offers themes like nature or recycled art that encourage campers to learn new skills and new ways to express themselves, while their sports experience, which is typically held at John Adams School, gives campers new fitness ideas with a variety of outdoor activities.

Campers also go on weekly local trips to hike or swim, or visit such sites as theme parks, museums, parks and sporting events.

“The kids love it,” Torres said.  “They especially love going on the trips and meeting kids from different schools.  Everyone comes from a different background.  It’s just really diverse.”

Rosie’s Girls is an impacted class designed specifically for girls in middle school.  Unlike CREST’s other programs, space is limited to just 40 girls each session.  Rosie’s Girls hopes to build self-esteem, leadership and physical confidence through non-traditional activities like carpentry, welding, mask-making, furniture design, kayaking and ropes courses.

CREST also offers “generous financial assistance for low to moderate income families,” said Rebecca Spring, program analyst for CREST.

Where kids were once just sent off into the woods, the words “summer camp” now beat a fun and constructive connotation.  The option are as varied as the imagination this time of year; the time to send the little rascals off.

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