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November 23rd, 2009 by: Pete
Hello iD Nation,
I just received this message through facebook. This is what it’s all about! We talk a lot about how our summer camps develop technical skills for the future. This is proof you don’t need to wait until college to start putting those skills into action. This is awesome stuff and certainly worthy of a “do something big” story. FYI, the letter says “Thanks to you, Pete…” but I cannot and will not take credit for our awesome tech camps. The success of our programs is dependent on the people on our team. Thanks to everyone who has made our summer camps in New Jersey, and our camps across the country, a success.
Enjoy!
-Pete
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Subject: Thanks to IDTech Camp, Co. hires 9 yr old website developers
Thanks to you, Pete!
This summer, fresh out of 3rd grade, our twins R. and S. (names withheld for security) learned enough in your website development/game development course to develop a website for a local company and got paid enough to pay for their tuition next summer! (Their goal!)
No, it was not a relative or friend, it was a real client! We told them if they wanted to take classes in game development, they would have to earn the $ to pay for it…and they did! We are attaching a picture of them with their clients and first paycheck. They also negotiated a website maintenance contract…ongoing $$$!
If I were you, I would advertise in our area of PA. Ours were the only kids at Rider College from our area, we found you only by accident, and there is a lot of interest in this type of class here. If you need any help promoting IDTech camp in this area, we would love to help you (for free). All parents should know about a camp their kids like so much they are willing to to learn enough to pay their own tuition!
Gratefully,
H. & L. (Parents’ names withheld for confidentiality)
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We’ve got our summer camps in PA at Carnegie Mellon University and Villanova University. Please check the availability of our courses at these locations. And, thanks for spreading the word. This is what it’s all about!
-Pete
November 23rd, 2009 | Tags: game development, summer camps in pa, website development
Posted in: CEO's Blog, Do Something Big
November 19th, 2009 by: Pete
A colleague of mine just sent me a link from the Canadian Press. Most people in the U.S. know we host our summer technology camps at the top universities in the country – Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, UCLA…
As we begin our expansion into Canada, it is interesting to get a lay of the land. Here’s a quick read on some of the top schools in Canada. We’ve launched iD Tech Camps at the University of Waterloo. We’ve also launched the iD Visual Arts Academy at McGill University.
The Canadian Press
Date: Thursday Oct. 8, 2009 5:55 PM ET
TORONTO — The prestigious Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings are out and 11 Canadian universities have made the Top 200 list.
Six Canadian universities have even advanced in their standings over the previous year’s list, with Montreal’s McGill University ranking the highest at number 18.
McGill, which is the only Canadian university in the top 20, was also one of the six Canadian institutions that advanced in its ranking this year over last year’s list.
The University of Toronto was the next highest on the list at number 29, improving from 41st spot last year, while the University of Alberta made a huge leap from 74th spot last year to number 59 this year.
The universities of Waterloo, Calgary and Western Ontario also moved up on the list, with Calgary soaring from 170 to 149.
The other Canadian schools that made the grade were UBC, the Universite de Montreal, Queen’s, McMaster and Simon Fraser.
So, rest assured, when you attend one of our summer programs in Canada, you’ll have the peace-of mind-in knowing that your are not only learning great technologies–but you are doing so at an institution of prominence not only in Canada, but also the rest of the world.
Have a great day!
-Pete
November 19th, 2009 | Tags: computer camps in canada, summer camps in canada, top universities in canada
Posted in: CEO's Blog, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Summer Camps
November 13th, 2009 by: Josh
At iD Tech Camps our students learn how to make video games. But today, I’m going to teach you how to make cookies, based on video games. Specifically, Pacman cookies. This post will be a step-by-step tutorial of how to make Pacman themed cookies.
First, do not attempt to cook or use the oven without an adult present!!!!! As I am no exception to this rule, I asked my adult friend Charlie to come supervise me.
Before getting your hands dirty, you are going to need the proper cookie cutters to make the shapes. Unfortunately, actual Pacman cookie cutters do not exist so you’ll need to improvise. There are two different shapes you need to create, the “ghost” shape and the “Pacman” shape.
For the ghost shape, simply find a tulip shaped cookie cutter and rotate it 180 degrees (or just turn it upside down). Charlie demonstrates:
For the Pacman shape you will start with a simple circle shape and then use any “V” shaped cookie cutter to subtract a portion of the dough. For those of you learning 3D modeling, this is very similar to “subtractive modeling” when working with polygons. I found that this “house” shape worked nicely:
Once you have the cookie cutters gathered you will need the following cooking supplies;
Sugar Cookies:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough
Icing:
1 egg white
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
Various food paste colors
Mini chocolate chips
Tools:
Plastic bags
Baking Tray
Scissors
Spray-Oil
Butter Knife
Or you can just cheat on the sugar cookies (like I did) and buy some pre-made dough. Once the dough is ready, lay it out and begin to make shapes;
I found that transferring the shapes from the cutting board to the baking tray was very difficult, so you are best off creating the shapes directly on the baking tray. Make sure to spray it down with oil first. I recommend removing the excess dough while the stencil is still applied, as demonstrated below.
And time for Pacman:
Well done! These are all the shapes we need for representing the characters of Pacman:
Now it is time to bake the cookies. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and cook for about 10-12 minutes, check frequently as cooking time can vary. While you are waiting try and partake in something productive, such as playing music:
Now the cookies are baked.
Next up is making the icing. Combine 1 egg white, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of corn syrup and powdered sugar and give a good stir.
Once the texture is consistent we are ready to add the color. There are 5 colors you’ll need for the characters. Between a set of “regular” and “neon” food coloring dyes, we had almost all the colors we needed, here is the breakdown:
Combine red and yellow to create orange, don’t forget to save some icing for the color white.
To mix the color in, we will spoon parts of the icing into plastic bags, about 2-3 heaping spoonfuls should do for each color, make sure to ration properly so you don’t run out. Once in the bag, add drops of food coloring and kneed the icing within the bag until the color is even. I found that bold colors such as red required many drops, whereas lighter ones like blue and pink required few.
Once your colors are ready, cut small (like REALLY small) holes in the corner of each bag:
Then drizzle the icing over the cookie. Go very light on the icing and use a butter knife or spoon to spread it out. Start off EXTREMELY light, I can’t stress this enough.
Next up we will have to make the eyes for the ghosts, but we need to let this icing dry first. Put a few dabs of icing on the plate and test with your finger as a reference for whether or not the cookie icing is dry. While waiting, you should probably exercise a bit as you are about to eat some cookies:
Now that the icing is dry it is time for the eyes. The whites of the eyes will simply be some left-over uncolored icing (make sure to save some) and the pupils will be chocolate chips. You’ll want to offset the position of the “whites of the eye” and compliment them by where you position the chocolate chips. Remember go light on the icing, when you press down the chocolate chip, you will spread out the white icing:
All done! Have a little fun with it! We made a maze with the leftover icing!
BIG UPS to Helvetica from http://www.snackordie.com for the original recipe. Tune in next week for Ms. Pac-Man Pizza!!!!!!
November 13th, 2009 | Tags: cookie, pacman, recipe
Posted in: iD Tech Bloggers
November 9th, 2009 by: Josh
Anyone knows that at iD Tech Camps our camp staff is all about having fun, and our corporate staff is no exception! Every year Halloween is a big event in our main office and throughout our nationwide satellite offices. Here are some highlights of our costumes:
It’s me as the Big Bad Wolf!
The Ingram-Cauchi family (our founders!) as Little Bo Peep and her Flock of Sheep
Patrick from Client Services as a Karate Master!
Joy and her family as a Star Wars menagerie including Luke (in-Jedi-training), Yoda, Princess Leia and an adorable Jawa
Jimmy from the Web Dept. as Fred Flintstone!
Dwayne from Client Services as “Gumdrop Head”!
Brother-sister duo Kate from Human Resourses and Dylan from Field Support as 50′s Girl and Roger Rabbit
Nova from Administrative Services as a Peacock!
And I just can’t get enough of myself!
That does it for Halloween ’09. I can’t wait for next year!
November 9th, 2009 | Tags: Halloween, Star Wars
Posted in: iD Tech Bloggers
November 2nd, 2009 by: Pete
Dear iD Nation,
I want to personally welcome you to the iD Family. To our returning families, I know you’ve been looking forward to our 2010 launch. Yesterday we started taking registrations at 8 AM, and the phones were ringing busily all day. That’s a good sign! We had a banner year in 2009, so we think 2010 will be even better.
An obvious question many families are asking is “What’s New?” I am going to cut and paste some content from our “What’s New” page on our website:
- Digital Catalog – Our summer camp catalog is now available.
- Registration is now live! – Register with our latest promotion and save $100 by 12-15-09. And when you refer-a-friend, you now save $50 and your friend does too!
- New Locations – New prestigious university locations including the campuses of Harvard, Princeton, Adelphi, Bentley, the expansion of our Teen Academies nationally, and our expansion into Canada.
- New Courses at iD Tech Camps – Awesome new courses include iPhone® App Development, Digital Photography & Photoshop®, RPG Game Design & Graphic Arts Hybrid, Game Modding with titles including Warcraft® III, Starcraft®, Half-Life® 2 and more. Go to courses and programs.
- Expansion of our Teen Academies – The iD Programming Academy has expanded to MIT. The intensive game development program, the iD Gaming Academy has expanded to Chicago and Seattle. We’ve also launched the new iD Visual Arts Academy. The Teen Academies are for ages 13-18.
- iD 365 – Endless Summer – Upon registration at iD, you now get access to our monthly FREE online workshops, taught year round by live instructors. More.
- Receive Continuing Education Units from Villanova University or Stanford Continuing Studies. Details.
- The iD Guarantee – We average 6 students per instructor at iD Tech Camps. If we exceed an 8:1 ratio, you get to return for a free week of camp at equal value. It’s that simple! It’s iD quality. And it’s only at iD! Note: Not valid for Teen Academies. Get details.
- New Games – Hot new commercial gaming titles used in our gaming courses, gaming tournaments and Ultimate Gaming Weekends.
- Learn Valuable “Life Skills” – We’re building new life skills content for this year. The curriculum will round out the summer experience. See the benefits of iD. We’ve also got fun new camp activities for students.
- Technology Isn’t Just for Boys – We’ve created more courses and modules that are be appealing to girls including Web Design & Flash® Animation, Graphic Design, Video Editing & Special Effects, Digital Photography & Photoshop and the new teen-only iD Visual Arts Academy.
- Go Green – We continue our iD Greening initiative by promoting carpooling, reducing travel and energy consumption and establishing new outreach partnerships in the communities we serve.
- The Basement. For Students Only! – Find out what the buzz is about. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Blogs. Student Project Uploads. Camp Photos. iD 365. And more. Head down to the The Basement!
OK, I’m back. As you can see, we’ve been a bit busy preparing for this launch. You might expect that we kick back and take a few months off in the Fall, but nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve got the hardest working crew in the summer camp industry. We’ve had teams working round the clock to pull all the pieces together…working with new locations (including the expansion of our Teen Academies and a push into Canada), developing curriculum, developing back-end applications, signing contracts, overhauling our website, developing content, designing our camp brochure, working with new corporate partners, creating new courses, and so much more.
The launch is a big, big, team effort, and it is a sign of our company’s organization and dedication to providing the very best.
On behalf of all our employees, we want to welcome you to the new camp season. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to look around our website. And, as always, we’re just a phone call away.
Best,
Pete Ingram-Cauchi
CEO, iD Tech Camps
November 2nd, 2009 | Tags: 2010 summer camp, computer camps, Summer Camps
Posted in: CEO's Blog, Summer Camps
