May 2008
“Stimulating Imaginations and Learning This Summer at Sacred Hear University”
“No matter what course students take, the focus is always on fun and experimentation with new technology while articulating oneself in new and creative ways.”
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As appeared in Packet Magazine
June 2007
Technically Speaking
Camps for today’s whiz-kids
By Kristin Boyd
INSTEAD of sleeping past noon or lounging by the pool, 13-year-old James Nitsch has spent his past two summers at iD Tech Camp.
There, he says, trained instructors taught him how to use computer codes like Lego blocks, stacking one on top of another to create cool video games.
His first game featured Knuckles, an animated character that, with just a few button pushes, could punch through walls, jump onto helicopters, dodge meteors and pummel enemies.
“The game wasn’t that great. It had some glitches, but it was still pretty impressive to look at and say I actually made that,” says James, a Princeton resident who dreams of becoming a game designer.
For critics who contend video games and the Internet are a waste of time, iD Tech Camp is proving them wrong. With programs such as 3-D game design and comic creation, the computer camp gives children and teens an opportunity to explore their tech interests, and in some cases, helps them prepare for potential careers.
“We have all types of kids coming to camp – those who are really interested in technology and those who just want to try something new,” says Karen Thurm Safran, iD Tech Camp’s vice president of marketing. “It’s more than sitting in front of the computer. You’re learning while you’re having fun.”
Now in its ninth season, iD Tech Camp is gaining popularity, largely because it fills a niche previously overlooked, Ms. Thurm Safran says. “It’s hands-on learning as opposed to lecturing. Kids learn about video games by creating video games,” she says.
Created as part of a business school thesis by Alexa Ingram- Cauchi, then a student at the University of Washington, iD Tech Camps are now offered nationwide at 50 colleges and universities, including Rider University in Lawrenceville, Seton Hall University in South Orange and Villanova University in Villanova, PA. Princeton University has also previously hosted camps.
Students aged 7 to 17 can enroll in weeklong courses, including digital video production, game modding (slang for modifying hardware or software) and special F/X editing. During their chosen course, students work on projects, such as building robots, creating digital comic books and designing Web sites with Flash animation.
More than 17,500 students will attend iD Tech Camps this summer, Ms. Thurm Safran says. Some students attend only during the day; others stay overnight and sleep in the dormitories.
“It’s really fun. It’s way more than just computer camp,” Ms. Thurm Safran says. “Their self esteem can’t help but blossom because they take these skills and really apply them to their lives. The types of products they use are just phenomenal, and the outcome is outstanding.”
Students, who receive computers to use during the camp, are taught industry-standard programs, including Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash. Students also have access to various Microsoft, Apple, Canon, HP, nVIDIA and Western Digital products.
“Kids come in with some interest in computers and video games, but we’re actually teaching them pretty advanced stuff. They receive college-type instruction in web and design,” says Jon Olshefski, a director and instructor at Princeton University’s iD Tech Camp last summer.
Mr. Olshefski, a Philadelphiabased Web and graphic designer, says the camps are an excellent training ground for the gamers of tomorrow. “We try to encourage kids to do what they want to do,” he says. “We try to bring those two worlds, interest and learning, together. It’s an extra bonus if kids are really interested because they can get really inspired.”
While the courses are structured, instructors, mostly college students and professionals, are flexible. They accommodate students who “just want to play video games all day, and those kids who are really serious and want to pursue this in college,” Mr. Olshefski says.
Each day, the courses are split into three sections: morning, which includes four hours of hands-on instruction and project work; a lunch break; and afternoon, which includes free time.
During free time, students can socialize, continue working on their projects or participate in instructor- led activities, such as karaoke, ultimate Frisbee or gaming competitions.
“Although camp is fun, and you don’t want it to end, after staring at the computer screen for four straight hours, you want to go outside and breathe some fresh air,” says James.
Like many iD Tech Camp students, James became interested in gaming as a child after receiving a Nintendo 64 system for Christmas. “I’ve tried every game since,” he says. “They were kind of an escape from reality. It was kind of like watching a movie, but you’re actually playing.”
Austin Chalk of Pennington has played video games since he was 3. Now 15, he says attending Princeton’s iD Tech Camp last summer has cemented his desire to become a lead designer for Square Enix or Bethesda Softworks, both major gaming companies.
“I thought it was really neat to learn how to make video games,” he says. “iD Tech Camp gave me an insight into what kind of knowledge I need to really make it in this industry.”
This year, Austin will “up” his game. He enrolled in the iD Gaming Academy at Villanova University, a three-week course that immerses teens in video game design and development. “I thought I’d take it one more step so I can learn more,” he says.
Paul Richardson, 18, of Lawrenceville, attended the iD Gaming Academy offered at University of California, Berkeley, last summer. There, he completed creation of a three-part video game, in which a player must stop zombies from overtaking Mercer County.
“It’s definitely worth the money,” he says. “It was great because I definitely didn’t have the tools or the knowledge to create a video game at home, and they taught me all of that.
The academy, Paul adds, also gave him confidence to treat his longtime interest as a lucrative career option rather than a silly pipe dream.
A graduating senior at Lawrence High School, he has since taken computer science courses at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor. In the fall, he’ll attend the school full time, majoring in computer science and minoring in video game creation. After two years, he’d like to transfer to U.C. Berkeley.
As for young James, he’s excited about returning to iD Tech Camp for a third summer because as his skills improve, he says, so will Knuckles.
“iD Tech is really great, and it’s so much fun,” he says. “It’s helping me learn about video games, and that’s what I want to do. I want to be a game designer. That’s definitely my passion.”
Courses are still available for the 2007 iD Tech camps at Rider University and Seton Hall University. Week-long camps cost $729 for day students and $1,129 for overnight students. For more information, call (888) 709-8324 or visit internaldrive.com .
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As appeared in San Francisco Chronicle
April 29, 2007
By Delfin Vigil
School is almost out. Everything on television is getting, like, totally boring. And marshmallow prices are starting to skyrocket.
All that can only mean one thing: Summer camp season is upon us.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean summer camp itself can be defined as one thing. These days, finding the right summer camp for you and your kid can be like trying to agree on a box of cereal.
Let’s see: We’ve got sports camp, space camp, computer camp, diet camp, magic camp, rock star camp, art camp, travel camp, Spanish camp, Christian camp. There’s even Gandhi Camp in (surprise!) West Marin County.
Good grief! Whatever happened to good ol’ summer camp, Charlie Brown?
Of the approximate 11 million campers across the country, 10 million are children and 1 million are adults, according to Allison MacMunn, a public relations specialist with the American Camp Association. The nearly 100-year-old nonprofit group keeps tabs on camps of all kinds. One of the clearest changes in camp culture noted by the association is a 215 percent increase in family, adult and senior camps in the past 15 years.
More than likely, your kid won’t get as excited about a weekend bingo binge as Grandma will. And for many, getting a break from parents or kids can be the inspiration for seeking out a camp.
“The sense of leaving your neighborhood and going somewhere different where you have to learn new things and become part of another community is the whole point of going to a summer camp,” says Ann Woods, who opened Roughing It Day Camp with her husband, Hobie, in Lafayette 35 years ago.
The Woodses have watched the camp grow from about a dozen kids from just down the street to more than 200 from across the Bay Area last summer. With horseback riding, swimming and canoeing, Roughing It is a traditional and all-outdoor coed day camp headquartered at the Lafayette Reservoir.
The Woodses remember a time when other kids would be fishing and camping by themselves at the reservoir. Those days are gone.
“Nowadays, there are a lot more of what we call helicopter parents. They’re hovering over their kids trying to make everything perfect. But kids don’t learn from only having successes,” says Ann Woods, who remembers when parents would drop their kids off then head for tennis and two-martini lunches before even thinking of checking in.
While the Woodses try to emphasize a child’s need to work on being independent, they also embrace the technology to allow parents to keep in communication. That means photos that usually didn’t show up until Christmas are on the Web site by the end of the week. Trail guides use Nextel walkie-talkies, and the emergency cell phone ringers are never on silent.
It also means that the cool stoner dude who was a counselor at your summer camp back in the ’70s probably wouldn’t be able to get the same gig today. That is, at an accredited camp.
“Parents often assume that all summer camps are licensed to run their business and are monitored for safety in some way,” says David Hughes, who, with his brother Jeremy, started Camp Doodles in Mill Valley six years ago after they became frustrated as counselors dealing with the safety shortcomings at another public camp operation. “I know from personal experience if there is no system, if no one is watching, then the attitude is ‘Who cares?’ ”
The owners of Camp Doodles swear they care.
To prove it, they (along with Roughing It and all the other camps mentioned in this story) are among only 25 percent of American summer camps that voluntarily applied for and passed the camp association’s rigid accreditation process.
In order to be licensed by the association, each camp must meet as many as 300 health and safety standards that go “way above and beyond most state regulations,” MacMunn says.
“That means we have to make sure fingerprints of all employees are verified for background checks, food is stored at proper temperatures, bathroom facilities are inspected,” says Hughes, whose field-trip safety checklist for Camp Doodles is long enough to rival “War and Peace.” “You name it, we’ll have thought of it. And we have a license to prove it.”
Although the accreditation percentage is still relatively low, the level of professionalism in camps is on the rise, according to Don Whipple, who runs Camp Unique out of Portola Valley.
“It used to be, if you were a kid and wanted to have fun, you ran home from school, dropped your books, and went out and played,” says Whipple, who also runs rustic overnight camps in the Lake Tahoe area as well as day play in the South Bay. “But now there’s more of a fear factor. Who else will be there? Is the park safe? Can I reach my child?”
Camps are increasingly aware that in order to stay in business and build a good reputation, they have to answer those questions for parents quickly. To comply, most accredited camps hire counselors who have backgrounds in children’s education or psychology and who really want to be there for the right reasons.
Getting to watch a child’s confidence grow is the reason Camp Doodles counselor Veronica Cowen does what she does.
“One year we had this little girl about 6 years old who was extremely shy,” Cowen says. “She had been seeing a speech therapist and was really self-conscious about it. After a little bit of playing, a little bit of art and a little time, she was up on a stage doing skits and singing songs. Her enunciation was 100 times better by the end of the summer, and her speech therapist said they had never seen so much growth in such a short period of time.”
Similar results were found over at Quest Camp in Danville, where Robert Field hosts a day camp specifically for children with low self-esteem and problems with social skills.
“We work with kids who are especially anxious and have little confidence. We help the kid who quits playing a game because they hate losing, for example,” says Field, who will be celebrating Quest Camp’s 17th summer this year. “We had three middle-school-age kids with Asperger’s whose parents say they just don’t relate socially and never had any friends at school. After a few summers together at camp, they all three got together and started to hang out on their own. What’d they do? They worked together on building a nuclear submarine, of course. Sounds unusual, but they found a way to relate and do something they enjoy.”
Tech Camp
“First of all, it’s not a geek camp,” says Karen Thurm, vice president of iD Tech Camps — the Silicon Valley computer and technology summer camp going on its ninth year. “People make the mistake of thinking their child wouldn’t be interested in this type of camp. But the fact is we make it fun. And all kids love to have fun.”
With several locations, including Stanford University and UC Santa Cruz, iD Tech Camps offer kids courses in everything from Web site building to 3-D animation to plain old playing Frisbee and soccer in the sun.
“All the kids come away from our camp with a new technological skill,” says Thurm, who emphasized that the campers get to use the most advanced and updated software and hardware programs from nearby companies like Apple and Google. “It’s not like they come in and play video games. But they might come in and make their own video games. These kids end up going back to regular schools mentoring other children and sometimes even teachers on technology. That can’t help but blossom a child’s self-esteem.”
While specialty camps like iD Tech Camp can go all out with computers and technology, traditional camps like Prime Time Kids’ Camp in Burlingame are trying to find a balance.
“We in the camp industry call this new generation the Millennials,” says Prime Time’s director Guillermo Macalpin, who just returned from a national camp association conference in Texas that focused on the issue. “We understand that these are some very computer and technologically savvy kids. They have that need to be text messaging and building their MySpace pages. Keeping up with them can be a challenge.”
By adding cool science experiments, videotaping drama classes or having a former San Francisco Giant come by for tips in the batting cage, summer camps like Prime Time are learning to keep up with the Millennials.
“It doesn’t matter what century it is, the bottom line is that kids just want to have fun.”
E-mail Delfin Vigil at dvigil@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page PK – 18 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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As appeared in Rancho Santa Fe Review
April 19, 2007
By Karen Thurm Safran
Today’s youth is inundated with technology. From Xboxes, TiVos, iPods and cell phones, Generation Z will be the most “connected” generation of Digital Kids to ever to walk the planet.
After watching his twelve-year old son surf the net, text message friends, and immerse himself in technology, sales consultant and business owner Peter Hanson had an idea. Why not harness his twelve year old’s thirst for technology and redirect it towards a skill that would help him compete in the 21st century?
Although his company was doing well, his website didn’t adequately portray his firm. If his son Kyle learned how to build websites, he could then hire him to redesign and update his company’s site. Luckily, while surfing the web, his wife had come across a technology camp where they could send their son Kyle to learn these new skills.
So while most young boys are busy playing sports during the summer, Kyle attended iD Tech Camps and learned how to make websites pivot, jump and bounce with Flash Animation.
iD Tech Camps provides weeklong, beginner to advanced, hands-on summer technology courses for ages 7-17 at 50 prestigious universities in 22 states, including UC San Diego. During the week, students produce 2D video games with Torque Game Builder, design 3D video games with Beyond VirtualTM, create zany digital comic books using Comic Book CreatorTM, Wacom® Pen Tablets and Adobe® Photoshop®, and much more. With small class sizes averaging only five students per instructor, students are given the attention they need to excel.
Besides a week of fun, these Digital Kids leave with a completed project using products which professionals use, increased tech-confidence, and a competitive edge.
“I was really proud that I created a really cool website within one week that made my instructor’s jaw drop when he watched my Flash Animation morph from different shapes into a logo,” said Kyle.
With the Flash Animation Shape Tween tool, Kyle made his animation come alive. He used different colored shapes that finally morphed into his “Kyle Henson Productions” logo.
“At first it was hard, but my instructor showed me how to morph objects. I think making animations for my site was not only super fun, but really rewarding knowing that I was using the same software that professional web designers use.”
The end result is a sense of empowerment, independence and self-confidence as students learn to articulate their creativity through new ways by using technology. Often times they incorporate what they’ve learned in their school projects or even start side businesses.
With these Digital Kids, the sky is the limit.
For more information about iD Tech Camps, please visit www.internalDrive .com or call 1-888-709-TECH (8324).
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As appeared in Seminole Chronicle
April 12-18, 2007
“Of all the many camps my son has attended, iD Tech Camps is by far the best,” says Connie Ryan. “As an educator, I’m extremely impressed with the quality of this program.” This summer, join parents like Connie and send your child to iD Tech Camps where they learn the latest technology with instructors who make learning fun. iD Tech Camps offers weeklong day and overnight summer technology programs for ages 7-17 at 50 prestigious universities nationwide in 23 states and Spain. Locations include the University of Central Florida, the University of Miami, and Emory University.
Create 2D and 3D video games, experience game modding with Battlefield 2142TM from Electronic Arts, improve your gaming skills with the Gaming Athletes course, build VEXTM robots to compete, design websites with Flash® animations, film and edit digital movies, create your own comic book with digital photos, learn programming and more.
With one computer per student and an average of 5 students per staff, students are given the attention they need to excel and complete a project by the end of the week. Activision, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Clickteam, DigiEffects, GarageGames, Beyond Virtual, HP, Intego, Logitech, THQ, Microsoft, Red Giant Software, RedOctane, Roxio, SmartSound, Symantec, Wacom, Western Digital, and others have partnered with iD Tech Camps to raise the bar in technology education.
But that’s not all. At UC Santa Cruz there is a Surf & Tech program where students spend half the day creating a video game or designing a website while the other half surfing. At Stanford, students engage in Sports & Tech where half the day is spent playing tennis, golf, fencing, or TaeKwonDo. Additionally, teens can travel to Spain for our Documentary Filmmaking program or participate in iD Gaming Academy for an intensive 3 weeks of game development.
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Pete Ingram-Cauchi
Expertise: Fun, Safety, Learning, Cooking Paella
Josh G.
Expertise: Tech Tips, Fun Websites, Flash Tutorials
Marta P.
Expertise: Photoshop, Illustrator & Graphic Design
Pete V.
Expertise: Tech Camps Activity Expert & Random Refrigerator
