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iD Tech Camps

2010 @ iD Tech – Nachos (Part 1)

September 1st, 2010 by PeteV

Hey All – it’s (the other) Pete reflecting on another amazing season at iD Tech! This is the moment that everyone gets to take a nice long breath before diving back in and finding new, exciting ways to make 2011 even better. Of course, iD Tech doesn’t really stop – iD 365 is active all year round and is an awesome way to keep the iD spirit alive while waiting for summer to finally reappear.

While all of the other folks at iD are catching up on their much needed beauty sleep (ahem… Josh!), I figured it was prime time to take over the blog and fill it with some of the incredible stuff that happened this summer across the world of iD. There’s so much to cram in that I’ll have several posts over the coming week covering Nachos, iDX and new games!

All of our camps are connected via an active online community in order to share ideas, stories, advice and concerns to help make every camp better. The more we share, the more we learn and the better everyone does their jobs. Luckily for me, there is an entire Forum based solely around Nachos, a staff incentive program that encourages staffers to go above and beyond in their work. This online gathering place gives me a window into the amazing job our staff does every day.

Anyway, here’s a breakdown of the some of the cooler Nacho submissions we had during the summer:

The Drill Sergeant

This training-only Nacho was given out for starting a random chant during lunch at one of the trainings. Matt (aka Rocky) from Columbia University (of whom I will mention a bunch of times) submitted this video of his table starting their 2010 Nacho hunt.

The Mad Hatter

The gang at Sacred Heart University scored tons of Nachos this season. One of the first submissions was this shot from Wacky Hat Day, earning them the Mad Hatter.

Not to be outdone, Princeton had a Wacky Hat Day of their own with too many hats to post! This particular submission, however, really beamed of iD pride!

The Michael Cotter

iD Vassar claimed a ton of Nachos this summer – one requiring the simple task of High-5′ing all of camp. Check it out!

The Scripps
One of my very favorite Nachos, we had a bunch of attempts from all over the country!

You’ve Been Served
There was a bit of a Nacho rivalry this summer between St. Mary’s University and Purdue. One of the highlights of their battle for Nacho superiority was the attempt that each had to out “serve” one another on the dance floor. I’m not quite sure who won…?

Stay tuned for more Nacho highlights! w00t!

 

 

POW!

July 4th, 2010 by PeteV

Howdy!

It’s (the other) Pete and I am super excited about the awesome stuff that’s been happening at iD Tech Camps all over the country. There’s been so much positive activity that I’m going to blog a whole bunch more to share just a sliver of the good times with our internet audience.

One of the iD Tech traditions is called the “Photo of the Week” contest (POW), where each camp is asked to satisfy a photo prompt and a single winner is chosen. So far, we’ve had three weeks of challenges and three amazing pictures.

POW #1 - Take a photo of your entire camp in a prestigious/ defining location at your school.

WINNER – Colorado State University!

POW #2 – Take a photo of your head and another person’s feet to create the illusion that you are really tall.

WINNER – Vanderbilt University!

POW #3 – The obligatory World Cup assignment! Creativity wins in this open contest.

WINNER – Sacred Heart University!

Stay tuned to see the creative and crazy submissions we get all summer long!

 

 

See what iD summer campers are up to during camp!

June 28th, 2010 by Elise

 

 

Nacho Man

June 14th, 2010 by PeteV

iD Tech Camps has this incredible incentive program for the Staff called Nachos (I find them particularly incredible because my friend Bryan and I invented them!)

These cool little badges are given for going above and beyond during activity time, completing difficult objectives and making camp a better place. I had the pleasure of introducing the Nacho program at two of the three trainings that were held in 2010.

The Lake Forest and Villanova trainings were amazing!

Between the two of them, hundreds of training-only Nachos were distributed. Some, like “The Second Easiest Nacho in the Book,” is pretty simple. The Staff member simply needs to attend the Camp Culture seminar – a required event!

Others can be a little more difficult. “The Drill Sergeant” requires a Staff member to recite a chant during lunch on tape and “The Night Owl” is given to anyone that participates in the voluntary evening activity session (we had about 150 participants altogether!) Only about 8 or so Staff from both locations managed to earn and claim *all* of the training Nachos, earning them the prestigious “Train the Trainer” award. We did have an excellent time and I wish I could have stayed longer to play more games (but, of course, the dark got the better of me!)

The Nacho program is in full swing at camps across the country. We’ve been giving out about 20 – 30 Nachos a day – and that number is only going to get higher as more camps start the season. This means that the user profiles of many of the iD Tech Staff members are filling up with neat little award icons, the more the better!

We just finished up a contest to create two brand new Nachos for this summer. The winners were:

“The Mascot” (submitted by Medium Rare) – Create a local Camp Mascot and make a movie with the mascot including at least five excited campers, then post it to the forums.

“The Battlefield” (also submitted by Medium Rare!) – Organize a cross-camp gaming night with another camp on the nVidia Servers! Post the end-of-game scoreboard at both camps and on the Forums. Both of these additions encourage camps to go above and beyond in their programming, whether as a fun goofy afternoon activity or a collaborative nighttime event.

Medium Rare (surprisingly, that’s not his real name) gets “The Bender Bending Rodriguez” Platinum nacho for winning the contest; a major addition to his profile.

We hope that multiple staff members can meet the challenge this summer and earn “The King Hippo” Platinum nacho for getting more than 62 nachos, which happened to be the record last year. I’m pretty sure we can make it, because iD is not just a summer camp for teens and pre-teens that teaches video game courses or film-making; It’s a camp that teaches about the power of collaboration, positive social skills and the benefits of going above and beyond to do something big!

 

 

Spring Break Computer Kids Camp Keeps Them Learning

April 15th, 2010 by Alisa

What are your kids doing while out of school for spring break? Well, there are fifty kids having a great time in Santa Clara, CA, learning a variety of computer technologies this week. These kids are creating video games, building websites, learning graphic design skills, exploring digital photography techniques, and much more. Rather than playing video games at home, some of these kids are creating their own.

iD Tech Camps, North America’s #1 technology camp, is conducting our 3rd season of a special one week Spring Break Beta Camp program at Don Callejon School in Santa Clara. Students between the ages of 7-17 are getting a sneak peak at some of our courses at a fraction of our regular tuition. We have twelve staff encouraging and teaching these fifty students to express themselves creatively, all while making sure they have a lot of fun. That is an average of four students per instructor providing customized instruction delivered by highly trained adult staff.

We have selected Santa Clara Unified School District to host our spring break computer camps at the Don Callejon School because, like iD Tech Camps, it is dedicated to enriching the lives of its students through the pursuit of advanced technology skills. The students at our spring break kids camp participate in smaller than average classes to test curriculum content and software applications. The result of this kind of “beta test” allows iD Tech Camps to execute the best summer technology program in the nation. Looking for a day or overnight camp at one of our other summer camp locations? Click here.

One of our experienced year-round Regional Managers, Keri Callison, has been planning this event for months. “I am so excited about this one-of-a-kind program. We have been working hard to prepare a robust set of courses that these kids are really enjoying. It’s been real fun to find that one of our new courses for 2010, Digital Photography & Photoshop, is a big hit. What we are learning this week will translate directly to all our camps nationwide this summer making this our best summer yet.”

Leading the iD crew is Abhishek Kasturi; one of our most experienced iD Tech Camps staff members. Abhishek has worked at our Stanford and UC Berkeley camps every summer since 2006. Abhishek is a senior at San Jose State University, with a major in Electrical Engineering and minors in Mathematics and Physics. He enjoys playing guitar, listening to classic rock music and working with computers. Originally from India, he now lives in California, and has for the past ten years. He enjoys traveling and has lived in places like Malaysia, Singapore and Canada.

We sold out our Spring Break Camp this week. Parents feel this is a great opportunity for their kids and a fantastic value. If you are interested in participating in 2011, check our website this fall for details. Now, there is still time to join one of our kids camps this summer. Our season kicks off on June 6, 2010. We have about 60 camp locations available around the country and Canada. View location and course availability now. Click here.

We’ll leave you with a few images of iD Tech Camps Spring Break Camp 2010!

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