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Kids
Learn Technology at Annual Summer Camp
Designing
video games, making movies, programming robots, shooting and
processing photographs -- for some youths between ages 7 and
17, those are dream jobs.
Video Game
Creation at iD Tech Camps |
After spending
a week or more at the, a summer program held at Smith and other
institutions for youngsters seeking technological savvy, many
kids may have a good start toward the careers of their fantasies.
Nearly 180 campers
in the Pioneer Valley region will spend their days on the
Smith campus in one-week chunks during six weeks of the camp
beginning June 26. Many will reside on campus during their
stays while others will commute for the day. They will take
courses in digital film editing, producing special effects,
creating 2-D and 3-D video games, designing Web sites, processing
digital photographs, working with robots, and other topics,
using the latest technology tools provided by corporate sponsors
such as Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Canon.
The iD Tech Camps
are one of 40 programs taking place on the Smith campus during
the summer, some of which are affiliated with the Smith community,
others that return to the campus year after year for its facilities
and services. View the
The iD Tech Camps,
operated by Internal Drive, a family-owned company in Campbell,
California, began in 1999 as an effort to bolster technology
education for school-aged children. Since then, the program
has grown to offer summer-long camps at 40 colleges and universities
throughout the U.S. and in Spain, including Vassar College,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Merrimack College.
Smith College
has hosted the camps each year since the program’s inception.
“Smith is
a wonderful college that’s quaint, inviting, easy to
get around, and accessible to parents,” says Karen Thurm
Safran, vice president of marketing for the iD Tech Camps.
“The campus is magnificent. And there are many students
in the area who are interested in attending a summer camp.”
Kevin Lambert,
an 11-year-old from Granby, Mass., attended the iD Tech Camps
at Smith last summer and looks forward to returning in July.
“I liked the software that we used at the camp,”
says Lambert, who studied Video Game Creation and will repeat
the class this year, and take a 3-D game creation course.
“I created an adventure game last year called ‘Alien
vs. Truck’ but I wasn’t very happy with it.”
With that experience under his belt, though, Lambert will
know better what to do in creating this year’s games,
he says.
His new technological
expertise aside, Lambert’s mother, Debbie, appreciated
the camp’s overall atmosphere. “The setting of
the camp is great,” she says. “Kevin really enjoyed
the fact that the camp was at a college campus. He felt like
he was going to college. He felt he was very grown up.”
Who knows? After
spending a couple of weeks at Smith this summer, Lambert and
his fellow iD Tech campers might be ready to produce the next
big game. Or movie. Or do-all technological gadget. The future
is theirs.
-Eric Weld
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