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.
After spending a week or more at the iD Tech Camps, 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 are spending
their days on the Smith campus in one-week chunks during
six weeks of the camp, which runs from June 25 through August
3. Many of the campers reside on campus during their stays
while others commute for the day. While on campus, they 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 nearly 50 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 summer programs calendar.
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 12-year-old
from Granby, Mass., attended the iD Tech Camps at Smith
last summer. “I liked the
software that we used at the camp,” said Lambert, who
studied Video Game Creation. “I created an adventure
game called ‘Alien vs. Truck’ but I wasn’t
very happy with it.”
His new technological
expertise aside, Lambert’s mother,
Debbie, appreciated the camp’s overall atmosphere. “The
setting of the camp is great,” she said. “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, iD Tech campers might be ready to produce the next
big game. Or movie. Or do-all technological gadget.
The future is theirs.
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