By IRENE MANAHAN Special to the Daily Press
Summer camps were once synonymous with campfires, smores and cumbaya. But kids today might be left to ponder the purpose of all those sleeping bags and tents.
Traditional summer camping, complete with all its familiar outdoors trappings, remains a summer standby, though some Santa Monica parents have found it to be, well, old school! The camping experience is new and improved. Nowadays, whether it’s theatre, surfing or intense gaming that piques their interests, there seems to be a summer camp for every kid.
This year, let them leave the bug spray and propane lanterns at home.
Modern camps often introduce the youth to creative and professional jobs. Internal Drive, or iD Tech Camps, is the nation's largest, most recommended summer computer camp. The family-owned Silicon Valley-based company is in its ninth season.
“Like sports or religious camps, iD Tech is a summer technology camp,” said Karen Thurm Safran, VP of Marketing for iD Tech Camps. “Students sign up for different courses to learn how to build robots, make 2D and 3D video games, or make Web sites or movies in just a week.”
“It’s a lifelong learning experience. After their session they may get hired by their parents or use their skills for the school. In the future, our campers may have a side business or become successful entrepreneurs.”
Beat that, popsicle stick birdhouses! Beginning in June,iD Tech Camps will offer week-long, day and overnight summer computer camps for more than 17,000 students, ages 7 to 17.This summer,camps will bring life to 22 U.S. states in 50 prestigious universities throughout the country, including Brown, Stanford, Columbia and Georgetown.
Santa Monica residents can send their campers to UCLA, Pepperdine University and Cal Lutheran University. Not too far from the bay, at UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz, iD Tech’s ‘Surf and Tech’ program allows campers to spend half their day surfing and the rest creating a video game or Web site.
“It’s a different way for them to articulate they’re creativity,” said Thurm Safran.
With only five students per staff member, students have the chance to use their own computers and other industry standard products. The hands-on, project-based curriculum allows campers to complete a project by the end of their session.
“We’re different because students really take something away with them,” Safran said. iD Tech only uses the leading, cutting edge products in their courses.
Adventures in Comic Creations, a course for 7-to 10-year-olds, teaches students about taking pictures, creating images, distorting faces and making comic books using Adobe Photoshop and Wacom templates.
RoboContenders is a popular program that teaches kids about robotics. Using VEX,
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 17, 2007. Read the original PDF.