Sports and Nature Not Everyone’s Idea of Fun
It’s not all fun and games at summer camps in the San Fernando Valley.
While most of the camps listed in directories and on the Internet advertise sports and recreation, a number of schools and private organizations offer academic alternatives--including the relatively recent phenomenon of computer camps.
At Cal State Northridge, Atlanta-based American Computer Experience (ACE) will offer eight weeks of computer camp beginning June 16. The private Santa Clarita Academy in Saugus offers an eight-week camp for grades K-6, while the University of La Verne offers summer programs from elementary through high school levels at Glendale Unified and Las Virgenes school districts.
Operators say there’s a demand for the academically oriented camps because not everyone wants to play sports or spend the summer in the woods.
This will be the second year of ACE computer camps at CSUN, according to Justin Thomas, a company spokesman, who said ACE rents space from the university for the camp, which runs from Sunday through Friday.
Students’ reasons for going to camp as well as their computer-skill levels vary considerably, Thomas said.
“A certain percentage of the kids come to the camps because they are intensely interested in computers and they spend a great deal of their free time working with computers,” Thomas said. “Others have been to other types of camps and didn’t enjoy them, so they’re trying a computer camp for a change.”
Thomas said some students attend the camps because they need to improve their computer skills for the upcoming school year, while others “are already pretty proficient at computers, but they want to learn programming or something more advanced.”
ACE offers a day program for about $595 per week and a live-in program for $895 a week, in which students stay in university dorms. About 160 students enrolled last year, and about 320 are expected this year, Thomas said. Students can enroll for as many or as few weeks as they like, he said.
Thomas said the growing popularity of computer camps is reflected in ACE’s growth. The company began in 1994 with just two camps and now operates 89 in the U.S., Canada and Britain, with annual revenue topping $8 million.
Instruction for beginners at the computer camp includes computer basics, word processing, e-mail and an introduction to software programs, Thomas said, while more advanced students learn programming languages, video editing, animation, and how to make their own Web pages.
“Lots of kids who have been playing computer games now want to design their own games, so we teach the programming languages needed to do that,” Thomas noted. He added that ACE, when requested, also provides letters certifying the level of instruction a student has completed so that he or she can be exempted from entry-level classes at school.
Thomas said ACE, which started with camps at MIT and Stanford in 1994, has proved profitable and doubled its annual enrollment between 1995 and 1999. Enrollment this year is expected to be about 15,000, up from 10,000 last year. ACE leases classroom space from colleges but provides its own computers and related equipment, according to Thomas.
The company hires college computer science and education majors as instructors, some of them former computer camp students, he said.
Despite the growth of computer camps and the emergence of several new national computer camp companies in recent years, Thomas said, the industry remains fragmented, with only a handful of national companies to date.
“We see more and more programs crop up in each city every year, but most of them are local,” he said. Many are nonprofit and are run by youth centers, libraries, community colleges and other organizations concerned mainly with covering expenses.
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Nonetheless, Thomas sees significant growth potential for computer camps as a business. Increasingly, he said, parents and students are asking if computer camps are available during Christmas and springtime holiday breaks, suggesting that the camps have potential as a year-round business.
At Santa Clarita Academy, the academic summer camp is in its eighth year, said Wendy MacKenzie, summer camp director.
Students need not be enrolled in the regular classes at Santa Clarita to enroll in summer camp, MacKenzie said. The camp begins June 19 and runs for eight weeks, with the doors open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and classes held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The cost is $120 per week.
“Our goal is to make sure the students keep up their levels of skill in reading, writing, math and other basic skills,” MacKenzie said. Depending on the students’ grade levels and interests, Santa Clarita also teaches other subjects, MacKenzie said. One class last year focused on astronomy, for example, because a number of students expressed interest, she said.
The La Verne-based University of La Verne’s summer programs in the Valley include academic courses in the Glendale Unified and Las Virgenes school districts, according to Allan Fink, administrator of the private university’s summer school office.
Classes in the Glendale district are held at Glenoaks and Mountain Avenue elementary schools, while those in the Las Virgenes district are held at Agoura High School, Lindero Canyon Middle School and Willow Elementary School.
Elementary schools offer computer instruction, creative writing, journalism, science, math, art and more. Middle school classes include computer lab, 3-D art, creative writing and wood shop.
Among the high school classes offered are California, U.S. and European history, American government, health and economics.
