Despite all the myriad listings for Camp TechWise on Yelp (indicating campuses in Shoreline and…read moreMagnolia, among others) there are, at the time of this writing, only two--Seattle Center and Ballard.
We're two full days into the Seattle Center camp--which is a day camp, not a stay-away camp--and I'm deeply impressed. My boys--ages 11 and 13--have been in countless camps, and their reactions range from out-and-out refusal to return, to resigned stoicism for the good of the team (meaning, in this case, me). But this camp? I have to peel them off the seats at the end of the day. They never want to leave. They get in the car laughing and happy and used the actual WORDS "I love this camp." Unthinkable. Unprecedented! That's not just finding your place...that's finding your PEOPLE.
This camp's a sensation-- a perfect lockup for all that they crave: techie young counselors who are at just the right ages (very early 20's) to be perfect mentors, serious geek culture and a general air of controlled independence (no hovering or admonitions about the language they use or other kindergarten-ish stuff).
They offer three basic programs: Video/Photography (Short-Film); Music/Audio/Video; and Game Creation and, importantly, they are well-staffed for all of these. They also have Machinima as sort of a "minor" supplementing your "major" program, and one day a week they have a table games event, so campers are encouraged to bring their game cards. So much goodness. We're reveling.
The counselors are smart, savvy kids: earnest, likable, highly immersed in the code culture and truly enthusiastic. They talk to younger kids just like they talk to each other; there's no social demarcation line and they don't dumb it down or patronize. This alone earns high praise.
Even better? Two days in, my son's done a full-blown video game. There are more pros, too:
1) When the camp director realized I've been camping, myself, at various coffee shops during the day so I wouldn't lose hours driving to and from the camp, she said, "Oh, man, feel free to park yourself here!" And I did :)
2) It's in the Vera Project space, which is a really fun, cool space in ever-cheerful Seattle Center. At lunchtime the kids relax by the big fountain or on the grass.
3) Before enrolling, I told the director on the phone that the price was hard to swing for both the boys (oh, summer, you and your $1,300-to-$2,000 dollar weeks!), she worked with me to find a special coupon to give me a much-needed break.
4) They cater to a wide age range but it's surprisingly civil in there--you can just hear brains churning; it's intense. They're learning at a freakish pace. A really self-paced and empowered kind of vibe.
I now regret having booked other camps. That's my typical M.O. because they're historically completely averse to ever returning to camps in the past, and by the fifth weekday they're surly and just...done. It'll be kind of sad to move on from this one. If we're still in Seattle next summer, I'll book this place early and often. Really grateful for our experience there.
