Inc. Magazine writes about Tech camps

Article just published in Inc. Magazine mentions three tech camps, two of them in Philadelphia.  Although they don’t mention our summit, they easily could have, as all of the camps mentioned  have the same basic goals as the Digital Family Summit- empowering kids and their families to live and work together in the digital world.

Photo courtesy of the TechGirlz website.

TechGirlz,, whose orientation was the same day as Digital Family Summit, is a collaboration with DreamIt Ventures and StartUp Corps.  The plan is to give 6^th-8^th grade girls a week of hands-on technology experience as well as a chance to develop business ideas under the mentorship of local entrepreneurs and developers. The goal is to get girls more interested in technology and start-ups early on to change the gender statistics in the IT industry.

StartUp Corps, another Philly organization, partners with high schools and youth programs to give ongoing mentorship for high school students. A couple times a week, 150 students attend a start-up class to receive lessons and advice from mentors, all of whom aresuccessful entrepreneurs themselves. Many of the students end up launching for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises with the goal of positively impacting their communities.

The third camp mentioned in the article is in Los Angeles, Urban Teens Exploring Technology(UrbanTxT) which encourages mostly inner-city area high-school boys to use technology to improve their communities and their own economic conditions. Founded by  Watts native Oscar Menjivar, the program teaches the students research and project management skills and gives them experience using Web 2.0 tools.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Adam Gertsacov is the co-founder and co-organizer of Digital Family Summit.  He wears many hats, including those of a professional clown, an author and publisher, an artist/educator, a non-profit administrator, a P.T. Barnum impersonator, a flea circus impresario, and the esteemed hat of the Clown Laureate of Greenbelt, Maryland.