The Bay Region has become a pioneer in summer cyber camps and continued that success in the virtual realm this year with eight weeks of camps attended by nearly 500 students.
“We had to make a quick COVID pivot from the planned face-to-face camps that we have been doing for the past four years, and had scheduled for this summer, to a fully online virtual format,” said Richard Grotegut, Regional Director, Industry Engagement, Bay Area Region, IT and Computer Science. “Our great partnership with our participating colleges made it easier.”
As in previous years, the Bay Cyber League coordinated the camps. Irvin Lemus, Bay Area Cyber’s Regional Program Coordinator, organized the camps’ teachers, which included Eric Skagerberg of Santa Rosa College, Beverly Brooks of Merritt College, Miguel Baez of Granada High School, and Andrea Salas of Alhambra High School.
“The pandemic provided the Bay Cyber League student Technical Team with the challenge to turn an on-site camp into online for any student with a Chromebook,” Lemus said. “The Teaching Team had to organize the content for online only delivery. Both teams conquered the challenge with flying colors.”
Denise Moss, Bay Area Cyber’s Regional Project Director, noted, “This year the core team of teachers and student teaching assistants/technical mentors led each camp, helping ensure consistency across the virtual camps.”
Each day began with a morning lecture from one of the teachers, followed by hands-on activities coordinated by the student teaching assistants/technical mentors. The student teaching assistants/technical mentors also helped students log into Zoom, Canvas, Discord, and other tools used throughout the camps.
“This support was critical for keeping the camp moving and not getting bogged down in technical issues,” Moss said.
Student teaching assistants/technical mentors included Cabrillo College students Jeremy Woodling, Janelly Servin, Brandon Pimentel, Jonathan Muniz, George Nuñez, Darien Cruz, Juan Soberanes, Ryan Garcia, Carter Frost and Kevin Cameron. Student teaching assistants/technical mentors also included Ryken Adams-Barnes and Matt Prado from Alhambra High School.
“They did an amazing job for this summer,” Moss said. “They were asked to create all of the games and competitions, to assist the Teacher/Trainers in all of the morning camp lectures on Zoom, and provide Customer Support/Technical Assistance to all of the students on Discord – and the number of students they needed to support grew enormously with each week of the camp!”
Each camper received a t-shirt designed by Maivi Tran, a digital design student at Evergreen Valley College, as well as free subscriptions to the National Cyber League.
“Cabrillo College and key LEA partners (Santa Cruz County Office of Education, Pajaro Valley Unified School District, DigitalNEST) arranged for a drive-thru event at two locations for students to pick up their t-shirts and receive information about Cabrillo and the ICT pathway,” Moss said.
Sponsors for this year’s Bay Area cyber camps were:
Community Colleges – Cabrillo College, Cañada College, Chabot College, City College of San Francisco, College of Marin, College of San Mateo, Contra Costa College, De Anza College, Diablo Valley College, Evergreen Valley College, Foothill College, Gavilan College, Hartnell College, Merritt College, Monterey Peninsula College, Napa Valley College, Ohlone College, San Jose City College, Santa Rosa Junior College, and Solano College.
K12 LEAs – Contra Costa County Office of Education, Digital Nest, Dublin Unified School District, Marin County Office of Education, MIT Vallejo, Pajaro Valley Unified School District, and Santa Cruz County Office of Education.
For more information, visit baycyber.net/.
