Video Game Summer Camp

Technology-related industry will face a workforce crisis in five to seven years. That’s because, according to recent research, universities across the country have seen a 40 percent drop in enrollment for computer science or IT majors since the turn of the century.

Catalyst Connection has been helping to address this threatening skill gap since the summer of 2006, by supporting a video-game development camp that gives high school students a tempting taste of the IT industry. Each June more than 50 southwestern Pennsylvania teenagers spend two weeks at the ProjectFUN summer workshop at a regional location. ProjectFUN is a national initiative of the DigiPen Institute of Technology, a Redmond, Wash., school that offers degrees in entertainment technology.  

The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh collaborates with Catalyst Connection and DigiPen to bring the program to Pittsburgh, with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.

DigiPen students conduct the camp, which offers video game development as the hook to interest high schoolers in IT industry careers. The learning experience covers such skills as fundamental programming, 3D computer animation, and computer basics. Guest speakers and tours expose the participants to a broad range of career possibilities in IT and entertainment technology.