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Steering at-risk kids towards Game Dev
Steering at-risk kids towards Game Dev
| Name: | Andy Schatz |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Feb 09, 2007 | |
| Rating: |  5.0 out of 5 | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
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| Profile Page: | View profile page for Andy Schatz |
Blog post
I spoke today at the Switzer Learning Center (Torrance, CA, in LA) to high school juniors and seniors that were severely at-risk from their home life, gang life, or that were learning disabled. These are kids that were mostly kicked out of public schools and ended up here as a last chance. The chance they have is to learn what they need to to live in the post-academic world as a productive and stable citizen.
My friend Mike Eberhard teaches the "Job Training" class there once a week where he helps to prepare them to write applications, learn to get along with co-workers, and how to find a job. He occassionally will have guest speakers come in to talk to the kids. Apparently, the kids love it, but they asked if they could get someone a little younger next time. A few of them also love games, so he thought of me.
The first half of the class I talked with them about my own career in the game industry and also what opportunities there were in the industry. My thoughts were that some of these kids could probably land a job as a tester at some of the larger companies in LA. They would probably improve their chances a lot if they participated in some of the focus groups run by the big pubs like EA or Activision.
The second half of the talk revolved around how to succeed (ie not get fired) in the workplace. From my perspective, these kids need to have the ambition to succeed, and the calm to deal with situations they don't like. One of them talked about quitting his job after he had a cup thrown at him when he worked at a coffee shop. I wouldn't expect him not to be angry or act irrationally, but his instinct was wrong. There was not need and no utility in standing up for himself. He should have let the customer go.
So at any rate, I will probably go back to their job fair (not to hire, but to just talk with these kids again) in May. The director of education at the school asked me to ask around in case anyone else might be interested in speaking as well. If you are in the Southern California area, perhaps you might be interested in participating.
And lastly, I'd encourage others to get involved with students. After having spoken with the very talented and driven kids of the San Diego Art Institute, and the very troubled kids of Switzer, I feel connected to these kids, and inspired by them as well. If you work in games, you are a god to many of them. They immediately open up and smile and want to talk. That's what many of these kids need.
My friend Mike Eberhard teaches the "Job Training" class there once a week where he helps to prepare them to write applications, learn to get along with co-workers, and how to find a job. He occassionally will have guest speakers come in to talk to the kids. Apparently, the kids love it, but they asked if they could get someone a little younger next time. A few of them also love games, so he thought of me.
The first half of the class I talked with them about my own career in the game industry and also what opportunities there were in the industry. My thoughts were that some of these kids could probably land a job as a tester at some of the larger companies in LA. They would probably improve their chances a lot if they participated in some of the focus groups run by the big pubs like EA or Activision.
The second half of the talk revolved around how to succeed (ie not get fired) in the workplace. From my perspective, these kids need to have the ambition to succeed, and the calm to deal with situations they don't like. One of them talked about quitting his job after he had a cup thrown at him when he worked at a coffee shop. I wouldn't expect him not to be angry or act irrationally, but his instinct was wrong. There was not need and no utility in standing up for himself. He should have let the customer go.
So at any rate, I will probably go back to their job fair (not to hire, but to just talk with these kids again) in May. The director of education at the school asked me to ask around in case anyone else might be interested in speaking as well. If you are in the Southern California area, perhaps you might be interested in participating.
And lastly, I'd encourage others to get involved with students. After having spoken with the very talented and driven kids of the San Diego Art Institute, and the very troubled kids of Switzer, I feel connected to these kids, and inspired by them as well. If you work in games, you are a god to many of them. They immediately open up and smile and want to talk. That's what many of these kids need.
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Submit your own resources!| Todd Pickens (Feb 09, 2007 at 02:08 GMT) |
| Chip Lambert (Feb 09, 2007 at 03:00 GMT) |
A guy I know runs a center to keep kids off the street and out of trouble, I may have to run some of this by him to see if he's interested in starting a program for interested kids.
Thank you Andy for posting this.
| Frank Carney (Feb 09, 2007 at 03:04 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
I work with kids each year during our annual Robochallenge here in South Eastern Idaho. It is amazing to watch them go from "technology is scary" to "I can understand how my clock works". Keep it up. Some years it has been tough and some of the kids are hard to work with (the kids I work with are not last chance kids, so I have great respect for your efforts). Some of the kids just need a spark to show then how stuff works. Once you ignite that spark they will amaze you. You never know, some of us may be looking for jobs from someone you inspired.
Good Luck!
FYI
Robochallenge is a competition that is held every year. The kids use a variety of technologies including: legos, RC cars, cameras, and programming.
Thanks for sharing,
Frank
| Stephen Zepp (Feb 09, 2007 at 03:55 GMT) |
Of course, TGB and now TorqueX are designed specifically for an editor based solution which helps with this type of scenario, but even so third party products (TGB starter kits, TorqueX component/art packs, etc) are an outstanding opportunity for companies and individuals willing to put out effort for long term reward.
You aren't going to get rich for this type of market, but you are going to get extremely satisfying rewards, as well as outstanding exposure and skill building during the development...so let's see some high quality kits guys and gals!
| Frank Carney (Feb 09, 2007 at 04:51 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
You may not get rich, but that is not why most people are here anyway. Educators are always looking for better tools to teach technical topics. I have been working with teachers to teach them the basics about gearing, electricity, programming, etc. Most of them have no clue as to what they are looking at. If you can present a technical topic to the teacher and the children in a non-intimidating then you can help them immensely. A very good example is the program environment for the new Lego NXT set. It shows step by step mechanical, electrical, and programming for building robots.
Programming games is fun, but it can lead to very sophisticated interests. For instance: I went to a tech school because I wanted to program games, and I kind of liked electronics. To date I have never produced much more than a simple game, but have developed and implemented many control systems. There is nothing like pushing a button on the screen and hearing a valve open on a new process. A lot of the the stuff I learned from video game programming I have found I can apply directly to process control. It is amazingly similar to game programming. I have also started using the stuff I have learned in process control in game programming.
Sorry for hijacking your blog Andy.
| Andy Schatz (Feb 09, 2007 at 06:01 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
I also got to spend the day talking with Mike, who's a great business advisor about the future of Pocketwatch. So if you ever read this, thanks Mike!
Honestly, I don't think the kids I talked to today are going to be making games, though you can't totally rule it out. But even just talking to them about how to behave on the job was a very rewarding experience.
I think there ARE a lot of kids, though, that don't succeed, perhaps because they are too timid or they don't know how to interact with people that are perfect for learning through game development. I've worked with a number of people in my career who I think fit this description exactly -- they had little success in life until they started making games. They developed a passion for it and it improved every arena of their lives.
| Jeremy Alessi (Feb 09, 2007 at 06:37 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| Vashner (Feb 10, 2007 at 15:05 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
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