What Should You Know?

The Industry Leader, Providing One-of-a-Kind Summer Computer Camps

We are a family company. Our priorities are clear - each season we raise the bar in regards to risk management, quality staff, customized curriculum and good, old-fashioned fun. Many summer camps (both technology camps and traditional camps) ask, “How does iD Tech Camps do it?”. We make it look easy, but there is an incredible amount of work behind the scenes.

Our dedication and true desire to be the best has made us the largest, most recommended camp of our kind. Our continued dedication to leading the pack is something we are proud of, and something you can count on.

Please read the grid below carefully to find out the facts on how we distinguish ourselves. This may be the most important page on our website. Here’s how we differ:

Quality: What are the Key Measurements?
Average 6:1 Ratio	With an average of just 6 students per staff at our camps, we offer unparalleled care and risk management. It is much more expensive for us to do it this way, but the one-on-one instruction is worth it!
Adult Only Staff	A policy of “No Counselors-In-Training” teaching our courses or supervising our students. We could save a lot of money by utilizing CITs, but we choose not to cut corners and quality. We only hire adult staff.
	iD Tech Camps, the nation’s largest summer technology camp, is currently accredited by the ACA at many sites. Always look for the ACA logo, read the fine print, and consult www.acacamps.org for authenticity.
Always Evolving	We update our courses, curriculum and software every season, providing a new experience even for those who return year after year. We’re not strictly a computer camp, science camp, or technology camp! Find out more about what’s new this season.
Verified Ratios	We don’t play games to make our ratios appear better. At our ACA-Accredited sites, camper ratios are VERIFIED by the American Camp Association.
No Computer Sharing	We provide a computer for every student, so there’s never a need to share.
We Have Kids Too	Both Alexa (Co-Founder, COO and Pete’s sister) and I (Pete, President and CEO) have young families. We ask ourselves everyday, “Would we send our own kids to iD Tech Camps?”. With this perspective, our camps take on a whole different meaning.
Family Company	The same family that founded iD Tech Camps is still running it today, 11 seasons later. Every year the company evolves and gets better. Our loyal following says it all.
Recruiting the Best? Pay the Best!	We attract the brightest minds because: On average, we pay 25% more than the industry standard, and considerably more than our nearest competitors. We challenge our staff and set the bar high. Our instructors love having an average of just 6 students in a course! We talk a lot about “The iD Family” - our staff is an immediate extension. Our staff is the Gold Standard.
Prestigious Universities	We boast an unparalleled lineup of over 60 universities in the US including Stanford, MIT, UCLA, Northwestern, Vassar, Columbia, Emory, UT Austin and many more. Only the best!
100% Focus	While many other programs get sidetracked by organizing birthday parties and adult programs, we strategically focus on our core competency - iD Tech Camps. Our focus has made us the #1 technology camp in the USA.
No Franchising	We have been approached by many clients and businesses about franchising iD Tech Camps. We respectfully decline solicitations for franchising. We want to ensure the quality of our camps. Each camp is owned and operated by the same family who founded the company.
No Cold Calls	Whether at camp or in your home, we respect your privacy. We do not make cold calls or intrusive sales calls. Likewise, we do not send you endless, mindless emails.
Brand-Name Technology	We use the best BRAND NAME products at our summer camps from icons like Adobe®, Apple® and Microsoft®. Find out more about our tech products.
Gaming Tournaments - During NON-Instructional time only!	Our NVIDIA®-hosted gaming tournaments feature the biggest titles. Even Pete, the President of iD Tech Camps, gets in on these national gaming tournaments! (But he doesn’t make it very far since our campers are too good!)These tournaments WILL NOT infringe on instructional time. We take this issue seriously.
Balance	Each of our camps has to strike the right balance between “computer time” and Tech-Reation. We are a technology camp, but we also take time out for sports, board games and building new friendships. Tech Camp is not just about computers and technology.
Staff and Training
	We are American Camp Association® (ACA) accredited at multiple locations. We actually exceed many of the standards set forth by the ACA. Becoming accredited AND maintaining that accreditation is a huge undertaking for a camp our size, and a great source of pride.
No Counselors-In-Training	Distinguishing ourselves from most summer camps, many years ago we respectfully created a policy of “No Counselors-in-Training” (CITs). This guarantees that each student is instructed AND supervised exclusively by paid adult staff 18 years of age and older. CITs, we feel, can be an asset to some camps, but not iD Tech Camps. We do not want to cut corners by cutting payroll and quality.We recruit industry professionals, graduate students and upper-level undergraduates majoring in Film, Computer Science, Engineering, Education, Media Arts, Game Development and other related fields.Many of our older teenage campers want to work for iD Tech Camps some day. We encourage them to do so once they are in college.
Attracting the Best Staff	We attract some of the brightest minds because: We provide some of the highest compensation in the industry, considerably more than our nearest competitors. Our instructors love having an average of just 6 students in a course! We talk a lot about “The iD Family” - our staff is an immediate extension.
Regional Management	Our staff selection is our bread-and-butter. We have multiple full-time, year-round Regional Managers who hire the best staff. Each Regional Manager oversees a small number of university locations. Our Regional Managers were all previous Camp Directors at iD Tech Camps so they know what is needed to run our great camps. We are very proud of the level of quality control and organization that we have developed.
Training	New and returning employees are required to PERSONALLY attend regional pre-camp training sessions. The well-being of iD Tech Campers and staff is worth going the extra mile.
Additional Safety Precautions	Each summer camp has a Camp Director AND instructors who are CPR/First Aid Certified Criminal Background Checks are required of ALL staff Sexual Offender Background Checks required of ALL staff Personal AND professional references required of ALL staff
Curriculum: What is Our Approach?
Curriculum	The collaborative brainpower of 500 instructors! We’re celebrating our 11th season and pursuing the most significant revamping at iD Tech Camps in the past 10 seasons. Students will be able to move along faster and more independently, or collaborate utilizing our customized lessons, while still receiving our gold standard 1-on-1 instruction (average 6 students per staff).Our new curriculum is designed for beginning through advanced learners, allowing each student to move along at their own pace with customized lessons for a fun and appropriate challenge. We have raised the standard for learning with extremely small course “clusters” averaging only 6 students per instructor. Because of this tight ratio, each instructor can personalize and customize our curriculum to the skill level of the student. This enables each student to learn at his/her own pace. All courses emphasize comprehensive, in-depth, experience-based learning. Each student will spend the week working toward the completion of a project.
Specialization	We want each of our students to come away with usable skills for the future. We feel that dabbling in too many subject areas at one time is not a good way to accomplish this goal. Each student focuses on just one topic per week (students can register for several weeks to acquire new skills). Weekly courses are for beginner to advanced skill levels. Beginners should not be intimidated. Experts can expect to be challenged. Register for one course per week and register for as many weeks as you like. View all courses.
Instructors Must Instruct	Online learning is rapidly changing the way we deliver content and instruct. However, we are ACUTELY AWARE that instructors should, and must, instruct. Staff should not depend on online tutorials for “substitute teaching.” Instructors must instruct! They must encourage. They must inspire. Read about our staff or learn about how we teach.
Peace-of-Mind for Parents	As a family-run company, we meticulously recruit, interview, train, and regularly evaluate each staff member.
Internet Filtering Software	We provide all of our summer camps with internet filtering software. This helps keep the bad stuff out of reach.
Credentials	Our curriculum team has sterling credentials. Here is the resume of one of our developers, Tim Yuen. PhD in Curriculum & Instruction - Instructional Technology, University of Texas MS Computer Science, University of Southern California BS Information & Computer Science, UC Irvine Graduate Research Assistant - Coldfusion Developer - UT Center for Reading and Language Arts 5-Year Director at iD Tech Camps Lead Instructor at iD Tech Camps Teaching Assistant - UC Irvine, Department of Information & Computer Science Grader - UC Irvine, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project-Based	Our teaching philosophy is “experience-based”, which means from the moment a student enters our lab the experience is hands-on. We challenge and guide our students, encouraging each to experiment. Students work at their own pace and prepare for the grand debut of their projects at the end of the week during Family Showcase.

We thank you for taking the time to read through The iD Difference. We’ve established an incredibly loyal following because of our desire to be the best. Our family gets out and meets thousands of parents and students each year, and we see a lot of familiar faces when we hit the road. We know you want the best. It is our intention to deliver just that. We encourage you to review our courses and locations pages to find a program which best suits your needs.

If there is anything else you’d like to know, or if you think there is something we should add to this page, please contact us at 1-888-709-TECH (8324). Thank you!