GameCamp Sponsors Scholarship Summer Program

GameCamp! announces their national scholarship contest for two lucky winners to attend the GameCamp! summer program for teenage students interested in video game development careers. GameCamp! focuses on teaching students about leadership, team development, technical excellence, game industry production and business practices through actual game design and development planning projects.

The GameCamp! scholarship is being offered to student contest entrants throughout the United States. The full scholarship will be awarded to the students that write the best 500-word essay entitled "Why I want to work in the video game industry." Two winners will receive free tuition, room and board, and educational materials for the intensive two-week summer camp being held July 10 to July 24 at Texas State University in San Marcos, just south of Austin, Texas. Deadline for essay submissions is April 30, 2005 and winners will be notified by May 10, 2005. A panel of game industry leaders will handle the final judging of the essays.

GameCamp! has been developed to help teenage students learn about the growing career opportunities in the video game industry, while also giving them the resources for planning that career path. "The Interactive Entertainment industry is growing by leaps and bounds, says Robin McShaffry, V.P. for Mary-Margaret.com Recruiting and Business Services. "New, upcoming talent will need passion, great skills, and great training. We think GameCamp! is a super way to start kids on the road to success at making games for a living, and we are excited to be involved."

Students at GameCamp! will participate in a project and seminar-oriented curriculum taught by experienced game industry designers, artists, programmers, and other developers. "Of course they will also play a lot of games," says Brian Urbanek, Creative Director of Ninjaneering, LLC, an Austin-based game development company. "You have to play games to know how to build games, plus it's a great way to teach the skills needed for succeeding in a career as competitive as the game development industry.

Outside of the video game industry, game design and development processes are revolutionizing a variety of business and educational products and services, while also driving universities and technical schools to create degree programs and specializations in game development. Notes GameCamp!'s Director, Spencer Zuzolo, "Kids interested in game careers have few resources to help them with their educational goals or developing a career plan. GameCamp! helps students bridge this growing knowledge gap by giving them a real world perspective on what it takes to succeed in the game business and how their skills can be applied to other industries."

GameCamp! has partnered with game industry recruiting firm Mary-Margaret.com, Texas State University, the Center for Advanced Computers Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Austin Community College, and game developers from Central Texas to help develop a project-based curriculum that gives a real world understanding of how games are created. In addition to the two-week camp, GameCamp! is offering two other summer sessions: a week-long commuter camp hosted at Austin Community College (June 20 to June 24) and a week long residential and commuter camp at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (July 31 to August 7).

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