FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2022
Contact: Directors, Dr. Steven Lee Berman & Anne Deane Berman, PhD
360-543-5641 [email protected] & [email protected]
Associate Director, Jacob Berman, [email protected]
NASA AWARD WINNING DIGIVATIONS™ & XGENS™ INSTITUTES INVITES INTERNATIONALLY LIKE-MINDED ARTISTIC, SCIENTIFIC AND ENTREPRENEURIALLY SPIRITED YOUTH, AGES 10-20, TO JOIN US IN JULY AT HOBART AND WILLIAM SMITH COLLEGES & CORNELL UNIVERSITY, LOCATED IN NEW YORK’S FINGER LAKES REGION.
Register before April 30 for early bird tuition and first priority for scholarships www.campdemigod.org & www.xgens.org
Youth Design and Produce Original Art, Music, Theatrical Works and Prototypes Advancing the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals: Enabling Equity and Inclusion; Resolving Food Insecurity Issues; Advancing Healthcare Access and Innovations Enabling a Healthier World; Propelling Positive Climate Solutions and Social Justice; Ensuring a Human Centric Future of Work Framework in an AI World, as well as Rethinking Implementation of Sustainable Environments and Infrastructure; and Democratizing Commercial Space, among other domain topics.
Geneva/Ithaca, New York… NASA Award Winning DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE™ announces the Renown, World’s First and Only Overnight Camp Half-Blood, Fandom Multiverses, Harry Potter Sustainable Universe Camp and DIGIVATIONS XGENS™ 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals Institute has expanded to Upstate NY hosted by Hobart and William Smith Colleges, July 3-July 30, 2022 with inclusion of significant activities at Cornell University. For information: Contact Directors, Dr. Steven Lee Berman and Anne Deane Berman, PhD at 360-543-5641 [email protected] and [email protected] .
CAMP DESCRIPTIONS:
DIGIVATIONS Harry Potter Sustainable Universe Overnight Academy
www.harrypottercamps.org
July 3-23 2-3 weeks, Ages 11-17
Role-play as ambassadors & delegates solving mortals' challenges to the universe & succeed at the Confederation of Wizards. Art, music, drama, creative writing, magic, STEM, quantum realms, quidditch, spells, potions and chemistry, wands, larping and more. Study the UN & SDG topics including climate action; curing disease through synthetic biology & the future of AI.
DIGIVATIONS Fandom Multiverse Overnight Academy
www.campfandom.org
July 3-23, 2-3 weeks, Ages 11-17
INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION OF INNOVATORS, MENTORS & LEADERS. Like-minded campers, 12-17, “Suspend Disbelief” through the DC and Marvel Worlds, Harry Potter, Camp Half-Blood & Dr. WHO, Sherlock, Star Wars, among others. NASA Award Winning DIGIVATIONS’ STEM + ARTS + HUMANITIES + KINESTHETIC curriculum & hands-on projects empower youth to solve quests, create future unicorn prototypes & produce art, short stories, plays, musical & theatrical performances.
DIGIVATIONS Camp Half-Blood
www.camphalf-blood.org
July 3-23, 2-3 weeks, Ages 10-17
QUESTS solve global challenges! Capture the Flag! Larping! Theatrical Combat! 10th Season Celebration! The world’s first & only overnight Demigod training facility located in Geneva, NY, hosted by Hobart & William Smith Colleges. Faculty contextualize current events in Ancient Cultures & Civilizations, Greek Mythology & Language, Anthropology with hands-on learning: STEM, Design Thinking, Art, Creative Writing, New Music, Costuming and Theatre.
DIGIVATIONS XGENS OVERNIGHT 17 UN SDG INSTITUTE & MODEL UN ACADEMY
www.xgens.org
July 10-16, Ages 12-18; July 24-30, Ages 13-20
Immersion in design thinking, arts & humanities, diplomacy, STEM & technology policy lead to innovation & leadership enabling real world solutions to the 17 UN SDG’s & 169 targets & themes, including: ECONOMIC, FOOD & WATER SECURITY; ENVIRONMENTALISM; SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE; FUTURE OF WORK IN AN AI WORLD; & SOCIAL JUSTICE. Centered on youth engagement & entrepreneurship, XGENERS build a global youth network under guidance of strategic experts in fields related to solving the SDG’s targets through innovative designs & prototypes & explore Model UN crisis themes. Offers Academic Certificate & Community Service Credit.
BACKGROUND
Their expansion from the Pacific Northwest is based on the Camp’s initial mission, belief and promise that the inspirational camp founder, 9 year old Jacob Berman, now a first year student at Cornell University, held, along with his parents Drs. Berman, similar to the values of Rick Riordans’ Famous Camp Half-Blood demigod world. Associate Director, Jacob said, “youth need a safe and positive environment where they feel they belong and are accepted without the pressures of cliques and discrimination often experienced in school. Providing an inclusive community where everyone can feel like a family is as vital today as it was ten years ago.” These beliefs are consistent with the Berman’s Family founded 501(c)(3) educational non-profit’s primary mission of “Inspiring the Next Generation of Innovators, and Fostering Future Mentors and Thoughtful Leaders Enabling Positive Social Change.” With this framework, DIGIVATIONS is expanding to Upstate NY from WA State and BC, Canada in response to requests from its many thousands of global students, alumni, parents and educators over the past decade.
DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE was initially established as an affiliate of DIGIVATIONS EDUCATION VENTURES ™, launched in Vancouver, BC, Canada, motivated by Dr. Steve Berman’s prior education curriculum development commencing at UCLA as early as 1996 involving integration of STEM and Humanities into new media works and innovation economic consulting work to the BC Province about the Future of Work including underlying education and lifelong transferable skills development. Specifically, his work focused on the future of education especially relating to revolutionizing British Columbia’s Innovation Pipeline which entailed structural changes to its universities’ academic, research and resulting technology transfer focus, reimagining more productive collaboration with industry, and redesigning effectiveness of government agencies. Steve’s background as a material science engineer with deep experience in computer science analyzing the very first moon rock samples, intellectual property attorney, and technology transfer and policy senior management executive for the University of California System’s 10 campuses and three national laboratories enabled unique outcomes for tripartite collaborations among industry, government and university institutions. This led to his advocacy for new multidisciplinary educational academic content design for K-25 students ranging from establishing core foundations for the first Masters of Digital Media in Canada at Great Northern Way’s Consortium Campus (UBD, SFU, Emily Carr, BCIT), and DIGIVATIONS’ NASA award winning STEM + ARTS + HUMANITIES + KINESTHETIC curriculum delivered to more than 5,000 students and 2,000 educators with his partner and collaborator, Dr. Anne Deane Berman.
Drs. Berman collaborated in launching DIGIVATIONS inspired by their years of university teaching, including at esteemed universities such as UCLA and UCSB, and arising from a perceived need based on Dr. Steve’s initial work in the entertainment, educational television broadcast and Silicon Valley technology industries. Throughout DIGIVATIONS’ history, Steve, Anne and Jacob have followed a trajectory of organically and dynamically transforming to encompass new ideas, passions and needs of youth. Dr. Steve Berman states, “We empower youth and adults to confidently develop positive growth mindsets, and apply their multiple intelligences, respective innate reservoir of imaginations, talents, sense of discovery and new knowledge to catalyze impactful change in their communities, as well as regionally, nationally and globally. We inspire these outcomes in part through my foundational Innovation course incorporating human centered and problem-based learning projects integrating interdisciplinary Design Thinking. Moreover, this complements our integrated arts and humanities process.” Along these lines, International composer Anne Deane Berman, PhD states, “We ask students to create new art, music, theatrical and creative writing works. Over the past ten years, we have witnessed that their immersion in such multidisciplinary domains deepens their appreciation of science and the humanities, expanding their perspectives of critical global issues relating to the SDGs. Through this rigorous Creative Engagement, youth translate their enhanced feelings of connectedness to the planet into positive action as they grow into adults.”
To this end, DIGIVATIONS XGENS Model UN and 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals Institute ™ & Accelerator and Incubator, XGENS.org, was established building on the foundations of DIGIVATIONS’ global activities and focus. XGENS delegation traveled throughout the world where delegates have served in leadership roles including for Specialized and Crisis Committees, including at the UN’s Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland; UN headquarters located in New York City; Yale University, New Haven; as well as Harvard and Yale MUN conferences online. XGENS Accelerator and Incubator enables DIGIVATIONS’ global community of thousands of youth, counselors, educators and professional network of leaders in academia, government and industry to create new artistic works advancing critical social policy awareness and raising the world’s consciousness of global challenges, launching of new enterprises based on new scientific breakthroughs from university researchers
across the globe, and future unicorns centered around exponential technologies including those developed by DIGIVATIONS’ students that will generate revenue to support the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets especially those focused on Enabling Equity and Inclusion; Resolving Food Insecurity Issues; Advancing Healthcare Access and Innovations Enabling a Healthier World; Propelling Positive Climate Solutions and Social Justice; Ensuring a Human Centric Future of Work Framework in an AI World, as well as Rethinking Implementation of Sustainable Environments and Infrastructure; and Democratizing Commercial Space, among other domain topics.
MORE ABOUT DIGIVATIONS:
DIGIVATIONS XGENS Global College Preparatory, Model UN Academies, and Cascadia Conferences (DXCIMUN) is a non-profit North American affiliate of NASA award winning DIGIVATIONS’ family of K-25 educational entities. XGENS.org offers global, multidisciplinary career, professional development and leadership programs in fields encompassing the creative arts, cultural heritage, diplomacy, technology policy and scientific exploration. Since 1998, DIGIVATIONS' Founders have invested their decades of experience acquired in Academia (UCLA, UBC), Government, Creative Arts, and Technology Industries in establishing and positively enabling an international community of thousands of youth, educators and professionals to exponentially advance the fabric of society paralleling the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
DIGIVATIONS ™ collective entities comprise a creative technology learning lab offering interdisciplinary programs ranging from novice to advanced education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, math, the creative arts, humanities, business, and law, and its curriculum core focus is on development of critical thinking and applied skills preparing future mentors and leaders to tackle global challenges.
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