Founded in 1982, Emagination Tech Camps runs summer programs for children and teens in six states.
Students at Emagination Tech Camps have the option of participating in two-week day camp or sleep-away camp at comfortable college campuses. Morning and afternoon learning sessions are both broken up by 45-minute "unplugged" sessions, during which students can participate in activities like frisbee, LARPing, and board games.
Emagination Tech Camps were founded in 1982, making it one of the oldest tech camps in the United States. In its 40 years of operation, Emagination has expanded its summer tech camps to six college campuses in the East and Midwest. It is a family-owned company, and all its camps are accredited by the American Camp Association.
In addition to cutting-edge tech training, Emagination offers recreational activities designed to increase a camper’s social interaction, teamwork skills, physical fitness, and life skills. For 45 minutes twice a day, the camp goes “unplugged, ” and all campers take a break from technology. All campers participate in daily recreation activities, including swimming, field games, ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, kickball, capture the flag, and LARPing. Campers also play board games, Magic the Gathering, and Dungeons & Dragons.
Emagination does not currently offer online courses as they believe in the benefits of a more traditional camp setting. Emagination works hard to incorporate physical activity and more traditional camp activities along with tech training.
Their camps are currently offered on the campuses of Fairfield University in Connecticut, Mercer University in Georgia, Lake Forest Academy in Illinois, Bentley University in Massachusetts, Rosemont College in Pennsylvania, and George Mason University in Virginia. Emagination specifically selected these campuses to be safe, fun, and enriching environments. Campers stay in air-conditioned dorm facilities and camp directors and counselors who provide supervision.
At Emagination, campers choose which courses they’ll be studying while at camp, which provides them with a camp experience customized to their interests and skill level. Campers choose from 20 course offerings from four categories: Create Digital Art & Media, Learn to Code, Design Games, and Explore Engineering.
Campers are allowed to mix and match, or they can develop more in-depth knowledge in one of those categories. Campers staying for one week take two classes of their choice; campers staying for two weeks choose four. For example, campers may choose to take the Web Design Course from Digital Art & Media, but the Coding Basics Course from Learn to Code. Or, you could combine Minecraft World Design from Design Games with Robotics from Explore Engineering, 3D Modeling & Printing from Art & Design, and Coding in Java from Learn to Code.
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The age range for Emagination’s Summer Tech Camp is 8-17. Campers ages 13-17 may attend Summer Coding Camp.
Campers customize their experience by selecting courses to take while at camp. There are four primary categories that students can choose from. Campers are free to mix and match classes or stay within a single category to deepen their knowledge.
Students can select from animation-centered courses in Create Digital Art & Design such as Animation, Animation: Cartoon Creation, Character Styling & Animation. Or, they can select 3D Modeling & Printing, Cricut Design Space, Graphic Design, or Web Design.
Campers can Learn to Code with course offerings like Coding Basics, Coding in C#, Coding in Java, Roblox Studio, or Scratch. Coders start with Python, one of the most popular programming languages in the world.
Campers may also select to take classes from the Design Games category. Here, campers can study Action Game Design, Minecraft World Design, Unity 2D, Unreal Game Design, or Strategy Game Design.
Emagination campers who want to Explore Engineering can take Robotics, RC Cars, BrickLink Studio, or Cryptography.
Emagination is dedicated to providing a traditional camp experience and teaching technical skills. They do not currently offer any online courses. Students must enroll in a camp to take their classes. They currently provide Day Camps and Overnight Camps, which feature room, meals, tech courses, daily activities, and special events.
Emagination is committed to nurturing girls interested in tech. Emagination believes in co-ed education, and 20% of their campers are girls. They also offer additional benefits to female campers such as a Girls Wing at their Overnight Camps and a Girls Night at every camp. At these events, female campers will have the opportunity to network with other girls interested in STEM and be mentored by a female counselor.
In Emagination's ongoing commitment to supporting girls in STEM, half of their counselors are women. They believe this creates strong role models for both male and female campers.
There is currently no admissions process for Emagination Tech Camps. Anyone can register on their website for whichever camp they wish to attend.
Prices vary depending on which camp you wish to attend. Overnight Tech Camp is $1695, and Overnight Coding Camp is $3249. Day Camps are priced from $995 to $1849. Some courses carry additional lab fees.
Emagination offers discounts for multiple-week enrollments and $100 off for sibling enrollments. Campers who refer a friend are also eligible for a discount.
Emagination Tech Camps is one of the oldest tech camps in the United States. They offer a traditional camp environment paired with tech classes. Campers may select which tech courses they are interested in for a customizable camp experience. Emagination is committed to encouraging girls in STEM, and women are highly represented in their camp staff.
Reviews online of Emagination Tech Camps are mixed, with a current Yelp score of 2.5.
Some former campers and counselors report positive experiences: “As a previous camper and program assistant, Emagination gave me the opportunity to grow, learn, make friends, and build my leadership skills. I couldn’t recommend it enough, I looked forward to it every year I went.” Another writes, “Emag is my life. Everyone I know spends their whole year waiting to go back to camp. Yeah, okay, it's a little expensive. Totally and completely worth it!”
Some parents also report positive camping experiences: “Great experience for both of my older sons and looking forward to having our youngest go this summer! Kids have fun, make new friends, learn to code, and get outside for some fun events as well…highly recommended.”
However, some parents complain about a lack of communication between camp employees and parents. Some parents had a difficult time reaching their children while at camp. Other parents complained about counselors failing to give out needed medications: “…If getting medications on time, and having a nurse present is important, I would suggest finding another camp.”
And, some parents felt like Emagination failed at letting them know what their kids were doing, “…there was only one set of pictures posted on Facebook, although we were told there would be an update every day by 12—1 pm.”
One parent has posted on several review sites that their child was the victim of severe bullying at Emagination that went unnoticed. “If you don't want your kid to be bullied and harassed by fellow campers, all while camp staff looks the other way, don't send them here. It's a poorly run camp with minimal actual computer learning happening. There is very little adult supervision and college age staff is poorly trained.” A former counselor echoed this opinion online, saying he was forced to work for less than minimum wage and never received training in the subjects he was expected to teach.
Another parent writes that her daughter felt like a prisoner and the recreational activities are oversold by Emagination. She writes, “It's supposed to be for 15-18-year-olds so I thought it would be a good pre-college experience for my daughter to experience college life and find out if she wanted to pursue a career in game design. She actually had less freedom than at her traditional sleepaway camp, which she attended for 6 years. They were at the BC Law School campus, which was a ghost town—nobody there but the campers. They weren't allowed to use the facilities at the main campus 1 mile down the road, so no swimming or sports. The ‘daily recreation’ program consisted of going outside for 15 minutes and being told to ‘get some sun.’”
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