[HMDS] Camper Reflection: Camp Global Kids = An Amazing Adventure!
As Camp Global Kids 2006 comes to a close, we asked some campers to share reflections they had on the experience. Here's our first! Go Nate!
Camp Global Kids = An Amazing Adventure!
By: Nate Kongo
Global Kids has been the only organization to have an influence on the Teen Grid in Second Life. During the summer, Global Kids had a camp; the camp took place Monday-Friday, 10am EST-1pm SLT for a total of 4 weeks.
How was GK supposed to get around 25 campers to participate in the camp 3 hours a day for 20 days? A
stipend of 100USD was the answer. I am sure the main reason most of the campers came was for the stipend. I am not saying that we are bad people because of that, but it was a great idea for GK to provide a reward.
The first week of camp was vigorous journey as there was much to learn about the rules. The rules guided us in every way possible. Getting to know each other was probably one of the best parts of camp. We all became close because we were able to learn about each other. We were a group of SL veterans; we have seen the ups and downs of the teen grid, from the tsunami of malls, to the waves of trigger-happy noobs. (For some of you who don't play SL, noob in this case means somebody new to Second Life).
The activities in Camp GK can be compared to a rollercoaster. You first have the giant huge hill, which represents meeting each other, and completing the first week project. The best part of week one would probably be either the frozen photo activity, or the hippo crashing the sim. That one hippo became the mascot of Camp GK.
The second week of camp would be the the second largest hill in a coaster, which usually comes right after the first hill. This hill is smaller, but still big. In camp week 2, we started to see the global issues in the world. We played games to represent them, to show how it feels, to see how we can help. The second week project probably wasn't favored by some campers, we had to make a newspaper about various
topics that included Second Life.
Week three of camp was pretty difficult. This was a tough week because we had to pick a topic, and convince the rest of the campers to choose this topic to use as our action project. The bunny hills in a rollercoaster would be week three because the hills are small, but you go very fast over them, thus creating the feeling you are about to fly off the rollercoaster car.
The last week of camp was probably the hardest; we had to do many things. First, we had to learn about the topic that was picked, which was child trafficking. The next step was to decide what we will actually do to show the rest of the Teen Grid about the global issue. The idea came pretty quickly, we were to make a maze, and at the end of the maze you would go to the monument. When you are in the maze, you were to answer questions about trafficking, and you would see pictures and people's stories. We originally
had 6 mazes, all the same, but we decided to cut it down to 3 mazes, which are 3 different mazes. The last week was difficult, so I would compare week 4 to the sharp turns on a rollercoaster.
Camp is over, but has not been forgotten. All of us campers will remember camp, and we will still be involved at the GK islands. I hope GK does more camps and programs because I really enjoyed the summer camp. It made me realize what REALLY is happening in third world countries and even the rest
of the world. Hippo! =)
