The end of the school year is right around the corner and with that comes the launch of Durham College’s diverse range of summer camps for kids and individuals age 13 and over, enabling attendees to gain valuable experiences while having a lot of fun.

Case in point is the annual Summer Shorts program, which kicks off on Monday, July 9 and runs for two weekly sessions. Designed to give tech-savvy and creative students a taste of some of the full-time programs offered by the college, Summer Shorts sees attendees participate in a number of studio-based weekly workshops led by the School of Media, Art & Design.  

Students are given the opportunity to choose from three different workshops including Game Development, Animation Studio and Digital Photo/Video that are held inside state-of-the-art studios outfitted with the latest industry software located at the Oshawa campus. Each is led by recent graduates, former students and/or college faculty who assist attendees with the creation of portfolio-ready projects by the end of each week.  

“We offer project-based workshops, which give students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience while adding to their portfolios,” said Megan Pickell, Summer Shorts program co-ordinator. “Our workshops help prospective college students choose the program that best suits their interests.”

The Game Development workshop teaches the concepts of rendering, modelling and basic game theory and the Animation Studio workshop teaches storytelling, rendering, character development and the principles of animation.

Students who are compelled to capture images will love the Digital Photo/Video workshop, which offers access to industry-level photo/video equipment and teaches basic composition and post-production editing skills.

“All instructors have advanced knowledge of the software and equipment that we offer here at Durham College,” added Pickell.  

Summer Shorts workshops will run the weeks of July 9 to 13 and July 16 to 20 with registration available online at www.durhamcollege.ca/summer.