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Sergio Venegas has the remnants of black makeup around his eyes. He's ready for lunch, but only after he removes his vampire teeth. It's to be expected, however—all budding actors have to eat sometime.
"Doing these things, acting and everything, helps us to express ourselves," Venegas said. "We won't be afraid of the camera."
Actually, this isn't an acting program. This is simply part of the movie-making process students are involved in at the August 1923 iD Tech camp held at Santa Clara University. The camp is designed to give youths ages 11 to 18 a hands-on technology experience.
Venegas and Annabel Corte are Sunnyvale residents who are experiencing the camp through Community Outreach, a program that gives low-income youth the opportunity to attend.
Community Outreach is part of the internalDrive Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1999 with the intent of bridging the digital divide and bringing minorities and girls into the world of technology. internalDrive, based in Campbell, partners with technology industry leaders and community groups, such as Cisco Foundation, Adobe, Women in Technology International and Santa Clara University. The foundation works with the five iD Tech camps throughout the Bay Area to bring underprivileged youth to a camp that they could otherwise not afford.
Community Outreach students can participate in two iD Tech camps—web design and graphic arts or digital video and movie production. Venegas and Corte, students at Wilcox High School in Santa Clara, are part of the digital video course, where they learn methods of filming and editing using computer technology.
"When you see movies and they show the crew and cast, you wonder what it's like to be the director," Corte said.
The students take turns in directing, acting and filming, eventually creating a five-minute movie about a topic of their choice.
Peter Myers, a student at Boston University who teaches the digital video course, enjoys seeing the students grow in their understanding.
"It's a different group of kids every week, and each group brings something completely different to the table," Myers said. "It's interesting to see the thought process."
Community Outreach students can also focus on web design. In a week, camp attendees learn the basics of HTML, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash. Then, from scratch, they create a website with a community service theme.
"Many of the students are involved with youth centers and community organizations," said Kavita Raman, executive director of the internalDrive Foundation. "Part of their project is to make web pages about the organizations that can be used to help promote the group."
Corte and Venegas were connected with Community Outreach through Migrant Education, a program of the Santa Clara Unified School District that provides tutoring and educational resources for immigrant students.
Over three weeks, 33 Community Outreach students participated in the week-long camp, comprising approximately 20 percent of the total campers. Most of the students are local, with some coming from San Diego.
"This year the Community Outreach program at Santa Clara University tripled in size, providing nearly $20,000 in scholarships to minorities throughout California," said Karen Thurm Safran, member of the internalDrive Foundation board of directors.
Not only are the students encouraged to get involved in their communities, they are also pushed to share their knowledge with their peers, parents and neighbors.
The families of the students are pleased that the students are doing something productive and educational with their time.
"They think it's good because otherwise I would just be sleeping," Venegas said. "They think this is better for me."
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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer