Hats Off to Whatcom Tech Prep Consortium!

I hate to date myself, but I sure wish the classes that are available to high school students through the Whatcom Tech Prep Consortium were around when I was in high school.

Okay, I’m not that old, but when I read in the Bellingham Herald that through the Consortium students are able to spend two hours each morning for a year to develop, design, program and create their own video games, I was pretty impressed.

According to the Herald, in the design course, students learn all aspects of creating games, from programming to illustrating to writing the storyline to sound effects. The final project is spending eight weeks in small groups creating a video game that is shared with friends and family and may even be popular enough that it’s played by students.

The Consortium program was designed to help high schools students county-wide identify career goals and get a head start while still in high school. Several students have gotten so much out of the video game design course that they returned the next year to perfect their skills and create a sequel game. One student/tech-guru is using his project as a vehicle to attend the University of Advanced Technology in Arizona.

Hats off to the Whatcom Tech Prep Consortium for giving students a chance to explore their career goals and enhance their computer skills in preparation for our increasingly high-tech world.