Today we’d like to introduce you to Kai Forman, Cazden Morrison, Robbie Davidson, Jacky Chao & Winston Cadenas. Them and their team share their story with us below:
The story starts in Seven Lakes High School 2016. Kai Forman, Jacky Chao, Cazden Morrison, and Robbie Davidson were all sophomores trying to navigate the complex high school world. None of them felt like they 100% fit into any type of social group and struggled to find friends that had similar hobbies and interests as them. That was until they joined the high school film club hosted by Mr. Kolkman.
At the film club, they found a place where they belonged, where they were able to express themselves creatively and work on projects together. Their teacher, Mr. Kolkman, was incredibly supportive of their endeavors and encouraged them to keep on thinking big and take on ambitious projects. They enjoyed creating short films and youtube videos together, learning how to collaborate and work towards a shared goal. The group even hosted film festivals every year of high school, with their senior year seven lakes film festival hosted in regal grand parkway’s largest cinema with over 300 people in attendance.
High school drew to a close and it became apparent that the guys would be taking different college paths. Kai moved to Australia to pursue a video game programming degree at the Queensland University of Technology. Jacky moved to Dallas to pursue Design at UT Dallas. Robbie moved to Texas A&M for communications and Cazden studied film at UT Austin.
In Australia, Kai took a side job as a coding instructor for a kid’s holiday program. He enjoyed teaching kids important 21st-century skills and seeing the positive impact he was having on them. But the more he worked in these programs the more he saw their pitfalls. Most of the curriculums were quite boring and made kids work on their own, sitting in front of their screens for long periods with no excitement.
He knew there had to be a better way of teaching, so he drew up a plan. Growing up in Houston, Kai was well aware of the large summer camp culture that existed there. He thought that there was a gap in the market for camps that taught creative technology and quickly pitched Jacky, Cazden and Robbie the concept of Creator Camp: A 3-day filmmaking and animation summer camp where kids learn hands-on with industry-level technology creating movies with ideas they come up with themselves. A place where kids learn in a collaborative learning environment where they want to come to camp the next day.
Leading up to the summer of 2021, the guys worked hard creating high-level curriculums and talking to teachers, parents and school officials to make sure their summer camp was a success. Creator Camp officially launched and the orders started to come in. The pressure started to mount when the first two weeks sold out, and it quickly dawned on the team that there was a large weight on their shoulders to deliver a top-quality camp.
The first week went well, so did the next and the next. Kids and parents alike were loving Creator Camp. The fact that kids brought home a new movie each day to share with their friends and family was very rewarding, and to top it all off the mock Oscars film festival hosted on the final day allowed kids to appreciate their hard work and to build confidence in their own creativity.
Winston Cadenas, a high school friend who had a lot of experience teaching at vacation bible schools and retreats joined the team during that summer and the team became complete.
Overall the camp was a massive success, and all eyes were on the next summer. The summer of 2022. This time, there would be four locations, eleven employees, and a whole lot more stress.
But once again, everything went really well. The kids loved the new Youtuber curriculum, the parents loved watching their kid’s movies, and the teachers loved teaching the students. Triple the amount of students from the year before walked through creator camps doors and learned the magic of creating digital content.
With the summer season now over, the guys are looking at more exciting options for the future. A winter camp is penciled in, and the next summer is sure to be bigger and better than ever! Creator Camps goal has always been to teach as many kids as possible the magic of film, animation and online video content. We want kids to believe in their own creative ideas by teaching them how to make awesome videos. If your child is interested, please visit creatorcamp.org to see what we are all about.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We are all 22 years old, and oftentimes people see us as inexperienced and over our heads. It is both our blessing and our curse because we are able to provide education that’s full of energy and the kids identify with us more because we aren’t very old. On the other hand, when we approach other businesses and they see five college students, it often takes time for them to move past the fact that we are so young.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
One thing that we are extremely proud of is managing 11 employees this summer. We have been able to get top-quality instructors on our team and pay a fair wage, maintain a fun work culture and make teaching rewarding for them. Many of our instructors are older than us, and they have said once they realized how young we were that they had doubts in our ability to run a camp. By the end of the summer though those doubts were quelled, as we proved we can run a successful business where everyone from the kids to the parents to the employees are happy.
Any big plans?
We want to become a year-round business. We have already begun working on our winter camps for this year which will be super fun for the kids and after-school classes will be launched soon. Looking at the big picture, we hope to continue to expand and offer creative education to cities beyond Houston.
Pricing:
- $229: 3-day camp
Contact Info:
- Website: creatorcamp.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creatorcamptx
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creatorcamptx/
