Students Explore Art, Design, and Programming at the Digital Arts and Technology Academy

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Story provided by Chelsea Isenor, Director of Communications and Board Administration

The Kamloops-Thompson School District aims to ensure that every student has programming opportunities to explore their passions and consider related career and post-secondary education pathways. The 2022-2027 District Strategic Plan outlines priorities to support students in Intellectual and Career Development, and one way the District supports these priorities is through offering specialized academies for students to explore their interest and passions, while developing core competencies to achieve their career, continuing education, and life goals.

In the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year, 19 students from schools across the District participated in the Digital Arts and Technology Academy (DATA). Since 2013, this district-wide academy has offered unique opportunities for Grade 11 and 12 students to develop relevant skills in digital art, computer programming, video game design, and project management.

DATA is a Trades and Transitions program that offers four specialized secondary courses – students attend the academy full-time for one full semester at Valleyview Secondary School. The scope of the program includes components of art, sound, music, video production, programming, design, and storytelling, as well as problem solving using mathematics and physics. After completing the program, students can apply to be granted credits for up to two TRU courses in the Computing Science Program.

Valleyview Principal Walt Kirschner, DATA program instructor Rebekah Barendregt, and DATA students recently shared their experiences in the program at the Regular Public Board Meeting on January 13, 2025. The students talked about building technical skills, working on creative projects, gaining relevant career experience, building a supportive community through collaboration, and shared a highlights reel of their projects – watch their presentation here.

When asked about their experience in DATA, students shared that it was “the best semester of school so far,” and excitedly talked about their project inspirations and how the program helped them work toward their future post-secondary education and career goals.

While in the DATA program, students had the opportunity to visit studios and schools in Vancouver to connect with industry professionals and experience collaborative working atmospheres they may consider in the future.

Through project based instruction and experiential learning, students have an opportunity to learn each aspect of video game design, from art and design to computer science and programming to game development, and then take on roles such as programmers, artists, and coders as they work in teams on their final game design projects. By the end of the semester students have created their own video game and built a portfolio of work that they can then build on in their future educational and career experiences.

Program instructor Rebekah Barendregt highlighted the value of having students work collaboratively throughout the semester, sharing “The best part of this program, for me, is the way the students get to come together and form this community. They might not all have the exact same interests, but they all have something in common. There is a really incredible sense of community that forms in this program. The pride they each feel in themself and their teammates, I’ve never experienced that teaching anywhere else, it's really rare.”