Podcasts about camp galileo

Once seen as a summertime stand in for school, summer camps have changed in many ways in recent years. Glen Tripp, founder and CEO of Camp Galileo, shares how the camp experience can lead to success outside of summer vacation and has advice on how to pick a camp that is right for your child. Originally aired April 1, 2017, on SiriusXM.

Once seen as a summertime stand-in for school, summer camps have changed in many ways in recent years. Glen Tripp, founder and CEO of Camp Galileo, shares how the camp experience can lead to success outside of summer vacation and has advice on how to pick a camp that is right for your child.

Talked to Glen Trip founder of Camp Galileo, a Bay Area summer camp focused on fostering innovation and creativity in kids through active participation in summer camps across the areaTRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Okay. Speaker 2:This is method to the madness on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM university and listener supported radio. My name is Ali Nasar and today we have Glenn Tripp, the founder of Galileo, learning with us. Hello Glenn. Hi, it's great to be here. Hey, thanks for joining us. So we'd like to start off the program with talking about, um, kind of the problem statement. So you started this organization, but kind of what was the problem statement you saw when you started it? Speaker 1:Well, we got the, Saul started back in the fall of 2001 and right [00:00:30] about that time is when the no child left behind legislation passed, which was going to have the effect of focusing schools more narrowly on core academic subjects. And yet at the same time, the first 30 years of my life has shown me that what seemed to really matter in organizations and in personal fulfillment was the idea of being creative and innovative in our lives. And so it seemed like there was an opportunity to try to create some sort of program [00:01:00] that would really embrace the importance of creativity and innovation. And as schools were starting to focus more narrowly on course, I'd, I thought, hey, people care about art, people care about engineering and science education and maybe I could provide that sort of thing under one roof in the summertime. Okay. Speaker 1:So, um, tell us about your path. So you say that you, you know, you, you understood the power of creativity and innovation. Where did that come from? Well, you know, I graduated [00:01:30] from Stanford back in 1992 and I went into management consulting for a couple of years and moved on after I got, um, some great experience there and worked for a different education organization that ran after school programs. And both of those organizations were sort of fast moving early stage organizations where I got to see the power of creative problem solving and the power of group collaboration and innovation. And it seemed like the people that were having the most success [00:02:00] were those who were able to find an opportunity or see something that, uh, was a way that the company could improve or move forward and really make contributions there. And so that seemed to be more powerful in some ways than some of the core academic work that I had done. Speaker 1:So I just thought, gosh, it would be great if we could have an educational program that really emphasized those things more. Did you have a, um, can you see a common thread between the people who were able to kind of innovate and the people that had to kind of follow [00:02:30] those people? Well, the, uh, the thing that stood out the most to me was that one group of people saw themselves as actors in the world, you know, not, and then there was another group of people who seem to be more recipients of what the world would provide to them. And I know that as a parent and as a citizen, I think what I want for all kids is for them to grow up and feel like they can be actors in the world and imagine a life for themselves and, um, [00:03:00] create a vision for themselves and they go out and turn that vision into reality. Speaker 1:And that seemed to be a core differentiator between different types of people. Okay. So, um, so you, you came up with the idea. Yup. Right. And it sounds like you kind of saw you were working with another camp. Is that right? Did I hear you say that? Um, I was working for an afterschool educational program company for about seven years and um, that particular organization was focused on teaching core academic subjects like math and [00:03:30] language arts. And so this was a change for me. This was a chance to really delve into more creative things and offer that up tickets. Well, it's really exciting because you wanted to create a environment for innovation and creativity, but it takes a lot of innovation and creativity to create that environment. So, and I, I've had a lot of entrepreneurs and founders of organizations and nonprofits on this show and one of the things I'm always fascinated about is to kind of get into the process of how [00:04:00] you take the leap from having a nice steady paycheck and a job and you have this idea and then you've kind of cut to take this, this leap of faith. Speaker 1:So can you tell, walk us through that process. How did you decide to do that? Because I think it's very appropriate for, you know, the people that you're trying to train to is that you have to have a leap of faith that you want to take if you're an innovator. So how did you do that? Yeah, it definitely was a big change because I was part of a rapidly growing and successful organization and you know, around [00:04:30] 2001 when I moved on from that organization, I was newly married, had been married a year. My, um, wife and I decided to have kids and, and my wife was pregnant at the time when I got Gallio started. So here we were in our, in our new home and our new life together and I wanted to go off and do this thing that was, seemed a little bit risky. Speaker 1:And so one of the things that was really great about that time is that my wife was super supportive of this idea and, and [00:05:00] we, we kind of agreed together that whatever leaps that we would take, wherever we landed, it would be fine, that we would work through it and get to whatever was next. And so, um, I just started to reach out to people who might be interested in this idea. And I found a couple of friends who were very supportive of, of the concept. And I went down and I had a meeting with an organization called Klutz, which is a book publisher based out of Palo Alto, fantastic organization [00:05:30] and got some ideas from them. And then I went and I met with the Tech Museum of innovation down in San Jose with the education team. And, uh, they were very supportive of the idea and said that they would, would be willing to contribute some, um, curriculum and some support, uh, to getting the program started. Speaker 1:And so, you know, one by one we started to just line up friends and fellow advocates for this kind of education. And that led us to finding a place to start the first camp [00:06:00] in Palo Alto. And, uh, before we knew it, we had created a brochure and started putting it out there in the community. And the one 800 line rang to my home. And, uh, before we knew the program was fall for that summer, we had 264 kids sign up. And so we felt like we'd really hit on something that was interesting to people. Well year was that, this is in the summer of 2002 that we started the first program. Okay. So, um, and what was your pitch to like when you went to the Tech Museum of innovation? I mean, what were you telling them you wanted to [00:06:30] do? Well, what I said is I that I wanted to create a program that would bring design challenge learning to a summer program that we wanted to bring kids together and create a really fun joy-filled learning community where we would pose engineering challenges to kids where we would introduce them to artists and art movements. Speaker 1:And we would also do a lot of fun up things in the outdoors. And would the tech museum be interested in spreading its mission beyond its [00:07:00] museum walls is, I think that's what we represented for them. A chance to take some of the important approaches that they had been developing there and to do them in more communities and they got really excited about it and they actually, you know, we're willing to put their brand on the program. So that was one of the things I think that helped us initially was that in our very first brochure, the Tech Museum and Klutz both had agreed to put their names on the program is as co creators of the program. And that really helped us out. [00:07:30] That's pretty helpful with it cause they have a pretty good name. And especially in Palo Alto and yeah, both of those organizations were very well respected in Palo Alto. Speaker 1:So I think that that was one of the things that gave us credibility out of the box and it's people were interested in coming to a program that, uh, offered the, you know, a museum quality experience in their neighborhood school. Now is a program, an overnight program or is this a day program? These are all day programs and they now operate in 38 different communities around the bay area. So we tend to work with the either public school [00:08:00] districts or independent schools and transform their campuses into, um, you know, very creative spaces that, uh, come to life in a, in a, in a week to week basis. So kids tend to come for a week at a time. Many of them come for three or four weeks each summer. The programs tend to run for about eight or eight or nine weeks at the different locations. Okay. Speaker 1:We are listening to method to the madness on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM. And we're speaking with Glenn Tripp, the founder of Galileo learning. And so Glen, when you, um, [00:08:30] started that you had the 260 or so kids, the first camp, how did you come up with the curriculum? How do you, how do you create that from scratch? Right. And that was, I think part of the, the amusing part of this story is we created the name and created the brochure before we actually had the program. And that's I think what innovation and prototyping is all about, right? Is that we were sitting there and we came up with a basic proposition and we had some allies, but we didn't yet have a curriculum. And so I sat down [00:09:00] with the, we started to hire staff or that summer we put together a team of just 12 people and we consulted other resources out in the community. Speaker 1:We worked with the Tech Museum, we worked with clots. So we worked with other, other educators out there and we started to write the curriculum for that summer. And, um, you know, by the time June rolled around and we had a, a nice, nice set of, uh, um, activities and themes that we would try out with the kids. And then when we saw it in action and we knew we had gotten a lot of things right. But of course we learned a lot from those first weeks too. [00:09:30] Sure. So can you give us some examples of what are the types of things that kids do at the camp? Oh, sure. Well, you know, at the elementary we, first of all, we have programs for elementary school kids and we have programs for middle school kids at the elementary school level. We choose a weekly theme. Like, um, amusement park might be an example of something that we might do. Speaker 1:And that's something we have going on in the summer. And so, um, kids depending on their age level, will do different kinds of activities. They'll go into the science lab and they will learn how to make roller [00:10:00] coasters or you know, create electrical circuits to create a ride that is of their own design. And the art side. They might learn how to paint or draw or do sculpture related to that theme. Um, in the amusement park example, we're actually teaching them how to do graphic designs so they can actually design the, um, the, how the rides might be titled Or, um, you know, what sort of graphics might be surrounding it. And along the way they might learn about, for example, Alexander Calder who did a lot of great [00:10:30] sculpture, um, examples around circuses. So you know, that we try to tie together the art and the science themes in an integrated way so that, um, we kind of break down those walls between science and art. Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great because, you know, as a, as a math guy and a tech guy, I've always, um, thought that there is a very, um, close correlation between art and science. And I think that's not necessarily thought of in the general population of those things [00:11:00] being, you know, very directly correlated. But if you look at a computer science problem, there's usually, you know, a hundred different ways you can solve that problem. Sure. And the, the route you take is, you know, that's very artistic. To me it's, it's, it's this expression. And I think one of the misconceptions people often have is that creativity is about knowing how to draw or paint or you know, maybe be in a play or something like that. When in reality, creativity, um, is crucial for any kind [00:11:30] of endeavor that you can imagine. Whether or not you're developing a cure for cancer or, you know, being an accountant for a big company. Speaker 1:I mean, all of these things require creative leadership. Sure. And it's also one of the greatest assets of America. You know, our country has always, um, pushed forward because of our creative nature and our ability to innovate and, and see things that maybe other people don't see. And I've always attributed that I think to the cultural mix of America, the great melting pot where you have a lot of different [00:12:00] people with different perspectives coming together and that a lot of creativity is born from those kinds of frictions of different points of view looking at each other. Um, so it's great that you have something that's really trying to be a lab to incubate that and, and, and grow it, especially in the bay area because this is kind of the center of innovation, right? I would think that you've gotten a lot of support from the bay area community over now. Speaker 1:You've been in business for 10 years or something like this is our 12th or 12th summer coming up here and we've had, you know, over a hundred thousand [00:12:30] kids attend our program this summer alone, we'll have 35,000 attendees. So it's, it's definitely a message that people are hearing and responding to. I think, um, from President Obama on down, there's been a big call for developing a new generation of innovators and it's, it's super crucial at a national level that we put more energy towards this. So there's been a lot of talk, but I think that there's, um, there hasn't been a lot of, um, movement yet in [00:13:00] the direction of, uh, restructuring schools, structures or curriculum or to, to develop more innovators. And parents themselves I think are still, you know, while they're perhaps intrigued by the idea of creativity and innovation is still hard for them to let go of some of the constructs that they may have picked up from their own childhood about what education is. Speaker 1:And so, um, I do hope that we can, I do hope that we can continue to find ways to build this [00:13:30] more into our thinking about what it means to raise kids. Yeah. It does seem like there's a huge opportunity for the education system to reinvent itself with all the new technology and learning. I know, um, there's this story about, um, George Lucas soul star wars, um, to Disney, right. And he's gonna donate almost all that money to reforming education in America. Right. Um, and I think his organization called Edutopia is a great example of an organization that's really trying to encourage the [00:14:00] use of project based learning in schools, which is the approach that we use in our, in our summer programs and projects that are super compelling way for kids to learn. And when you frightened, you know, when you put things in the context of a compelling project like at our camps, building a go-cart or making a film or creating a radio, a radio program or whatever that might be, now you're creating a context and a purpose for kids to learn. Speaker 1:It's not just facts for facts six, but you're actually teaching them [00:14:30] concepts that are important to solving the project. And that then becomes a totally different story. Now kids are engaged and they're ready to start to take risks. So then on top of that, you layer on the need for a culture that supports risk-taking and a culture that encourages kids to believe that it's their place to imagine something that's not there and then go out and turn that into reality. It's, I think it's those two things together. The combination of [00:15:00] powerful project based learning and an environment or culture that supports risk taking and breaks down fear for kids that can become such a powerful combination. Have you, um, seen in the 12 years you guys have been operating, have you seen a change in the children because you know that that 12 years is in terms of uh, the pace of change for humanity has been incredible in terms of things like Google and Wikipedia and these things. Speaker 1:We're just getting started [00:15:30] in 2001, 2002, but now they're hugely powerful tools. What, how has that affected the children then their um, receptiveness to the camp and the idea that you guys are giving them there? Well, I think that that it's really a tale of two cities or maybe two stories within one bay area, city here. On one hand we see that kids are less likely to want to take risks today than they were 12 years ago. And that's backed up by um, the different types of creativity [00:16:00] research that's out there that people are becoming or the children in particular are becoming a little bit more concerned with getting the right answer to things and a little bit more nervous about engaging in open ended design. Um, what, why is that? Do they have the most common theories are that it's because we've created such an emphasis on getting the right answer and our standardized testing programs. Speaker 1:So, uh, that coupled with just general societal pressure of getting [00:16:30] better and performing it, everything that kids do, whether or not it's private baseball coaching lessons that kids get or the, you know, 20 to 30 days spent testing per year in the, in the 180 school, 180 day school year. All of those things have our kids, especially kids and kind of upper income or upper middle income neighborhoods. Being very focused on performance and getting the right answer and wanting to perform against external standards. While there might be some benefits to all that. The [00:17:00] negative side is that it, it makes kids, like kids often want to be told what to do. Um, the other dynamic that's going on as the kids are extremely scheduled and a lot of their days and weeks consists of being told what to do from point a to point B to point c each day. Speaker 1:So when kids have less autonomy to make decisions or direct their day or figure out what they're gonna, how they're going to play. And when kids are more concerned about, um, testing and the rigorous are performing well and other people's sides, it just makes them a little bit to [00:17:30] it. It reduces their proclivity to take risks. At the same time, there are all these neat new tools that kids are learning how to use. So we have kids that are making films and we have kids that are building apps and we have kids who are, um, participating in the maker fair. And there, there are many bright spots in the story I think that are showing that there, um, that, that there are a group of kids that are really responding to the new opportunities that are out there. There's a lot going on. Yeah. Speaker 2:So it sounds like it's [00:18:00] kind of, um, uh, it's really interesting because I would've thought the second part of your answer would have been more, um, what I, where I thought kids would might be going would be because of the kind of democratization of information and the ability to create on an iPad. You can mix a song or you can do so many different things and they have access to a lot of stuff. They would become, you know, more open and receptive to creativity. But what you're saying makes a lot of sense. Speaker 1:Well, I think there's attention attention there and I think one of our jobs as parents and educators [00:18:30] is to try to see how we can use all of these tools for, um, for good. I know that, um, you know, I think a lot of the ways that kids are using, um, the technology is for distraction or, or entertainment just like we as adults often do. But boy, the amazing tools that are coming out right now, um, should provide, um, a lot of great opportunities for, for creativity. And so I think, uh, um, the key is to just [00:19:00] figure out which of those ones or which of those tools are most useful for creativity. And, and to also teach the kids the skills that they need to do the thing. You know, it's not enough to, to give somebody a copy of I movie and have them, you know, make a few edits, but let's really teach them how to, um, use story to express something because it's, it's a combination of the tool but also the age old needs that we have is to tell a story. Speaker 1:And so, um, the opportunities are there and there's a lot of great [00:19:30] things percolating. I mentioned the maker fair and there's young maker groups sprouting out around, sprouting up around the bay area, which is really exciting. There's Lego robotics leaks now that didn't use to exist. Um, there's code.org that recently launched and is trying to get kids excited about coding and has all sorts of great online resources. There's a new group called hacker scouts that's recently been formed that is creating guilds of young makers all around the bay area and beyond. There's a new website called diy.org [00:20:00] which offers great, um, ways for kids to learn new skills online and create community with other kids. So, so many great new things are emerging and, um, and, and of course there's programs like Galileo that I think are also meeting that need. So I think it is an exciting time for innovation. There is a movement brewing. It's gonna take some work. Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, you're listening to method to the madness, a show dedicated to the innovative spirit of the bay area on KALX Berkeley 90.7 FM. And we're sitting here talking to the founder of Galileo learning. [00:20:30] This is Glenn trip. And, uh, my name is Eileen Huizar and I wanted to ask you, Glenn. So operationally, it's an interesting meth, um, model because, um, you have kind of a seasonal type of operation where you have to recruit and create Speaker 1:this massive thing. It's about 35,000 kids this summer. So tell us about the challenges of that. How do you, what's the staff side? How do you make that happen? Right. Well, I think that the thing [00:21:00] that's most, I mean I always like to think that Gallo has two parts of its secret sauce, the first being a series curriculum development effort that, that invest hundreds of thousands of dollars every year developing a new and fresh curriculum related to this purpose. But, um, but what parents tell us more frequently and most of all is that the staff that we hire are passionate and enthusiastic, engaged and highly, you know, highly motivated, intelligent people. And, um, so [00:21:30] I think that thing that we're probably have developed the greatest competencies around is how to attract and select and then support and incredible staff. I mean this summer we will have 1100 staff members, um, half of whom are college graduates, professional educators who are leading the instruction, the other half of whom are, um, college students who support the instruction and provide the, um, group leadership and management for the kids. Speaker 1:And, and that's [00:22:00] one of the things we wanted to do differently when we started this program was, you know, since so many day camps are run by high school students and college students, we wanted to up the ante and involved professional educators who really buy into our, our message and who can bring their skilled instruction to achieving this outcome with kids. So yeah. So every year we mount this massive effort to bring on 1100 or more people into the system. Fortunately we retain a very high percentage of the last years group. [00:22:30] But reaching out to college campuses and to schools and to museums and through all sorts of ag organizations is a big part of what we do every year. I think the thing that attracts people to working for gala and the thing that keeps them coming back is that we one our really high integrity about our mission and to from the moment they become part of our organization, we're very, very interested in how we can support their professional development. Speaker 1:So everybody who comes in [00:23:00] is viewing this as an opportunity to become a better educator and they get supported every step of the way. So, um, we really take the whole leadership and team development part really seriously and, and I think that's why we have so many applicants. Okay, great. So, um, you're getting back to the kids. Can you, um, can you give any kind of of your favorite stories or examples of, you know, projects or something that came out that you were blown away with, with the kids came up with? [00:23:30] Yeah, I just, last summer, um, we introduced what we call go-karts extreme for our middle school students. We have one week of go-karts where the kids build, um, a go-kart is a sort of start. So they start with wood and drive, train and wheels in a over the course of their week, build a build a go cart from scratch and it's pretty challenging. Speaker 1:It takes a lot of hard work. There's a lot of drilling, there's a lot of song, there's a lot of painting, there's a lot of sanding, there's a lot of design work. And um, in the end they get to ride [00:24:00] around in their cart, which is something that I really love. Now. Last year we added a program called extreme go-carts where they could bring their go-karts back and take them to the next level. And that was super fun to see because at that point the kids are more competent with their tools. They have more confidence about the whole workshop environment. And then I started to see girls and boys who were turning their go-carts into convertibles. I saw kids adding drink, you know, Cup holders. I saw kids [00:24:30] adding special trunks that could open and close. And my favorite thing is watching kids add sound systems to their go-karts. So they actually created ways that they could plug in their iPods and play them as they rode around in their, in their go-karts. And when you see a girl go from not having ever handled a, an electric drill to, you know, drilling in and designing her whole sound system on the go cart, that's a pretty incredible thing to see. Speaker 2:Yeah. That's awesome. So what music was she playing this calc? So you have to ask [00:25:00] them. I'm just joking. So, um, all right. So now that you've been around for 12 years, do you have any, um, of your, of your students who have gone on and do you have any success stories that you can share with us of what did, what did Galileo to have? Do we have any, someone started Facebook or not exactly. Speaker 1:Well, I know that there was a, one of our campers who, um, got some, uh, some press last year for developing an app, um, while she was in high school that was getting [00:25:30] some traction in science. So that's kind of a neat little success story. We've had a number of campers grow into staff members now, which has been a really exciting thing to see. And I, I, uh, often have a chance to interact with them and hear stories about how they have put their, uh, the skills that they learned at camp to work in their school environment. You know, I like here those, there's a story of a high school student who, um, had both camp come to us as a camper and then later worked with us as a high school intern [00:26:00] and she had started a, um, a filmmaking club on campus. And the thing that she told me was that she had, uh, been inspired by the idea that, hey, if there's not something in the world that you want to be there, and let me say this another way. Speaker 1:If you see a need, if you see, if you wish there was a filmmaking club, you don't have to just wish that there was a film making club. You can actually wish that into reality if you take the steps to creating that on your campus. And she had started a filmmaking club on campus. And I thought that that was a really [00:26:30] great example of somebody who was taking initiative and not being just reactive to what the world gives them, but being proactive in terms of creating an outcome that she wanted. And that's the, that's the kind of thing that we're hoping for that when kids get to high school, when they get to college, that they, um, see themselves as authors in the world. Great. And so I like to always kind of end on, um, asking a founder, like, you who seen this program start from 260 kids to 35,000 kids and you know, such, you've [00:27:00] gotten such great traction and feedback, um, five years from now, where is Galileo going to be? Speaker 1:Well, the first thing is we had, we'd like to, and we've always believed that we will, we won't really want to be deeply part of growing up in the bay area. You know, right now we have a chance to work with our kids for a few weeks each summer. And we would love to figure out ways to go deeper with them throughout the school year. Whether or not that's afterschool programs or weekend workshops or online communities or other things. We would really like to be [00:27:30] more of a day to day part of their lives and their family lives. In the past few months I've started doing parent education workshops around these themes and for example, just got to do on last night in Saratoga where we had a couple of hundred parents who were very interested in the idea of how they can nurture creativity home. I would like to see a support this kind of learning at home as well. Speaker 1:So that's, that's our first goal is to just keep getting better and better here in the bay area and fulfill our vision of, of trying to, uh, um, really have [00:28:00] the kind of deep impact that we want to have on the kids that we work with along the way. We'll decide if there are other metro areas that, um, we think that this could work in and, and we'll consider that. But my number one goal is to really create an institution that is respected here in the bay area and that, um, we'll go on and on long after I'm involved with it. So. Oh, agree. That's actually a, interestingly enough, that's a lot of the, the founders same mentality is I want to create something that is bigger than me and it goes on forever. So sounds like [00:28:30] you're well on your way, so congratulations. Thank you. Speaker 1:Um, and uh, for the people listening, how can they get involved? How can they learn more? Right. Well, probably the easiest way is to go to our website, which is www.galileo-camps.com and that has information on both jobs that might be available for the summer, um, or year round jobs. We're always hiring. And it also has information on the camps themselves for any parents out there that are interested in nurturing creativity in their kids. Okay. Well thanks Glenn. And this has been method to the madness on KLX Berkeley. [00:29:00] You can check us out a method to the madness.org and thanks for joining everybody. Have a great day. Thank you. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.