Dr. Steven Lee Berman, Sunnyvale, CA & Leavenworth, WA: TEACHES GLOBAL LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION, DRAMA, SCIENCES, WORLD BUILDING, LAW, ENTREPRENEURSHIP/BUSINESS, AMONG OTHERS) BS/Advanced Graduate Work Engineering (Materials & Computation); J.D. (IP/Entertainment Law emphasis)
Board Director, Co-Founder & CEO, Academic for the following enterprises:
DIGIVATIONS XGENS, Silicon Valley, CA DIGIVATIONS Education Ventures, Vancouver, BC DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE, Leavenworth, WA DEMIGOD LODGE, Leavenworth, WA
Co-Founded
a STEM+ARTS+MOVEMENT K-20 creative learning lab, federal 501(c)(3)
non-profit Educational Organization and Innovation & Literary Summer
Institute for Talented & Gifted youth dedicated to inspiring the
next generation of innovators which was awarded peer reviewed NASA
Summer of Innovation grants. DIGIVATIONS™ offers K-20 programming
with a focus on fostering youth and professionals through the
Singularity Era. Steve is also Founder, CEO and General Counsel of Collaboratorium Innovation Resources, a company providing the following service offerings: IP Packaging to solve core international industrial market and societal needs; seed/prototype fund focused on bridging the gap between research and early stage development (translational research services); technology commercialization services, and strategic intelligence and reports; as well as advisory services to research and technology development corporations, universities, and business enterprises, among others. His relationships with senior level networks (corporate decision makers and Board level) help clients’ foster capital growth for new and existing enterprises and secure funding of innovative technologies. Read more about Steve.
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Anne Deane Berman, PhD, (Sunnyvale, CA & Leavenworth, WA: TEACHES MUSIC COMPOSITION, WORLD BUILDING & INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN)BM Composition, Oberlin
Conservatory of Music & MA/PhD Composition & Computer Music from UC Santa Barbara
Board Director, Co-Founder & Vice President, Academic for the following enterprises:
DIGIVATIONS XGENS, Silicon Valley, CA DIGIVATIONS Education Ventures, Vancouver, BC DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE, Leavenworth, WA DEMIGOD LODGE, Leavenworth, WA
Dr. Anne's career spans more than twenty years in the fields of education, arts and
technology centered on innovation. New acoustic and electronic works installed/performed in more than 75 venues in over a dozen countries and for radio and TV (Carnegie Hall, SIGGRAPH, San Jose Tech Museum, IEE Conference: Germany, International Human Computer Interface Conference: Las Vegas, World Internet Conference: Madrid, Goteborg Museum of Art: Sweden, International Super Computing). Before she founded DIGIVATIONS with her husband, Steve Berman, Anne
was a faculty member at UCSB’s Technology Management Program,
University of British Columbia’s School of Music, Iowa State
University’s Virtual Reality Applications Center where she was one of
the founding faculty members of the graduate degree program in Human
Computer Interface. Read more about Anne's background.
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Edward Buendia (New Jersey: DRAWING, PAINTING, WEAPON DESIGN, INTERESTS IN SCIENCE, HISTORY, HUMAN RIGHTS, & ADVOCACY FOR CHILDREN) DIGIVATIONS™ Camp Demigod Artist and Senior Faculty (2010-present), has created over a hundred images in collaboration with Co-Founders Steven Lee Berman and Anne Deane Berman, PhD. “His collaborative relationship with Dr. Steve is extraordinary. Eddie is able to interpret Steve’s complex concepts to create evocative images.” These images include illustrations for their “Rocketry Playbook”, “Sphere of Influence Game”, and murals, paintings and drawings created at Camp Demigod. He teaches drawing and painting and illustrates the camper’s characters and worlds.
He is the Founder and Creator of the non-profit “Eyes of the Innocent” children’s art program. Since 1975, he has taught over 3,000 children and adults in fine arts. In addition to his expert teaching, he has a long history of establishing and collaborating on the development of socially valuable multi-disciplinary artistic initiatives. In the 1970s, he founded Artistas Del Barrio, a collective of muralists in Southern California whose murals have taken on historical significance and influenced generations of muralists. In the last two years, he painted four shrines at Our Lady of Guadalupe/St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Lindenwold, New Jersey. In winter 2018, At Our Lady of Soledad in Coachella, California he repaint murals he painted in 1977. In two years he has been commissioned to paint a shrine for Our Lady of Soledad in in Coachella. Read more about Eddie here.
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Eric Mamajek (Pasadena, CA) is Deputy Program Chief Scientist of the Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP), a NASA program managed by the Astrophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD). The ExEP Program Office is at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, where I am also an astronomer within the JPL Astrophysics and Space Sciences Section.
My research focuses on the the formation and evolution of exoplanets and stars. My recent research involves the discovery and characterization of circumplanetary/protoexosatellite disks and/or rings (e.g. J1407b), understanding the evolution of protoplanetary and dusty debris disks around stars, improving age estimates for stellar, protostellar, substellar, and exoplanetary systems, and surveys to image extrasolar planets and substellar objects in the infrared and optical/near-IR, respectively. I have discovered or co-discovered new nearby young stellar groups in the solar neighborhood within a few hundred parsecs of the Sun, and co-discovered low-mass stellar companions to some famous bright stars (e.g. Alcor, Fomalhaut, Canopus). I recently co-discovered the closest known flyby of a star to the solar system (Scholz's star).
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Meisam Hassanpour (Dubia, UAE: TEACHING LEADERSHIP, ETHICS & EMPATHY; ENGLISH LANGUAGE & CREATIVE WRITING, INTERESTS IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS, INNOVATION, CULTURES & MENTORSHIP) is a high school English teacher and the head of English department (KG-Grade 12) at Sharjah American International School-Dubai Campus. He also holds other responsibilities—he is in charge of the implementation of Moral Education program, trains the students for and organizes model united nations conferences, runs the English as an Additional Language program for English language learners, leads the SAIS charity club, and last but not least teaches an undergraduate writing course at the university he graduated from. He has a bachelor’s degree in English translation and a master’s degree in TESOL, an international association of professionals advancing the quality of English language teaching through professional development, research, standards, and advocacy. Meisam loves hiking and mountain climbing, camping, roller blading and ice skating, going on road trips, reading beautiful novels, surfing the net, gardening and farming, cooking, and doing anything that is hands-on.
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Leslie Bishko (Vancouver, BC) is an Associate Professor of Animation at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Her teaching and research are centered on the dynamics of expression through movement in the medium of animation. She is a certified Laban Movement Analyst and has published widely on how LMA can help animators gain a deeper understanding of the Functional and Expressive aspects of movement.
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Virginia Lester, RN, MSN, ARNP, DIGIVATIONS Camp Demigod Nurse Practitioner (2013-present) Point Roberts, WA INTERESTS IN MENTORSHIP, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MUSIC & MEDICINE) has more than 35 years experience as a Nurse Practitioner and director of clinics in both California and most recently developed and managed the Point Roberts Clinic. She developed and managed the Nurse Practitioner program at California State University Fresno. She was on several different national committees helping to develop the health care plan under the Clinton Administration, the precursor to Obama Care.
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 United Nations, New York
Hajar El Ouafa (Morocco and Paris: LANGUAGE STUDIES IN ARABIC & FRENCH, INTERESTS IN BUSINESS, GLOBAL AFFAIRS, LEADERSHIP & ENTREPRENEURSHIP) has been an international coordinator of Model United Nations of Africa since August 2014. She also works for the leading provider in France of foreign language courses for children and teens. Hajar received a bachelor degree in English linguistics from Cadi Ayyad University in Morocco. She studied English studies and North American Civilisations at the Sorbonne in Paris. She is currently enrolled in Paris 8 University, working on a second bachelors degree in Applied Foreign Languages. “Taking part in an international camp will enable me to help campers grow into leaders, discover their futures, become confident in themselves, and form lasting friendships with people from all over the world.”
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Keith Caram (New York, New York: TEACHING THEATRICAL COMBAT, ACTING, MUSIC, INTERESTS IN INNOVATION, SCIENCE & MENTORING CHILDREN) DIGIVATIONS Camp Demigod 2017 & 2018 Assistant Creative Director, is a New York City-based Actor and Musician. Recent credits include: Keith performed as Orpheus in a scene from Emily C.A. Snyder's The Seduction of Adonis, A Comedy of Heirors (Turn to Flesh Productions) and he joined Hamlet Isn't Dead's Resident Acting Company in 2018. The Resident Acting Company is Hamlet Isn't Dead's professional actor development program that works to further the careers of up-and-coming Classical Actors living NYC. He played The Guy - PINWHEEL (Random Access Theater Co.), Jack - In the Woods We Return (NYC Fringe), among others. Keith was the Assistant Director to a nearly sold out production of David West Read's Dream of the Burning Boy presented by Normal Ave Productions. Keith also spent six months touring the nation as Percy Jackson in the Off-Broadway musical The Lightning Thief. Keith also directs plays, writes pretty good poetry, and helps develop new musicals and plays all over NY. Keith is very passionate about arts education and is a teaching artist for the DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE located in Leavenworth, Washington - yet another, more mountainous, part of the woods. Read more about Keith's background.
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Charis Martin (Cyprus and Scotland: ANCIENT GREEK & ROMAN CULTURES & MYTHOLOGY, CREATIVE WRITING & INNOVATION) graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2018 with a Masters Degree in Ancient History, focussing on the Ancient Greek and Roman Civilizations. She credits growing up on the island of Cyprus, steeped in Greek culture and mythology, with nurturing her love for the ancient world and the tales that formed and inspired it. She has spent seven years working with children from the ages of three to fifteen and loves the opportunity to share her knowledge with them and see them develop interests of their won. Her own interests include writing original stories and fan fiction, reading, sailing, scuba-diving, archery and acting. She also speaks Greek and often attempts cooking traditional Greek foods. She shares her love for mythology with demigods through questions, writing, workshops, innovation classes and roleplaying. This will be her 4th summer at Camp Demigod.
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Jacob Berman (Sunnyvale, CA and Leavenworth, WA: INTERESTS: GLOBAL AFFAIRS, LEADERSHIP, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, HISTORY, INNOVATION/SCIENCE, AI, WORLD BUILDING, GAMES/VR, LATIN) is the son of the founders of Camp Demigod. Much of the curriculum has been driven by his interests starting when he was seven years old, including science innovations, history, theater, creative writing, LEGO, Robotics, Minecraft, VR, Camp Half-Blood, Camp Fandom and this summer, his international experience as a Delegate to the Model UN in Geneva, Switzerland is helping to shape Dr. Steve's XGENS programs.
"I want to create camps based on the principle that kids have an enormous reservoir of creativity and innovative ideas which they can share with other like-minded kids with common interests. My parents consult with me on most aspects of creating the camp each summer, from cabins, food, recreation, curriculum, camp store, hiring counselors to meeting potential faculty.
For the last several years, I have been an intern and teaching assistant for the Canadian DIGIVATIONS Education Ventures after school, day camps and homeschool programs. My world view and interests are the result of my experiences at Camp and DIGIVATIONS.
I am freshman at Kehilla Jewish High School in Palo Alto, CA where I am the Co-Editor of the Student newspaper. In February, I participated in the west coast Model United Nations conference in San Jose, CA as a member of the Cuba delegation. In December, I earned two 3rd place Karate trophies in my belt class for Kata and Sparring at the Z-Ultimate National Championship Tournament. In April, I participated in the Model UN in Geneva as the Canadian Delegate. I love swimming, cooking, computer games and tennis."
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Emily Grunert (Orville, WA: INTERESTS IN LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION/SCIENCE, AI & ROBOTICS) has been a camper at Camp Demigod since her love of Percy Jackson led her to the discovery of the camp the first year it was established. Summer of 2017 was her first year as a C.I.T. "I've had so many great experiences at camp and they're something I'll always carry close to my heart." She feels like Camp Demigod has had a big part in her life and helping her be more confident, open minded, and independent. Emily attends Oroville High School and is part of National Junior Honor Society, Girl Scouts, Upward Bound, and is a passionate clarinet player among many other things. She's always looking for new experiences and loves learning new things. Emily loves reading, science, music, helping younger campers, and making people smile. She hopes that she can make the Camp Demigod experience just as magical for the campers as it was when she first stepped onto camp grounds.
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Ella Veljovich (Mercer Island, WA: INTERESTS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP, VETERINARY MEDICINE, CALLIGRAPHY & FANFICTION) currently attends Mercer Island High School as a junior (11th grade) and also attends classes part time at Bellevue College through the Running Start program. She plays soccer for Mercer Island High School and Mercer Island Football Club and loves yoga, spending time with her dog and family, and watching Marvel movies with friends. Ella is also a member of National Charity League (NCL), a volunteer organization which promotes mother-daughter relationships and leadership development as well as volunteerism. She is currently co-owner and co-manager of HelpEduc8 LLC, a non-profit bulk school supplies distributer for Islander Middle School that donates 100% of profits to aiding youth worldwide. Ella first joined Camp Demigod in the summer of 2017 as a CIT and loves the open, accepting environment, along with its goal to empower young individuals. Camp offers flexibility and allows individuality and creativity to shine. Ella is passionate about animals, feminism, human rights, and the environment, as well as the encouragement of empathy in our world.
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Nathan Senyard (Ladner, British Columbia: INTERESTS IN CREATIVE WRITING, SCIENCE, AI & ENTREPRENURESHIP) has been attending Digivations ever since he was 9 years old, and as he has grown up, he has become an invaluable part of the DIGIVATIONS team. He has a love of fiction and writing, and is eager to share these interests with anyone willing to listen. He's constantly in motion when running camps, making sure that campers always have something fun to occupy their time with. He has taken an academic leadership role with DIGIVATIONS Education Ventures after school and day camps in BC, Canada. When he's not working at DIGIVATIONS, he can be found reading books, practicing his guitar or riding his bike around the neighbourhood.
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Derron Mendel (Palo Alto, CA: INTERESTS IN SINGING, ACTING, ROLEPLAYING, GAMES, & MUSICAL THEATER) is sixteen years old and a rising high school junior. He is a singer, actor, role-player, gamer, and all-around adventurer! Since the age of ten Derron has been involved in musical theater, most recently appearing as Jacob in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He has also performed in a number of other plays and musicals. Derron studies voice and sings with HaZamir: The International Jewish Teen Choir, with whom he has sung at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Derron is vice president of his school's Improv club and is a founding member of the a capella club. He loves reading Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and almost any fantasy adventure series. Derron is super-excited to be joining Camp Demigod this summer!
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Michelle Gerez (Calgary, Alberta: INTERESTS IN LITERATURE, CREATIVE WRITING, ACTING, MARTIAL ARTS) has a natural curiosity and interest in life, and hopes to make the world a better place for all. She is currently passionate about reading, writing, singing, acting and martial arts, although that could change in the flash of a moment as a shiny new idea catches her attention. She values all of her friendships (online, school and DIGIVATIONS) very highly. She has been going to DIGIVATIONS for two summers as a camper, which has provided a nurturing setting for her personal growth and helped her overcome a painful shyness, and where she developed a love for writing . She wants to share her energy, enthusiasm with life and wry sense of humor with DIGIVATIONS campers, to help them discover their real potential (and to have lots of fun!).
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Larysa Ipema (Tsawwassen, BC: INTERESTS IN SCIENCE, ART & MUSIC) has attended Camp Demigod for many years and is excited to return in a CIT position. Laryssa plays many instruments, loves games and is an artist who can share and develop talents in others.
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ASSISTANT COUNCELORS-IN-TRAINING
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Tomas Portillo (Mexico City, Mexico: INTERESTS IN LITERATURE, PHOTOGRAPHY, GAMES, MARTIAL ARTS & PUNS) loved his Digivations Camp experience. He comes to camp from Mexico and enjoys learning about other campers' culture as well as sharing his own. He also enjoys reading, photography, video games, snakes, memes and puns. When he´s not at camp, he practices Okinawa karate and is currently 6th kyu (advanced purple belt). He looks forward to helping other campers have a wonderful time at Digivations, and making great memories and new friends.
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Adam Boyd (Tsawwassen, BC: INTERESTED IN INNOVATION/ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AI, VOICE-OVER ACTING & 3-D PRINTING) has been a DIGIVATOR since he was 9. This will be his 5th summer at Camp Demigod. He has always been fascinated with creating characters with his voice. He is currently learning how to work as a Voice-Over actor for games and animations. He also has an extensive nurf gun collection which he amplifies with devices he designs and makes using his 3D printer.
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Delia/Milo Mechem-Miller (Mercer Island, WA: INTERESTS IN CIVIC LEADERSHIP, ART, CREATIVE WRITING, WORLD BUILDING, AI, INNOVATION/SCIENCE & THEATER) has been coming to Camp Demigod since he was 10. He has acted in several plays and musicals as part of the acclaimed Youth Theatre Northwest company. He is passionate about social justice and has taken a leadership role in his community on issues of equality for the global LGBTQ community.
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Max Fischel (Mercer Island, WA: INTERESTS IN MUSICAL THEATER, ACTING, LEADERSHIP, SCIENCE, AI & TEACHING) is 15 years old and thrilled to be returning to camp for his 3rd year in a row! Max is a musical theatre actor, geography nerd, music expert (especially broadway), and a teacher's assistant for 2nd graders at his synagogue on Sundays. In his spare time, he looks at memes, belts his heart out to Broadway hit shows such as Wicked, Dear Evan Hansen, Waitress, Heathers (yes they made a musical and it's great), Mean Girls (They made one too and it's also great), and more. He also enjoys reading, spending too much time on his phone, telling horribl(ly good) puns, and getting lost in the depths of YouTube, etc. He is happy to be at camp because everyone becomes very close, and it turns into a family that spontaneously bursts into song, laugh at nerd jokes, and generally have a great time with each other. He's excited to meet more people this summer!
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Robert Macdougall (2014-present), DIGIVATIONS Camp Demigod Martial Arts and
Theatrical Combat faculty member.
Stage Combat: Robert
Macdougall is an actor, stuntman/stunt coordinator, and award
winning Fight Director whose work has been seen internationally on both
stage and film. He has choreographed fights involving weapons as diverse
as bullwhips and bowie knives, broadswords and battle axes, rapiers and
daggers, dueling pistols and maching guns, as well as Asian weapons
from China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, and India. He
is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors, Society of
Australian Fight Directors, and Communitas Gladii (Germany). As
Fight Director he has worked at theaters nationwide and around the
world, including Seattle Repertory Theater, Bathouse Theater, A.C.T.
Seattle, Empty Space, Seattle Opera, Tacoma Opera, Dallas Shakespeare
Festival, Artemis Theater Company, Harlequin Theater Company, Pacific
Conservatory for the Performing Arts, Changing Scene, Seattle
Shakespeare, Seattle Children's Theater, Shakespeare in the Grass
Touring Company, Central Coast Shakespeare Company, as well as Adams St
Theater, Edinburgh, Scotland; Salzburger Landestheater, Salzburg, and
Theater Reichenhau, Vienna, in Austria; Theater Ravensburg, Cafe Des
Gruaens, and Theater An Der Rott, in Germany; Leo Foo Park in Taiwan
(ROC); Phuket Fantasea, Phuket, and Alankarn Theater, Jomtiem in
Thailand. He has done
residencies, master classes, and served on faculties of educational
institutions, and actor training academies worldwide including, National
Theater Conservatory, University of Washington, University of
California, Dallas Theater Center, University of New Mexico, University
of Montana, University of Arizona, New Orleans Center for Creative Arts,
Case Western Reserve University, Naropa Institute in the USA;
University of Victoria, Canada: as well as the Actors Conservatory,
Australia, Marymount College, Great Britain, Athanor Akademie,
Germany. In the USA he has also worked with artist in schools programs
in California, Montana, Colorado, and Alaska. He has served on the Board
of Directors of the United Stuntman's Association, and has taught at
the International Stunt School. He is co-founder of Shakespeare Plus,
and Proteus Theater Company in the USA, and founder of Sword and the
Play Stage Combat Workshops in the USA and Germany. He
is a recipient of the "Patrick Crean Award" and the "Presidents Award
for Excellence", from the Society of American Fight Directors, and 3
time recipient of the "People's Choice" awards for fight directing. He
has performed as actor, action choreographer/advisor, stuntman, and/or
served as stunt coordinator on over 35 film and television productions,
in the USA, Thailand, and Germany including Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks, Highlander, Drugstore Cowboy, Dogfight, Black Circle Boys, and Get Carter. Robert
is a lifelong martial artist and teacher, and holds senior rankings in
several systems. He is a Senior Instructor, and serves on the Council of
Elders for the Amerindo Martial Arts System (Indonesian Pentjak Silat).
He has taught martial arts classes and conducted seminars throughout
the USA as well, as Thailand, Taiwan, and Germany. He has taught close
quarter combat, and knife offensive and defensive tactics to members of
various law enforcement organizations including Seattle Police
Department, FBI, Port Security Units of US Coast Guard, and the Royal
Thai Police.
QiGong/Taijiquan (Chi Kung/Tai Chi Ch’uan) Robert
Macdougall, has studied, practiced, and taught martial arts his entire
life, and holds senior rankings in several systems. He has trained in
Yang and Chen style Taijiquan; and is a Senior Disciple in the HunYuan
Hsing Yi Chen Style Taijiquan School. QiGong practice is a series of
simple exercise practiced for improved health, and mental clarity.
Various of these patterns have developed and proved effective over
hundreds of years. Workshops in QiGong contain several simple patterns
of movement performed while standing in loose comfortable clothing. Many
of these exercises can also be practiced sitting in a sturdy chair.
Many of the patterns are derived from the Taijiquan (Tai Chi Ch’uan)
forms, and others help to increase ability to perform within the Taiji
forms.
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Larry Tuch, DIGIVATIONS Camp Demigod Creative Writing & Scripted Spaces Faculty (2013-present). Larry (Los Angeles, CA)
is a writer and creative consultant working in the areas of
traditional, interactive and themed entertainment. He has written for
prime time network television series and worked as a freelance writer
and interactive designer for Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney
Imagineering. Read more...
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Morgan Grody, Theatrical Combat Assistant and Counselor. Born and raised in the East Bay of Northern California,Morgan pursued Acting and Dancing with Young Actors Workshop and the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company during his adolescence. He moved to Seattle in 2010 to attend Cornish College of the Arts, graduating with a BFA in Theater, Original Works. Morgan has worked as a Dance Instructor for Destiny Arts Center, and a Teacher's assistant for Stage Combat at Cornish College of the Arts.
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