Digital Media Academy is a digital art and technology education company, located in Palo Alto, CA, and Vancouver, BC, primarily offering STEMsummer camp and arts programs for students, age 9-18, at several universities in the US and Canada, including Stanford, Harvard, UCSD, Chicago, NYU, UBC, UoT, and more. offers curriculum and teaching resources to K-12 schools globally to empower every educator to integrate technology into their classroom in a way that works for them. Digital Media Academy began as the Academy for New Media at Stanford University in the late 1990s as a program of Stanford's Academic Department and was officially incorporated in 2002. The Academy for New Media was created at Stanford by in 1999 for K-12 educators and high-school students interested in learning the latest digital mediasoftware tools from award-winning creative professionals.. Digital Media Academy was born in the Fall of 2001 after the Academy for New Media became closed due to budget cuts. Stanford University's Continuing Studies department offered CEU credits through Digital Media Academy from 2002-2014. Students may attend Digital Media Academy summer camps with the day camp or residential camp option. These camps offer fun and recreation while being known primarily as a tech camp.
Program offerings
Digital Media Academy designs, develops and delivers STEM curriculum for students of all ages. Digital Media Academy summer tech camps offer students 9-18 the opportunity to learn a variety of tech and new media skills in topics including Programming & Coding, 3D Printing & Product Design, Filmmaking, Photography, Game Design & Development, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Graphic Design, 3D Modeling, Animation, Robotics, and Wearable Tech. For schools and educators, offers curriculum licensing, professional development, mentoring and support. DMA has been an Apple Inc. Authorized Training Center and Adobe Systems Training Partner. For youth, DMA offers summer computer camps, including sleep-away camps at top universities throughout the United States and Canada, including its flagship location at Stanford University
Controversy
In the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic, Digital Media Academy was featured on CBS and NBC television stations in the San Francisco Bay Area as one of the few companies refusing to provide refunds for cancelled camps. The news reports mentioned angry parents contesting the charges with their credit card companies, contacting the Better Business Bureau and the state attorney general’s office, and initiating legal proceedings against Digital Media Academy.
Partnerships
Digital Media Academy offers a scholarship program to make its courses accessible to everyone and has partnered with various non-profit and community-focused organizations including the New Media Consortium, CUE and the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus.
