We recently wrapped up the Academy Software Foundation’s fourth annual Summer Learning Program, with 20 student participants from around the world joining us to learn more about coding and potential technical career paths within visual effects and animation. This year’s Program ran from June 16 through August 9, 2024.
Organized annually by the Foundation’s Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, the Summer Learning Program aims to give practical skills, coding experience, and professional mentorship to students and early career learners from traditionally underrepresented communities. Summer Learning Program cohorts are typically comprised of participants that identify as BIPOC, Latinx, female, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, and neurodivergent, among others. Past graduates of the Program have gone on to successfully pursue technical careers through roles at DreamWorks Animation, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Epic Games, Jellyfish Animation, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Technicolor Creative Studios.
To further increase access, the Summer Learning Program is fully remote, with a combination of self-guided online lessons and group sessions with guest speakers from the industry. A highlight this summer was a panel on identifying early career opportunities, moderated by Gavin Graham featuring speakers Beth Sasseen (Pixar), Kim Paris (ILM) and Rabia Abedin (Dreamworks Animation). Each Program participant is also matched one-on-one with an industry mentor for virtual meetings throughout the summer. This year’s mentors included professionals from Apple, Autodesk, CoSA VFX, DreamWorks Animation, Foundry, Netflix, Sony Pictures Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and more.
Jim Geduldick, VFX & Virtual Production Supervisor, Spaceboy Labs, reflected on being a mentor: “The Summer Learning Program was a great way to share insights and knowledge from various aspects of the industry to the selected students. What got me interested in being a mentor was the focus on diversity, not only in who was able to participate, but also the areas of interest of our students and mentees as they embark on their careers. We had students with eager minds wanting to know more about everything from technical development, to creative, to engineering. In the final projects they submitted, it was great to see how the mentees jumped on the opportunities to try new things and flex their creative and technology skills. I look forward to the future programs and being able to share and nurture careers and new talent in our industry.”
This summer’s participants included: Arin Idhant (he/him), Manya Mankad (she/her), Joan Njeri Ndegwa (she/her), Clara Nolan (they/she), Linh Vu (she/her), Ryon Sajnovsky (he/him), Adelie Creek (she/her), Hannah Zhang (she/her), Raymond Feng (he/him), Pamela Melgar (she/her), Hridiza Roy (she/her), Katrina Bawar (she/her), Zach Nguyen (he/him), Sofia Mitsuyuki de Menezes (she/her), Ife-Oluwa Osifalujo (she/her), Esmeralda Garcia-Santiago (she/her), Mary Briamonte (she/her), J.M., Helena Xu (she/her), and Elena Wang (she/her).
“The Summer Learning Program truly redefined what a successful and fulfilling career in the industry looks like for me,” shared Arin Idhant, currently a junior at Brown University. “Seeing everyone’s passion for open source projects and DEI initiatives was incredibly inspiring. I’m immensely grateful for the connections I made through the program. Before the program, I remember feeling overwhelmed with questions about the industry and having no one to ask for advice. The program allowed me to connect with the most supportive artistic and technical magicians who were incredibly enthusiastic about sharing their magic. Through conversations that spanned an array of topics like mental health, ray optics, and recruiting, I felt that I finally found my people in the industry.”
Check out the fantastic final presentations from each participant here, and be sure to connect with them on LinkedIn!
Thank you to the Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, and all of our participants and mentors, for another successful year!
