Giant Campus Blog

Business Executives, lifelong video game designers and a consultant to President Obama inspire teens and provide actionable career steps in new online speaker series

SEATTLE — August 24, 2010 — Giant Campus, a nationally recognized leader in innovative technology, marketing and business education programs for youth and adults, today announced the availability of its interactive speaker series, Giant Campus Career Connections (http://www.giantcampuswa.com/our-programs/career-connections). The newly launched online series will enable high school students to learn firsthand how some of the leading marketing, business, and graphic and game design professionals from Burger King, Microsoft, Starbucks and T-Mobile turned a passion into a life-long successful career. This series regularly exposes Giant Campus students to real-world insight into technology, entrepreneurship and marketing that they cannot get anywhere else. Each of the speakers helped develop products and designs teens use and see every day.

The students will connect with:

• Denny Marie Post– Former Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Office at T-Mobile USA, Senior Vice President at Starbucks, Senior Vice President at Burger King, and Chief Innovation Officer at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

• Dan Price– 26 year old Founder/CEO of Gravity Payments, the largest credit card payment processing company in the Northwest. Price started Gravity while a freshman in college and was named the Entrepreneur of the Year by the SBA and President Obama for 2010. He consults with President Obama and other high-ranking officials on issues important to entrepreneurs.

• Clayton Kauzlaric– Senior Design Director at Microsoft Game Studios has worked as an artist, game designer and creative director on console and PC titles for nearly 20 years. Clayton also created the Xbox action-adventure gameVoodoo Vince.

• Chris Novak– Design Architect for Microsoft Game Studios. Over his career, Novak has designed for game franchises like Crackdown, Project Gotham Racing, NASCAR, and Knockout Kings.

• Mark Popich– As Design Director at the branding and creative agency Hornall Anderson Design Works, Popich has received numerous awards for work with companies like Eos Airlines, the Seattle SuperSonics, Microsoft, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile and HTC.

“I am excited to share my experiences with teens from all over the world that are obviously as passionate as I was about pursuing a rewarding career,” said Career Connections speaker Denny Post. “By giving them insight into my business experiences at T-Mobile, Starbucks, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken, hopefully they will pick up on what worked and what didn’t and apply them as they begin their careers.”

Every month, each speaker will give a live online presentation, and conduct a question and answer session that will last a total of 45 minutes. Some talking points of the virtual chat will include:

• What steps are absolutely necessary as teens begin exploring careers
• What qualities are needed for careers in digital arts, computer science, or business and innovation
• What inspired the speakers
• Is there anything the speakers wished they knew sooner about their field

“Since teens today begin building their resume in high school, it’s important that they arm themselves with the most essential steps and skills to building careers in fields like technology and business early on,” said Giant Campus Founder and CEO Pete Findley. “Giant Campus Career Connections gives students unrivaled actionable insight into these fields while also breaking geographical barriers since it is offered exclusively online.”

The US Dept of Education is seeking change in today’s education system. With the “Race to the Top” program, the department is asking states to commit to closing historic achievement gaps, getting more students into college, and preparing students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy.

A recent article in the Washington Post calls on online learning as tool to help spearhead that change:

“How do we know online education will work? Well, for one thing, it already does. Full-time virtual charter schools are operating in dozens of states. The Florida Virtual School, which offers for-credit online classes to any child enrolled in the state system, has 100,000 students. Teachers are available by phone or e-mail from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week. The state cuts a funding check to the school only when students demonstrate that they have mastered the material, whether it takes them two months or two years. The program is one of the largest in the country. Kids who enroll in Advanced Placement courses — 39 percent of whom are minority students — score an average of 3.05 out of 5, compared with a state average of 2.49 for public school students.

In his book on online education, “Disrupting Class,” Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen estimates that half of all high school courses in the United States will be consumed over the Internet by 2019. But we have a long way to go to reach 50 percent. Seventeen percent of high school students nationwide took an online course for school last year; another 12 percent took a class for self-study. Many of these students, along with younger kids taking online classes, might be considered homeschooled, though that very concept is changing as they sign up with virtual schools connected to state systems.”

You can read the full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032602224.html?hpid%3Dsec-tech%26sid%3DST201003http://www.http://www.washingtonpost.com:80/ac2/wp-dyn?node=admin/registration/register