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Game Changer is a one-of-a-kind, educational gaming program
for middle and high-school students in Orlando, Florida.
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Using strategic
card games, board games and creative role-playing games like Dungeons and
Dragons (TM), Magic: The Gathering (TM), Chess, and Risk (TM), we've created an educational
curriculum to
teach a variety of important educational and life skills to our students. Our after-school workshops and summer camps emphasize language arts, math, problem solving, critical thinking and creativity, with a special focus on self-confidence and
interpersonal skills.
Game Changer is an initiative of Page 15, a children's literacy program and nonprofit founded in 2008. With almost 7 years of successful educational and literacy programming under our belt, we are thrilled to offer these unique gaming programs FREE OF CHARGE to those who need it. But we need your help today!
Your support will contribute to the sustainability and growth of Game Changer
and help us fund our programs for the next two years. The opportunity to reach
kids, and motivate them to learn in new and exciting ways is what this is all about!
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As a
nonprofit, we are used to doing a lot with a little. Because we are funded in
large part by individual donors, we know that when you choose to donate to us,
you care about where the money is going. Every dollar you donate to us
will go directly to Game Changer programs, including scholarships for students who cannot afford our programs. Our goal for this campaign is to raise $10,000, and we didn’t just
pick that number out of a hat. $10,000 will allow us to grow Game Changer from a small program hosting one week-long summer camp, to a year-round gaming initiative serving kids throughout the year. You are embarking on a great adventure with us. If we reach our $10,000 goal;
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Game Changer will
provide our programming FREE OF CHARGE to any student who requires financial
help.
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Game Changer will
offer year-round programming (including after-school, weekend, and summer programs).
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Game Changer will
recruit former students, and college level “interns” as coaches and mentors for our
programs.
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Show your support of Game Changer with this snappy looking Red and White bracelet. Plus, you get the $15 and $10 perks!
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If you are a gamer, this is the pack for you! be ready for any of your gaming adventures with this super cool, limited edition, play mat, drawn by local Orlando artist Andre Garcia. You will also get the $20, $15, and $10 perks.
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Become a Champion, Elite Guard, or Paladin of Game Changer. Each level comes with our Game Changer T-shirt, that will tell everyone you support learning through play! The higher levels come with more cool stuff, so check the perk side bar for more information! You also get the $35, $20, $15, and $10 Perks!
Gaming is
more than just fun for our Founder, Phil Zoshak. Gaming helped him grow
academically and personally. Gaming gave Phil a safe haven to be himself and a way to build lasting friendships in a group of like-minded peers. This is exactly what Game Changer hopes to give the youth we serve.
Game Changer is targeting young men and
women trying to find their way through the treacherous and sometimes
awkward waters of middle and high school. Game
Changer aims to become a hub for any kid who wants to find a community
they can belong to.
You can
hear more about Phil’s story on his presentation at PechaKucha. [Note: At the time we
were calling the program Play 15.] Watch it HERE!
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We have had years
(decades, if you count Phil’s blundering through middle and high school…we don’t) of testing and research conducted to support Game Changer's mission. Our programs include:
2012-2013 After-School gaming program: The program that started it all. We took 6 kids on their first D&D adventure, and had them write out specific scenes using creative prompts. We learned a lot about Game Changer through this program--what worked and what didn't--that allowed us to move forward to the eventual summer camp we did this year. We knew we could expand the program to serve more kids, and we guessed, while D&D already had some great innate educational mechanics, that we could infuse an academic curriculum to make Game Changer a complete program. We were right on both counts.
2013+2014 Chess tournaments: Partnering with the City of Orlando, and the Parramore Kidz Zone, Game Changer has hosted two successful chess tournaments, serving more than 50 kids from the Parramore neighborhood, one of Orlando’s most economically challenged districts. Over the course of a month, our students learned the ins and outs of kings, checks, and gambits as they built their knowledge and confidence in chess. At the end of the month, we hosted a big chess tournament, and our kids battled it out to crown a new chess champion.
2014 D&D Creative Writing Camp:
In our inaugural Game Changer summer camp, we served 15 kids through a Dungeons and Dragons (TM) creative writing camp. After creating unique characters and back-stories, our students played through a campaign set in Ancient Greece. After each session, students then retold the adventure from their characters' perspectives in their own Adventure Journals, reinforcing those important creative writing and literacy skills. At the end of the camp, our
students received a printed, and professionally bound book of their writing,
formed into a complete fantasy story. By the end of the week-long camp, it was clear: our students, most of them having never experienced
gaming in any form, loved it! Even better, 100% stated that they enjoyed creative writing,
and planned on continuing playing D&D and writing!
Research:
"I'm not sure I would have been able to transition from reader to writer so easily if it had not been for gaming." >> A Game a Literary Tutorial, New York Times
"RPGs give you permission to share your creativity in a safe space in a way that few other things can." >> Slaying the Demons of D&D, The Verge dot com
"It seems like a boy game, but it's actually for girls too." >> Documentary proves girls will play D&D with boys, Boingboing dot com.
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Fall 2014 D&D (TM) Creative Writing After-School Program.
We will be taking our popular D&D creative writing program and plugging it into the Misty Forest Enrichment Center, a community-based organization that offers after-school programs for students K-8 in Downtown Orlando. We aim to serve 20+ kids through this program. Misty Forest is a great partner for Game Changer, and we will be certainly hosting more programs with them in the years to come!
Spring 2015: 3rd Annual Parramore Kidz Zone Chess Tournament.
Continuing our partnership with PKZ, we plan on doubling the number of kids we serve through this program. We will have multiple chess programs across the recreation centers in Orlando, using our curriculum and teaching methods. This year we will be hosting the tournament not in Page 15's Homework Room, but in the Downtown Recreation Center's gym, giving us a bigger space to host more kids. Our final two kids will have the special treat of playing in a game of human chess. We'll have volunteers and a big space to play, giving our kids a fun and unique experience for the championship match!
Summer 2015: D&D (TM) Summer Camp at Cool Stuff Games.
In its second year, we aim to serve 60+ kids in
3 weeks of Game Changer summer camps. Partnering with Cool Stuff Games again,
we would have our main story line progress over the weeks, so our students can
feel they've left their mark on our game world. The actions and decisions of week 1 campers will affect the campers of week 3, and change the story line.
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We
are very lucky to not have to go it alone. Game Changer is an initiative of
Page 15, a children’s creative literacy program that serves under the umbrella
of the Urban Think Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to enrich
Orlando’s cultural landscape by funding and growing educational, creative, and
culture building programs. What this means is that we have rock solid
support, and our leaders have built trust in our community for the past seven
years. We also have the creative and academic know-how to run programs like Game
Changer.
You are
also not alone, and will not be funding the entirety of the program. Game
Changer is sponsored by Cool
Stuff Games and their great gaming community around the world. Cool Stuff
provides us with fundraisers and free space to host our programs. Their support
has been invaluable to us.
This
isn’t to say that we are risk free. If we were to fail in achieving our goal,
it would force us to cut or scale down some of the Game Changer programs we
intend to offer to the community of kids who need it the most.
We are
reaching out to the the gaming community because you get it, and you get us! We need time,
and the opportunity to continue to develop our programs and grow Game
Changer before we can really
set our sights on community partners that have nothing to do with gaming (Trust
us, we start mentioning Dungeons and Dragons (TM) and Magic: The Gathering
(TM), and their eyes glaze over from confusion). We have a long road ahead of
us, but you can make that road a heckuva lot easier with your support today!
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Share us on social media! And tell your followers why gaming
matters to you, and why they should support us! The more we get the word out, the greater the chance of success.