Stephanie
Valentine has been a busy bee during Summer 2015.
Her
Digital Friendship program expanded to three Girl Scout summer camps and
will be hosting hundreds of new accounts. As daunting as the additions to
KidGab are, Valentine was up for the challenge. Despite
any obstacles that arose, Valentine was excited to expand Digital Friendship
and help more people by introducing them to her nonprofit, Wired Youth, which was founded with
the help of Dr. Tracy Hammond, the director of the Sketch Recognition Lab.
To
kick off the summer, Valentine hosted a digital party via her social media site
for children, KidGab. Celebrating with her in person was Jung-In
Koh, Katya Borgos-Rodriguez, Angelica McMurty, and Dr. Hammond. Invitations were sent to every girl scout that already
had an account set up to join in the party and chat with each other while
taking new quizzes and exploring new additions to the site as they were made in
real time.
(Stephanie Valentine and Katya Borgos-Rodriguez updating KidGab with new add-ons)
Before
she set out to obtain as many digital badges (the achievement trophies of
KidGab) at the virtual event, Dr. Hammond had to change her avatar’s clothes.
“We
can’t have the same outfit at a party,” she joked about her avatar’s likeness
to Valentine’s.
As
soon as everyone’s avatars were dressed for the party, the fun started once again. New drawings and
statuses were posted in exuberant numbers – so much so that Valentine had to
change the settings to show the last one thousand posts made by everyone, instead
of the previous 50.
Watching
everyone creating sketches to come to life for various prompts was like spectating
multiple games of Pictionary simultaneously. New creations and expressions
were digitally born and shared with a community of friends.
(Stephanie Valentine creating an account for Jung-In Koh)
While
everyone mainly worked independently of one another, the party laughed and grew
together. The gathering served as a way not only to critique KidGab, but also as
practice for adding people to the system.
Soon after the date of the digital party, Valentine and her summer assistants began the expansion of the Digital Friendship program to three new Girl Scout summer camps.
"Seeing and hearing a bunch of kids scream and be excited about the program was one of my favorite parts of the summer," Borgos-Rodriguez later stated as she worked on updated looks and new illustrations for KidGab.
Through the chaos of adding over a hundred new accounts over the span of a few summer months, the KidGab crew stayed positive and hosted more digital parties for KidGab participants everywhere to come together virtually to celebrate the new gifts that awaited them online.
"Seeing and hearing a bunch of kids scream and be excited about the program was one of my favorite parts of the summer," Borgos-Rodriguez later stated as she worked on updated looks and new illustrations for KidGab.
Through the chaos of adding over a hundred new accounts over the span of a few summer months, the KidGab crew stayed positive and hosted more digital parties for KidGab participants everywhere to come together virtually to celebrate the new gifts that awaited them online.
