Patel Conservatory Students Connect With Peers Overseas

TAMPA - The weak dollar, high cost of fuel and additional luggage fees may put a damper on summer vacation plans.

Still, the students at the Patel Conservatory at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center found a way to travel to Amsterdam without ever leaving Tampa. Throughout June, the conservatory and the arts conscious IVKO Montessori School in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, brought the bicontinental teens, ages 13 to 16, together for a shared theatrical experience over the Internet.

During the daily three-week program, 17 students - 12 in Tampa and five in Amsterdam - participated in theater, music and dance presentations leading up to a live performance Saturday at the TECO Theater.

The innovative summer camp, Kidz Connect, allowed the teens to learn about one another's lives and cultures in real time with the help of a Web camera and the online portal Teen Second Life, where students create virtual, computer-animated versions of themselves.

The goal of the program is more than using theatrical methods to reach teens; it's about shattering stereotypes and fostering self-awareness.

"I thought the people I didn't know in another country weren't as cool as me or that I couldn't relate," said 15-year-old Kidz Connect participant Ivaniel Reyes, a fast-talking gel-haired and fashionable incoming freshman at Alonzo High. "I learned that we're actually a lot alike. We do the same things, and the only thing separating us are different parts of the world."

Kidz Connect was created by Josephine Dorado, a graduate of Brandon High School who lives in New York City, and Dan Winckler. Dorado was inspired to create the program by her own study abroad as a Fulbright Scholar in Amsterdam and later found support from Winckler, an improvisational actor living in the Big Apple. They launched a New York City pilot program in 2006.

"Kids in the U.S. are so isolated. I had this amazing cultural exchange so I thought let's do a virtual exchange," said Dorado, 39, an independent corporate technology consultant. "It's a labor of love. For me, it's about really seeing the connection happen, really seeing them click and for them to see that having a connection is fun."

Students are given daily assignments that include updating their online worlds, writing scripts, character development and choreography. The completed assignments are then shared over the Web.

Working with the Kidz Connect program is also proving beneficial for the instructors.

"This program could have been left as an idea. But they're students having a dialogue about what's happening now and how it matters to them," said 'ranney, a composer at the conservatory assisting the students with an original hip-hop song they will perform Saturday. "It's great working with a group willing to get out of the teens' way. There's this unspoken agreement that this is about them."

For updates on the camp visit kidzconnect.org.

"What Is Real" will be performed at 2 p.m. Saturday at the TECO Theater, 1010 N. MacInnes Place; (813) 222-1002. There is no charge.