Orinda Academy: 2025 Summer Program

Orinda Academy is excited to offer two courses for its 2025 summer program:  

Python Programming for Game Design and Landscape, Nature, and Travel Photography.

The Python course is not only about game design: students will learn computer programming skills that apply to computer science in general. The Python programming language is widely applicable to many fields: data science, financial modeling, web development, cyber security, etc. Furthermore, Python is a great first language to learn because it was designed to be easy to learn, unlike its predecessors. Once a student understands how one computer language operates, it makes learning other languages much easier. 

This course will also teach students best practices for writing code for any purpose.  Being able to exercise creativity within the constraints of arbitrary conventions is an important workplace skill. 

The photography course an in-depth exploration of photographic concepts in the natural environment as well as an introduction to the photographic travelogue. After a brief history of landscape, nature, and travel photographers, students will learn the fundamental what, why, when, and how in choosing controls on digital cameras, the purpose of different lenses, and professional photographic techniques. Participants will also learn fundamental digital image processing, black and white methods, and editing for print. 

The class will include several outings including a weeklong trip to either the pacific northwest or Peru.

These courses are UC A-G approved as college preparatory elective requirements and/or the Visual and Performing Art (VPA) requirement and may possibly fulfill your student's VPA/college elective credit.

The courses in this program are open to all San Francisco Bay Area students currently enrolled in high school. To learn more about the programs and registration please click here.