Founder of Emerald Asset Management joins NASEF in its mission to leverage teens’ overwhelming interest in video games for their own education and personal development

(Orange County, CA – August 8, 2018) – The Emerald Foundation is announcing a financial and knowledge-sharing partnership with the North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF), working to leverage teens’ vast interest in esports to provide in-depth, relevant education to more high school students across North America.

Founded in 1991 and with over $5.7 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2018, Emerald Asset Management is built on intense, hands-on, fundamental research that identifies companies poised for growth. Using that same methodology, Joseph E. Besecker, the founder of Emerald Asset Management and the Emerald Foundation, has identified the North America Scholastic Esports Federation as capable of reaching and teaching millions of students through its innovative system of esports clubs, coaching, and curriculum.

Emerald Foundation’s financial contribution has two purposes: first, to support and expand the growth of NASEF across North America. Second, as a community-focused enterprise based in Pennsylvania, to guarantee that a statewide esports club and league are established quickly and effectively, so that local youth can participate and experience the benefits this fall.

Emerald Founder & CEO Joseph E. Besecker said, “At the Emerald Foundation, we carefully select and fund work that supports education, youth, and healthcare research. I’ve been personally impressed with the quick but thorough implementation of the North America Scholastic Esports Federation. While the Federation is firmly fixed on the goal of quality education, it has completely integrated a genuine esports experience that appeals to the students.”

“Our first season exceeded all expectations! Kids were excited to challenge rival high schools in their favorite esports game. They were so focused, they willingly took on challenging data analysis work to identify opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. They devoted their free time to promoting their teams, developing web sites and videos (all marketable real-life skills). As they worked to improve their team play, they learned how to better communicate, collaborate, and resolve differences. What a powerful blend of STEM, English Language Arts, and social-emotional learning,” said Gerald Solomon, Executive Director of the Samueli Foundation and Founder of NASEF. “With the support of the Emerald Foundation, we’ll be able to extend our free system of esports clubs, coaching, and curriculum to more high school students, enabling them to benefit from a quality scholastic esports experience.”

NASEF is hosting several online Informational sessions to explain how to start a Club and join the Federation to become part of its credentialed learning and esports systems. The webinars are designed for educators, teachers, administrators, directors, IT leads of high schools and community-based organizations. Details and registration information is available on the calendar at www.nasef.org.

To support continued growth of NASEF, Besecker has been invited to be a member of NASEF’s Executive Leadership team. NASEF is a project of the Samueli Foundation, whose board is comprised of Henry Samueli, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Broadcom Incorporated; Susan Samueli, Chairperson of the Samueli Foundation; and Michael Schulman, Managing Director of H&S Ventures and President of the Anaheim Ducks Hockey Club and the Honda Center. Gerald Solomon serves as the Foundation’s Executive Director. Besecker will be working to support NASEF along with such pioneering education leaders as Bill Carpou, CEO of OCTANe; James L. Doti, Ph.D., President Emeritus and Donald Bren Chair of Business and Economics at Chapman University; Howard Gillman, Ph.D., Chancellor of University of California, Irvine; and Lisa Kirtman, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Education, California State University, Fullerton.

About Emerald Foundation

Founded in 1991, Emerald Asset Management, Inc. provides equity and fixed-income portfolio management services to institutional investors and to individual investors via separate account management and the Emerald Mutual Funds. The Emerald Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2010. The Emerald Foundation has historically contributed funding to worthy charitable, non-profit organizations that focus on education, youth, and healthcare research. 

About the North America Scholastic Esports Federation 

The North America Scholastic Esports Federation is working to ensure that ALL students possess the knowledge and skills needed to be society’s game changers: educated, productive, and empathetic individuals. NASEF is on a mission to provide opportunities for ALL students to use esports as a platform to acquire critical communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills needed to thrive in work and in life. The Federation’s core values are intertwined through all aspects of education and play: learning, opportunity, community, diversity, and respect. 

Under the Samueli Foundation’s leadership, the Federation is led by partners from the Orange County Department of Education, OC STEM Initiative, Connected Camps, Connected Learning Lab, UCI Esports, UCI Henry Samueli School of Engineering, and the UCI Bren School of Information & Computer Science. 

Learn more at the NASEF website. Members of the press can find videos, infographics, and leadership profiles in the online press room. Join online conversations on Twitter @NASEFgg for esports updates and @NASEFedu for our education news, on Facebook and Instagram, and see matches streamed live on our Twitch channel.