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Esports Clubs in High School and Beyond: North America Scholastic Esports Federation Takes Free Clubs, Coaching, and Tournaments to Community Organizations, Equipping Students with Valuable Career Skills As They Game

press release Aug 29, 2018
Esports Club Beyond

Learning isn’t limited to a school environment; Now Scholastic Esports Teams aren’t either

Learning isn’t limited to a school environment; Now Scholastic Esports Teams aren’t either 

(Orange County, CA – August 29, 2018) – Games and learning completely intertwined: that’s the power of the North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF). Just as education happens in a variety of environments, NASEF is now making it possible for high school-age students to do the same with esports.

Gerald Solomon, Executive Director of the Samueli Foundation and Founder of NASEF, explains the reason for extending Club participation to community-based organizations. “Teens love esports – the games, the camaraderie, and an entire ecosystem that includes shoutcasting, digital art, fan fiction, and yes, tournaments. As we’ve developed NASEF to foster development of real-world skills through that ecosystem, we realized that some students might want to be involved outside of their schools. That’s why we’re expanding, now offering community-based organizations the opportunity to participate in Scholastic Esports Clubs and teams along with high schools across North America.”  

Jeff Davis, Executive Director of the California Afterschool Network, recognizes great learning benefits that are wrapped into the teams and Clubs of the Scholastic Esports Federation. “Today’s students will have the opportunity to solve critical issues and participate in a workforce that is nearly unrecognizable to us today. Afterschool and summer learning providers, such as those in California’s Expanded Learning infrastructure, understand the importance of offering hands-on STEM1 learning opportunities to prepare students for the evolving future. Esports offers a way to engage students through gaming while teaching them a variety of skills that will be important to their future success.” 

“Today’s students enjoy gaming, but few may understand the variety of career opportunities gaming represents, from professional game play to coding and engineering the next wave of innovative video games. Beyond those industry-specific careers, a wealth of opportunities will be available to students who have developed esports skills like data analysis, digital imaging, web development, journalism, event management, and more,” Davis continued. 

NASEF provides free resources to help schools implement a Club with a full supportive ecosystem, then identify lead players to form a competitive team and join local and national esports tournaments. Clubs that activate their NASEF membership by October 1 will be eligible to join team tournaments through the Fall. After that date, Clubs will be able to access all the free materials available to build a strong organization and team, with skills coaching and tournament participation beginning in Winter 2019.

 

1 STEM = science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

 

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.

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