Amid Growing Popularity of Middle and High School Esports, NASEF Introduces Scholastic Fellows Program to Support Teachers as They Leverage Esports for Education

North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF) chooses 25 top educators to implement and refine program that teaches business and life skills in a national sport environment

(Orange County, Calif. – October 8, 2019) – The North America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF) has selected 25 teachers as “scholastic fellows” to significantly expand its classroom and out of school/afterschool education program. In just one year, NASEF has transformed education for countless youth by interweaving STEM learning with the world of team-based competitive video gaming, known as esports.

Scholastic fellows were chosen through a competitive process that brought in applicants from across North America. They range in backgrounds but share a common vision of leveraging esports to draw real interest from their students. NASEF participants engage in a broad array of esports activities, from tournaments to managing a variety of business aspects of their clubs, gaining meaningful education in STEM and English Language Arts, all the while benefitting from positive social emotional learning and guidance.

NASEF’s new fellows program will provide scholastic-based tools, resources and instructional coaching for educators in middle and high schools and community-based organizations. All fellows will benefit from:

• Guidance on connecting play and learning for the best possible student outcomes
• Individual instructional support from a dedicated esports scholastic coach
• Membership in a specialized learning community in order to collaborate with colleagues on organizing and customizing lessons plans, planning events, and more
• Support in activating and growing NASEF clubs at their organizations
• Opportunities to present insights and experiences to families and other educators
• Teacher stipends to compensate for time and energy devoted to learning new systems for the benefit of youth

“There’s nothing better for an educator than to see students following their own personal interests and immersing themselves in the joy of engaging learning. For esports, every club, every class and every team has that opportunity,” said Tom Turner, chief education officer for NASEF. “The scholastic fellows will be able to see this firsthand with the full support of an esports instructional coach and all of NASEF’s quality instructional resources. I’m anxious to learn from this professional community that is built around connecting esports and education.”

Jodi Mahoney, a middle school technology teacher in Chicago, IL, is one of the new fellows. She said, “Esports is where students want to be, learning from and competing with each other. For my students, I hope to accomplish the opportunity for them to benefit from the coaching, curriculum, instruction, research, and general excitement they would experience as part of the NASEF Scholastic Fellows Program.”

Middle school scholastic fellows will implement NASEF’s integrated curriculum for grades six to eight in their classrooms or after-school/out-of-school time programs. These integrated programs focus on esports as a means of facilitating transference of concepts and skills that incorporate Common Core Standards, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and Social Emotional Learning Standards.

High school scholastic fellows will lead their schools’ efforts to implement integrated English Language Arts esports lesson plans in classrooms. NASEF’s English Language Arts Integrated Courses for grades nine to twelve were designed by a team of professors and researchers from the University of California, Irvine, curriculum development experts from the Orange County Department of Education, and English teachers from several high schools in Orange County, California. The courses are University of California approved for “b” designation, but they are open sourced and modifiable for state-specific standards in other locations. The courses blend content standards and esports through a focus on Game Design, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Event Organizing.

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. 

Media Contact:
Claire LaBeaux
[email protected]
925-337-0244