Endowed Scholarship Further Cements UCF’s Leadership Role in Gaming Industry

Due to a $100,000 reward from Digital Arts (EA), an endowed scholarship was created to learn college students within the College of Central Florida’s Nicholson Faculty of Communication and Media within the Faculty of Sciences.

One in every of many initiatives in a multifaceted technique to empower college students from various backgrounds to discover profitable careers in fields of artwork and expertise, the EA Inclusion in Gaming Endowed Scholarship will encourage the pursuit of online game business careers for college kids in interactive leisure and gaming applications at UCF.

“Shut business partnerships just like the one now we have had with EA for a few years are essential to our college students’ success,” says Ben Noel, govt director on the Florida Interactive Leisure Academy (FIEA) and director of innovation and partnership on the UCF Nicholson Faculty of Communication and Media. “We share EA’s dedication to creating various and inclusive recreation makers, and this beneficiant reward will enable us to assist underrepresented college students in perpetuity.”

FIEA has a longstanding fame as top-of-the-line producers of expertise within the online game business. UCF’s graduate video game design program was acknowledged because the top graduate game design program in the world in March, marking the third time within the final six years it has ascended to the No. 1 spot. The graduate program, which began in 2005 with 12 college students, now has over 800 graduates at over 300 firms in 45 completely different states and nations across the globe

UCF’s undergraduate game design program additionally ranked extremely at No. 14 once more this yr.

The interactive leisure graduate program at FIEA and the digital media undergraduate program are provided on the UCF Downtown campus in Orlando’s Inventive Village district, which shall be residence of the brand new Digital Arts Tiburon studio later this yr.

Obtainable beginning fall 2022, two Inclusion in Gaming awards shall be distributed yearly to college students within the Nicholson Faculty of Communication and Media who display how they’ve overcome adversity or are striving for the inclusion of others.

“The ‘Inclusion in Gaming’ scholarship builds upon the nice relationship now we have with UCF and will increase entry to alternatives for digital artists of the longer term from various backgrounds,” says Daryl Holt, vp and common supervisor, EA Tiburon (Orlando), EA SPORTS Austin and EA SPORTS Madrid. “As we transfer into the Inventive Village and our partnerships evolve, we’re hopeful to spark a collective effort by the Orlando neighborhood to coach and put together underrepresented youth for fulfillment in STEAM fields.”

Non-public presents to the college, both present use or endowed, are of significant significance and permit UCF to meet its mission and enhance the scholar expertise. Present-use funds enable the college to satisfy instant wants, whereas endowed funds are invested in perpetuity so a donor’s affect shall be felt for generations.

To be taught extra about supporting UCF and the way your reward could make a big effect, go to ucffoundation.org.