Scholar Spotlight - ESA Foundation

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Her Brother’s Keeper

ESA Foundation Scholarship alumna Angel Wylie has gone from animating indie video games to handling technical challenges for the triple-A Halo franchise. And she’s done so, in part, to honor her sibling.

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A Rock Star Is Born

Liz Kirby, an ESA Foundation Scholarship alumna, grew up in a tech household. But it wasn’t until she attended a Halo launch party that she decided exactly what she wanted to do.

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Northern Exposure

When Caitlyn Kenney was an ESA Foundation scholar, she studied abroad in Montreal, where she learned video game-making skills from the pros. Today, she’s an environment artist for Ubisoft.

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Sources Of Strength

A Q&A with 2019–20 ESA Foundation Scholar Nyhriel Smith, a Howard University freshman who, empowered by video games, now wants to help empower others.

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Making The Personal Universal

Steven Harmon, an ESA Foundation and Gay Gaming Professionals scholar, shares relatable details from his life in the video games he creates, and he’s helping others do the same.

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Something To Prove

Growing up, Tré Lannon led a relatively rootless existence. He, his sister and his mother, a tax manager by trade, chased jobs from New York to Virginia to Colorado, finally ending up in Arkansas. He hasn’t seen his father, who’s incarcerated for dealing drugs, since he was 3. So video games became a refuge for the now 20-year-old.

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A Joyful Discovery

A brand-new scholarship, funded by the ESA Foundation and co-awarded by Gay Gaming Professionals, recognizes three college video-game-design students for their service to the LBGTQ+ community.

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All The Right Moves

ESA Foundation scholar Roland Munguia is an aspiring video game designer who, along with his twin brother, is strategizing his way toward a career in the video game industry.

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Character Creation: How an NYU Student Would Like to Change the Faces of Video Games

Isiah Rosa, a 20-year-old Brooklynite and ESA Foundation Scholar, is intent on learning all he can about the video-game industry.

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Making Connections: A Game-Designing College Student is Helping to Form Communities

ESA Foundation scholarship winner Geneva Heyward wants to showcase marginalized people in video games as dynamic characters — and is encouraging others to do the same.

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A Special Group of People

Having faced exceptional challenges, this year’s crop of graduating ESA Foundation scholars is arguably more prepared than any to take on the future.

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An Exceptional Celebration

During National Hispanic Heritage Month, the ESA Foundation recognizes the unique talents and contributions of eight of its 2020-21 scholars.

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Honoring Backgrounds and Big Dreams

The ESA Foundation celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month by sharing, in their own words, the skills, stories and aspirations of its nine 2021-22 scholars.