Education Esports Nonprofit NASEF to Get New Home
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 12/07/20
A
nonprofit dedicated to growing esports in high schools is going
independent. After two and a half years of support by the Samueli
Foundation,
the North
America Scholastic Esports Federation (NASEF)
will begin operations as an independent entity run under the new
World Wide Scholastic Esports Foundation (WWSEF). The change becomes
official on Jan. 1, 2021.
NASEF
has grown from a small pilot program in Orange County, to an
organization with almost a thousand clubs in North America, esports
curriculum, training programs, competitions and research projects.
The
program will continue being supported by a corps of partners,
including Connected
Camps;
the Connected
Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine;
the Orange
County Department of Education
in California; and UCI
Esports.
And Samueli will continue supporting NASEF through the transition.
NASEF
said that WWSEF will be led by a team with experience in esports,
technology and education, to continue promoting esports as a STEM
outlet in schools. The new nonprofit will be led by Todd Harris,
co-founder of Hi-Rez
Studios,
a video game development company, and founder and CEO of Skillshot
Media,
which operates competitive video game competitions.
"The
esports industry has been thrilled to see NASEF's growth, as it
educates youth about the entire ecosystem of esports and the wide
variety of career options," said Harris in a press release. "I'm
excited to work with the NASEF team to continue to connect play and
learning for kids around the world."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.