Scholastic Esports

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."