Esports today has become more than just a tool for entertainment; there is the educational purpose it serves as that also comes with career and social opportunities, and with the kind of communities that have been built through esports, networking is key to helping esports be a policy and implemented through collegiate programs.
Today we have Donna Walters, the founder and executive director of College Esports International (CESI Esports), a nonprofit organization and strategic production group with the goal of elevating the esports industry through competitive collegiate events, being held annually, nationwide and internationally.
Her introduction to gaming was early on with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the Sega Genesis consoles, fast forward to college where she met roommates who were super hardcore PC gamers and got introduced to the big world of PC gaming. Her new favorites from there became Team Fortress 2, Portal, Half-Life and Overwatch through which a community was built, waitlists formed and servers filling up.
“The whole goal of education, especially higher education, is to prepare students for the workforce.” — Donna “Basictaq” Walters, Exec. Dir, CESI
Donna describes her vision with College Esports as creating innovative workforce environments and connecting students and future leaders so they can access opportunities to build their careers. She calls it “scholastic esports”, where they organize after school programs, onboarding interns to help with that, and volunteers who look to get paid for credit. After this is over, they push these folks into the workforce with a portfolio of skills and abilities acquired during the entire time with College Esports.
Using her background in community association management, she recruited some friends of hers to build a club to help implement esports in colleges, inspired by UC Irvine, one of the first four-year public universities to have esports implemented as a program. After attracting the attention of one of the biggest athletic conferences, Big Sky Conference, she and her team managed to convince them to have esports implemented through the conference.
“Technology is huge.You have to know technology and really understand it to survive in this world at this point with a career.” — Donna “Basictaq” Walters, Exec. Dir., CESI.
With funding, Donna looks at securing grants from the government, as well as pitching the idea to schools as they highlight more of the educational component, and the career and social opportunities that come with affiliating and connecting with the organization. More talks with administrators and other executives are done through networking, and they are pointed in the direction of leads who may help and would want to know more about esports.
Our organization is 100% for the people. We are not out to make a billion dollars. We're not out to get rich. — Donna “Basictaq” Walters, Exec. Dir., CESI.
Sponsorships for CESI are such that they are required to help sustain the organization. The significant part is to help with the community in student success, and with it has been support from endemic brands, tech companies into hardware and software such as Microsoft, Dell, Best Buy amongst others. So if there are instances where students need support in acquiring equipment, they reach out to them as they make clear their values and goals, and since they are already connected, making this happen is not difficult to execute.
Esports has helped create jobs for lots of people. Interested in knowing about the business side of esports? Listen to the Gamers Change Lives Podcast! We get experienced guests from all around the world featuring.
Written By Jeffrey Osei-Agyeman
