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Quincy Sablan loves video games and is competitive, so it was easy for her to join her school's esports team. But beyond his community of fellow gamers and friends, he said participating in esports has helped him learn more about career possibilities and opportunities in the tech field.
Sablan, a sophomore at Farrington High School, was one of 70 contestants at Farrington's Super Smash Classic 4 event on Saturday, the fourth esports tournament the school has hosted this year. The event, open to the public, was held in the school's library and featured 13 stations for bracket-style competition.
“This is a tournament that brings a lot of students together,” said Farrington School computer science teacher and esports director Joshua DiMaya. “For them, it’s like a safe place to play, but it’s really about showing them some of the opportunities that they have in terms of the industry.”
Connecting gaming with professional opportunities has been a goal of Farrington's esports program since its inception two years ago.
“The very foundation of our vision for esports was academic,” said Harris Nakamoto, Farrington's community liaison. “It wasn’t just a game, it was really an academic component.”
As esports has grown in Farrington, companies like Domino's Hawaii have been “wholeheartedly helping make esports happen,” Nakamoto said.
“What we are doing now in esports is not only building partnerships with different companies that support us, but also bringing in employers and overlaying academic elements. “There is,” Nakamoto said. “We are bringing this community together to create a more vibrant school environment.”
A recent friendly trip to Seoul by Honolulu City Council members sparked further interest in esports and fostered a partnership between Farrington and the University of Utah Asia Campus (UAC), which sponsored Saturday's tournament.
Honolulu City Councilman Radiant Cordero said, “If there's a way to make that connection, to start that partnership and bring Korea to Kalihi and Kalihi to Korea and the world, that would be an incredible feat. “I think so,” he said at the beginning of his speech. tournament. “I’m really excited about esports because it’s more than just a hobby. It’s something we see all over the world and I really want to see it grow as a big career here in Hawaii, and I’m really excited about it because it’s more than just a hobby. I see ourselves leading that for our state.”
When Cordero visited UAC during a trip to South Korea in mid-October, he saw the opportunity to study video games at the university and said, “It really resonated with me.”
“Farrington High School is in my district and I knew they were starting an esports organization,” she said. “We don't have a lot of (career) examples to leverage here in Hawaii, so when I looked at the campus, I wanted to see students prepared to be successful with creative and independent thinking as it relates to esports.” I really understood.”
After the trip, Cordero connected Nakamoto with Ben Vogel, assistant director of admissions at UAC, to work to spread awareness about international opportunities to work and study in esports after high school.
“It just bridges the gap, not just with Farrington High School, but with the entire community,” Vogele said. “We want to open that bridge.”
Voegele said UAC gaming students study various aspects of the industry, including game development, programming, coding and promotion.
“There’s a lot more to it than just sitting around and playing games,” Voegele said. “Once you understand it, it's amazing what they can do.”
In addition to the multiple esports tournaments Farrington hosts each year, DiMaya said Farrington's esports team (50 to 60 students with a variety of interests ranging from engineering, business to creative arts) , said he also undertakes field trips to various IT companies and local universities. , we hope students will learn about how a gaming hobby can lead to career opportunities.
“We want to open up to our kids that there are opportunities to work, and it's not necessarily just in the gaming field,” Dimaya said. “They get to leverage their design skills, and for me as a computer science teacher, I get to leverage their technical skills. I found that the skills were actually very useful.”
Sablan, a sophomore at Farrington, said the experiential trip was “really beneficial.”
“Just yesterday, we went on a field trip. We visited two IT companies, so we learned about the industry and the different jobs in that industry and the steps to get one,” Sablan said. said. “I think it really broadened my perspective on work because I was really focused on working in the gaming industry. It really broadened my perspective on different IT jobs.”
