Ep 89 | Scholarships for Playing Video Games?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

But 42 colleges offer four-year degrees in esports, which who would know?

SPEAKER_01 0:05

In Florida?

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Oh, well, throughout the country. Throughout the still, though.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

42?

SPEAKER_00 0:10

42.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Full scholarships.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Well, that's four-year degrees. So they're coming out with a, I guess it would be a Bachelor of Science. I'm not really sure what it would fall under, but they come out with a four-year degree with esports. That is literally their degree. But then there were over $16 million awarded in 2022 for kids to go to college.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. As a parent, there are lots of things to worry about. Will my kid make friends? Will they go to college? Can we afford to send them to college? And for military families, these questions can feel even more burdensome. We all know sports can provide both community and college scholarships, but what about esports? My next guest is bridging the gap between the traditional and the future, as well as families and the resources they need. She's the grants management specialist and district military liaison for the county. And today she's going to get us up to speed on how esports, the fastest growing sport in the country, enables connectedness and facilitates scholarships. Fostering the future, Escambia High School graduate and wearer of many, many hats, Miss Monica Willis. I'm so happy you're here. Thanks for having me. Now you said to me when we were talking off mic that the number one question that you're getting from families stationed in Pensacola is oh, which schools have an esports program? And even yourself, when you took your son to go to our colleges, the first thing that college was like so proud to show you was their esports lab. This is like blowing my mind. I had no, I never even heard of it before.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Well, to be fair, my son's not really a gamer. So when this grant first came to mind for us, it was my counterpart that actually said, Oh gosh, we had to do esports. And I had no idea until we began doing the research as well. So you're one of many that don't really understand the esports arena.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

I'm so glad to hear that because I totally feel like those old guys in Congress, when they were questioning about social media and they were calling TikTok Tic Tac, you know, they're like, What's the tell me about the Facebook? And like that is gonna be me during our whole conversation. So question number one that is totally in line with that, okay, is why is it called sports? Like esports, why not just call it gaming?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Because actually, esports, it is gaming and it is an online gaming platform that we use, but it's a sports team. The kids they work to build teamwork, they work to do problem solving. They actually function like a team that would be a basketball team, a football team. They have to do the strategic thinking like any other teams that we have. So it is a team sport, and the way they compete is they they're on teams. So it's not an individual like you would do at home, but it's actually a team sport and they get ranked as a team.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Oh wow. Okay, so it's multiplayer, but the players are a team, and that's why it's different than what you do just as a person at your house.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Absolutely. And the way that they're ranked is based on like their top three performances, and uh it's it's a pretty intricate uh ranking system. So we actually have hired a company called Vanta Sports, and they have designed a complete custom league for our schools. So our middle schools compete against each other right now, and our high schools do as well, but they basically keep all the ranking. All I see are the numbers.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Okay, that's incredible. Okay, so silly question number two is okay, sport, right? That's the general umbrella in in real life in the analog world. So, what what kind of sports are we talking about when it comes to esports? Is it like virtual soccer or baseball?

SPEAKER_00 4:21

It is, and because obviously we're doing through an educational platform, the two games that we're starting with and piloting with, one is called Rocket League, and it's literally a soccer game that they play with cars. I had never heard of such. And the other is Super Smash Brothers, and it's more cartoons and the characters are cartoons. So we've really been careful on the games that we've selected and we'll continue to do so in the future because they are doing that. But so to answer your question, yes, the other games that we have on our radar are FIFA, which is soccer, Madden football, different sports teams coming up.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Okay, because the other concern that parents have when it comes to gaming is the violent games. And, you know, there's people that even feel like there is a causation there between violent video games and school violence. So this is not, these are not violent games. Not at all.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

As a matter of fact, um, the way that we came up with the name for this grant when I did esports, it's e is for everyone. And it's the e that is on the game, on the front of the games. If you see mature audience, we're sticking straight to the E is for everyone uh in our schools.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

I really like that. Okay, here's stereotype number three. I need I need help. I need help mil myth busting, right? Because when I think of gaming, I have a very 1990s stereotypical vision in my head, like kind of moody kid in a dark basement with no social skills who hasn't bathed in a while and drinks a lot of Mountain Dew and has no friends.

unknown 5:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

So help me with that one. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Those are not really our kids that you would see in our gaming platform rooms. So we have gaming spaces, and a lot of the kids, they can they come from every walk of life. I mean, they could be athletes, and we do. We have some soccer players, some football players, we have a lot of athletes that are obviously gamers that I would have never guessed. But then these kids come from any walk of life. So the same way they come to school, the gaming's done in the afternoons or in the mornings, actually, at some of our middle schools. So the kids are in a in a really cool room with gosh, I think most of them have four to six big 55-inch TV screens that they play the Nintendo Switch on. They have PCs with curved monitors. So it would look more like you or I would think of as a pretty cool, fancy computer lab.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Oh wow, that's incredible. I don't know how how new this program is if we've been able to track this result yet. But what comes to mind is some of the new up-and-coming F1 racers, you know, the people who race cars, right? This is how they're starting, is with simulators. Is there any have you seen any crossover yet from virtual gaming into real life?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

We haven't yet, but uh, and we probably will in the future. We also send kids to the Naval Naval Base and they do the Flight Academy and they do some of that out there. But on the e-game and on the esports and the the gaming, we're just starting. So actually, we weren't supposed to start gaming the way the grant was actually scheduled and written until next school year. But the schools and the kids are so excited that we went ahead and we have really, really rushed. Thank goodness our IT department has been amazing because we have put stuff in place faster than I think any grant we could have imagined. So they're running a pilot program right now, which is typically a planning year. So no, we don't have the data yet, but yes, we probably will in the future.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Will you be collecting data on attendance? Because, you know, you just said the kids were so excited, and the thing that popped in my mind was uh, you know, the superintendent's goal to increase attendance.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Absolutely. So all the research shows, and that was a big push when when writing the grant, all the research shows that kids involved in esports are much more likely to attend school. Their grades are up, and we do, we track their attendance, we track their um academics, we track behavior. They have to earn just like they would to be on any other team to be on this team. So the kids that are on the esports teams, they're much more likely to come to school and want to be there. And, you know, and it may be that kid that didn't play a sport, they didn't do anything else, but yet they're so interested in gaming that now, you know, we we've gotten their attention and we've captured them and and they're becoming connected with their school, which they may not have been in the past.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Oh, that's interesting. So they're associating this pleasurable activity with their time at school, and that's creating some good outcomes. I have uh some friends that have children who the kids are very interested in gaming, but it has impacted their behavior in a negative way. And so I wanted to know what you've observed so far in that department. How has this program impacted the behavior of students?

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Again, we're really, really new. So, I mean, we literally started gaming last week. And so we're competing this week and we're moving forward. But so far, the kids that are even, they had to try out. We had regular tryouts, they had to, you know, fill out applications, they had to go through tryouts, they had to get ranked and scored. And the ones that actually came to try out, they knew that those lead teachers, those coaches, they were pulling grades, they were pulling referrals, they were pulling everything. So the kids that a couple of them had a little lower grades, and they actually went and spoke to the teachers ahead of time. So they're much more aware, they're much more cognizant of what is going to be required.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Whoa. I just pictured the kid going to the teacher and being like, listen, I'd like to partner with you for my grades because I want to participate in the esports program. That is fascinating and not at all what I thought that you would you would share about. Talk to me about the impact on their social relationships at school.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

I I can give you a great example on that. Right as the grant, right before actually the grant was due, and as I was in the writing process, we had WEAR do a focus on one of our high schoolers that has CP and had just moved. And the dad basically went online and did a Facebook reach out and just said, Hey, basically, my my son is new, he's having trouble making friends, sitting by himself at lunch, you know, so on his own. Yes, ma'am. Yes, absolutely. And he did not have uh good use of one of his hands, but the dad made the comment in there that he kills it on Xbox. That was, you know, the father's quote. So as the kids started coming in and the different sports teams actually reached out and they would sit with him and they would get to know him, and so he wasn't alone at lunch. But the main thing that came to light for me, obviously, because I was writing esports grant, was the connectedness happened through through gaming. So at night they would all say, Hey, you know, let's jump on this game. And so now this kid who didn't have any connection at that school and no support would jump on and game with these kids at night. And it just it really turned his his whole world around at school.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Wow. So they the kids that might not otherwise have anything in common.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Now can connect.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yes. Even when I walk through or when they send me videos of the kids gaming in the rooms, it it's always eye-opening to me because the kids are so different looking. It's not your stereotypical basketball team or football team. I mean, they literally are all different walks of life sitting in that room with one common goal. And, you know, that's I mean, that's that's our whole goal is to be united, to make these kids successful and to make them want to be at school.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

I think it's easy for a parent to see the latent effects of uh a traditional team, like whether it's a sports team or maybe it's a debate team, right? The the parent can easily see how these skills are going to cross over into real life. It's I think a little bit more of a challenge for parents to see an esports team as important. It seems like a treat. And in some ways, it definitely is a treat that has, you know, good side effects, like kids wanting to talk to their teachers about their grades, which is pretty incredible. But how is this important? Why is this not just an extra thing?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Luckily for esports, the we went through and we met with in the IT department, myself, a couple of our lead teachers, we've met with a lot of different vendors. And the reason we went with the vendor that we chose, which was Vanta, is because they actually do a parent report card. So as that kid's gaming every day and you know they're competing, and that parent knows, yes, my kid's here from three to four, they're doing gaming, but I don't really know what that entails. They get a report card emailed to them, and the kids get a report card that shows what they've done and it touches more on the soft skills, more of the strategical thinking. And so the parents actually will have something concrete to look at rather than that child coming home and saying, Yeah, I had a great day. We won our, you know, we won our match. But I mean, some of the things also the soft skills that will lead into the career field, and all of our employees want it. It's not just the military that's looking for these kids to gain by this esports stuff, but it's the soft skills like leadership skills, anger management, problem solving, strategic thinking, teamwork, interpersonal communication, which we know that with all the screen time in the world, that makes a huge difference for employers. So that's some of the stuff that they are learning. Yes, they're learning it through gaming. And quite frankly, the kids probably don't even realize that they're learning and gaining all these skills. They just think they're gaming.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

That's interesting. How are the kids' physical uh well-being protected? Because we think about screen time, eyesight, posture, you know, muscle development, right? That those are all benefits that you get from doing, say, soccer, right? Because you're you're exercising and you're not in front of a screen, you're in the sunshine, all those things are healthy for you. But how do you approach all of that with the the esports?

SPEAKER_00 14:27

So that that is that's a fine line. So the kids only we really limit, they only practice a couple days a week, and it's usually 45 minutes to an hour. So we do limit that screen time. A lot of their time is spent and will be spent in the future going over their strategies, going over, you know, like a football coach would, up on the board and show, hey, you know, this position's here and that one's there. And they will do a lot of that. So they'll do that, but we also have written into the grant that there's a social emotional component. And Vanta actually has that on there and they have coaches and they have social emotional coaches that will come in and work with the kids online in real time. Whoa. Yeah, it's kind of cool. It would be like a professional football player coming in and working with your high school team. So all of the coaches that will come in and um work with our teams at different times, they're within the top five percent of their gaming field.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Oh my gosh, that's like a sports psychologist coming in to to work with you on your mindset. Okay, that's totally not what I imagined at all. I I really pictured the kids, you know, slumping into the library, which shows my age. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

A lot of them are really close to our media centers, actually.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Well, but but if you saw what was in my imagination, you would probably pat me on the head. But I just pictured them slumping in and plugging in and not speaking to anyone. And and so now you're painting a new picture for me completely. So you uh keep talking about the grant. So what is the grant and what does it get the school in order to set up this program?

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Okay. So we have what's called Dodea grants, it's Department of Defense Education Activity. And they found a need for their military-concentrated schools to have more supports, additional supports, to be able to allow those kids to transition in and out better while they're there. But the nice thing is DODEA doesn't say, hey, you can only do this for military. If it's a school that is 10% or more military connected, it goes for every school and every kid in the school. So everyone benefits, including the staff, because any DODEA grant we write has a huge professional development component. So the teachers are getting, you know, development throughout. That's where the funding source comes from. And I know that's always a question, you know, Department of Defense, but it is, but it's just like a DODIA school if a if a student went to Japan and they were in a Dodea school rather than a public school. But what this does for us, uh, the grant was $1.5 million, and it's throughout the whole district, but it's four middle schools and three high schools. So it's Beulah Middle, Bailey Middle, Brown Bards Middle, and Ransom, and West Florida High School, Tate High School, and Escambia High. So all of those schools will benefit from them. They'll play amongst each other. The other thing that they're going to gain from it, and I didn't really even intend in the grant, is all these leads have worked so well together and they've built this really cool camaraderie. It's like their own little ecosystem already. So is it really school?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Mm-hmm. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

And they communicate with each other and the teachers without me leading it. You know, I'll lead meetings and we'll have meetings all the time and Google meets, but they I have found the middle schools all kind of group together and they'll talk, and then one person, you know, one point of contact will send me the email and then the high school will do the same. So it's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Wow, that is incredible. That does remind me of another question or concern that parents might have because you said the kids are talking to each other. How do you keep the kids safe from creepers talking to them? Because they're on the internet.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Okay, they are on the internet, but they are not. Uh the big platform that kids talk back and forth is called Discord. We are not doing Discord. So we have it's Vanta, they have their own internal, but the only person that will ever communicate will be that lead person on that team with the coach standing right there, lead teacher. With and then they'll communicate with the other lead from the other school. So all the kids, like they would be at home, where they're all on there and they're talking and you can hear, you know, everything they're doing is saying, and that won't be the case for the schools. They will only one person will communicate with one person from the other school. They'll set up the game, but then they don't really communicate within the team. So they're just literally talking to each other.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

Okay, that is a huge deal.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

That was a huge concern for us. It took a lot of research.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

I bet it did. I bet it did. Scholarships. Is there scholarship money for kids who do well in esports?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

It's amazing, actually. So 42 different colleges right now, or actually when I wrote the grant, probably more now, because I I mean you figure this grant was written 12 months ago almost. But 42 colleges offer four-year degrees in esports, which who would know?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

In Florida?

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Oh, well, throughout the country.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Throughout the 42? 42 full scholarships.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Well, that's four-year degrees. So they're coming out with a, I guess it would be a Bachelor of Science. I'm not really sure what it would fall under, but they come out with a four-year degree with esports. That is literally their degree. But then there were over $16 million awarded in 2022 for kids to go to college. $16 million in scholarships.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

That is a crazy amount. That's that's uh, I mean, parents are now like, okay, I'm listening now. You need to send my kid to college.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Hey, I thought the same thing as we toured and they showed this little all of their stuff, but the main thing they went to were the esports labs. And I thought, huh, maybe my kid needs to be a little more involved.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Right. Maybe we need to practice a little bit more. That's okay. So when you put it all together, the connect connectedness amongst students here, the example you gave of the student with CP connecting with the other athletes at his school, I'm starting to see why military families are wanting to plug into this because you've got community and you've got Dallas.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Right, right, absolutely. And those kids coming in, it's a way to immediately get in with a group that you can connect with at your new school. But we found that the military kids also stay connected with their old friends from their past duty station in their past town. So that's why I think as our military transitioned in, they said, hey, where are the esports? Because that was their way to connect with their friends back home. A lot of them come from schools that had esports.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

And Dodia has more than one grant, correct?

SPEAKER_00 20:52

So uh Escambia County actually has five Dodia grants right now. We have one in esports, we have one in World Language, we have one in fine and performing arts, we have one that's a STEM grant, and then also a health science grant. So right now we actually in my office we're managing five Dodia grants.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

You know, no big deal.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yeah, a little over $12 million right now.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Well, that's the perfect transition to my last question because as I mentioned in the intro, you wear a lot of hats and obviously you have a lot going on. But the truth is you're just multi-talented. You have a bachelor's, two masters, and multiple other skills. We don't even have time to go into. So why this program? Why does this matter to you personally?

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Esports or Dodia in general?

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Whichever one you feel more passionate to answer about.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

I think the esports, as I, and I will say I was not 100% bought into it until I started doing the research and writing the grant. But the esports, I love the idea that a kid that may not be athletic, they may not make another team, they may never get that opportunity to be part of a team in high school. And we know high school is a hard age. So esports, that's that was the focus. It was more of a social emotional focus. And I taught for years, and that's that's just near and dear to my heart. I ran juvenile programs. I know that the kids, there's gotta be a way for every kid to feel like they fit. And this just seemed to be the catch-all that would that would go catch those kids that were falling through the cracks.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

I love that. Well, thank you for sharing this. Is there any follow-up that parents listening need to do or a website where they should check out, or just should do they need to just talk to their principal to see if the program is already in the school and they don't know about it? What's a good uh next step for a parent listening?

SPEAKER_00 22:44

I would say have your student reach out, have your student start asking around. It's new, but they're all starting to learn there are flyers up in the schools. And the funny thing, like where you or I would have, you know, on a piece of paper signed up that yes, I'd like to do this tryout. Well, they had QR codes up on the walls that the kids, of course, scan with their phones and signed up for tryouts and and went about it that way. But there is an esport lead in every school that has uh an esports team, and that would probably be the easiest. The other thing, they are working, all the leads are working. We're working to get them on the website. It may not for every school, it may not be there. I mean, that's probably by next year we will have them on there. But they've got some really neat videos already of the kids gaming, so I'm sure they'll be popping up.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Well, thank you. I really look forward to seeing what's next for this program.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Yeah, we'll have to take you to one of the gaming sites.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Oh Lord. It'll be it's really fun, actually. To be continued. Yes. All right, thanks, Monica.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.