AMD Provides $35,000 For Kids' Sustainable Fishing Game Program

The AMD Foundation, the chip maker's charitable arm, is committing a $35,000 grant to support the development of an educational game about sustainable fishing. The grant recipient is Schmahl Science Workshops, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit organization that runs educational camps and workshops for children and teenagers. The sponsorship comes in support of AMD's education-focused Changing The Game initiative, which specifically supports serious, educational and social issue games that encourage kids to develop science, technology, education and math skills as well as increase their global awareness. Through this "Sustainable Seafood" game design project, Schmahl middle and high schoolers will work on designing and programming a Flash or Facebook game around the sustainable fishing theme. At the same time, AMD is donating 10 notebooks (powered by its processing hardware) and software for the kids to use in the project. "Since the vast majority of today’s youth play video games regularly, we believe that video game development can be a powerful means to engage and educate students," says AMD Foundation president Allyson Peerman. "By creating a video game on overfishing, students will develop valuable science and math skills, while educating a broader audience on an important social issue," she says. The AMD Foundation also recently announced a $100,000 grant in support of a game design workshop at the annual social issue-focused Games For Change festival in New York, marking the third straight year the company's Changing the Game initiative has supported the event.