ESA Foundation Awards Scholarships To 30 Student Devs

The ESA Foundation has chosen 30 student game developers to receive a combined $90,000 in college scholarships for the upcoming academic year. The recent high school graduates and college students, who hail from across the United States, will each receive $3,000 to use towards college educations in programming, art, or other development-related fields of study, with the goal of establishing careers in video game development. Half of the chosen students are starting college in the 2009-2010 academic year, while the other half are already attending college. Previously, the ESA Foundation offered these scholarships only to the latter category, with only 15 total students eligible. The ESA Foundation is the charitable arm of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade organization that represents and lobbies for video game publishers in the United States. "We are delighted to support these young men and women working to transform their passion for games into careers," said ESA president Michael Gallagher. "We look forward to these awards enabling them to realize their dreams and become leaders in our innovative and artistic industry."