Connecting Students to School Culture and Career Opportunities Through Broad Access to Esports and Gaming

It is important to offer students an esports program that maximizes participation by the large potential pool of gamers. Such inclusive programs include clubs, intramurals, and/or courses in addition to a varsity team that competes with other schools. The benefits of such programs include building skills in digital citizenship and global professional skills (GPS) such as collaboration, communication, problem solving, and creativity. Areas in social emotional learning (SEL) can be well served through esports programs as there are many students who build positive relationships with peers, adults, and with their academics as studies have shown. This chapter explores three areas regarding esports: building a sense of belonging in school culture, developing digital citizenship skills through esports, and focusing on esports programs not esports teams.