How esports builds confidence, friendship and future-ready skills
Neil A. Armstrong Middle School student Timothy Gincheroe plays “Rocket League” along with his Verizon Innovative Learning Esports League team members.
The sounds of cheering and clapping fill the Verizon Innovative Learning Lab at Neil A. Armstrong Middle School, home to one of the school’s unique teams: esports. On this Thursday afternoon more than a dozen seventh and eighth graders have stayed after class to play video games. The coaches of the school’s esports team know the students are doing more than just gaming.
“Kids are going to play video games at home anyway,” says Verizon Innovative Learning Lab Mentor April Fox. “But to get them into a school environment where we can really push communication skills, increase their confidence and get them to connect on a one-to-one basis, I think is the best benefit of having an esports program.”
The after-school time spent analyzing gameplay and high-level hardware also translates into a greater interest in STEM. “Being part of the esports team does get the kids more involved and excited about technology,” Fox says.
Fox, who has a son who loves gaming, had an inkling that esports (“electronic sports”) could be popular at the Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania school. It wasn’t until Fox saw that Verizon Innovative Learning HQ offers resources to organize a league that she figured out a way to make it happen.
“Without the Verizon Innovative Learning Esports League, I wouldn’t have known where to begin,” says Fox. “They provided the support and structure, and the knowledge on how to start it, get it up and running and how to maintain it.”
Verizon developed the league in partnership with Games for Change (G4C), a nonprofit with more than 20 years of experience in combining games and education. G4C created a curriculum to integrate well-being and social-emotional learning into the program, connecting students’ passion for esports with academic and career paths.
In addition to practicing combination moves and developing scoring strategies, the esports team members compete in organized tournaments with their classmates against other schools.
“A lot of these kids wouldn’t be on other teams, like the typical athletic teams, but when we put them on the esports team, they’re developing the same exact type of collaborative skills. They're just doing it in a digital arena,” Fox says.
John Matthews, an emotional support teacher and the esports team co-coach at Armstrong, sees the same teamwork skills he learned playing NCAA baseball in college developing in the esports team members. Win or lose, Matthews says, the students learn to stay positive and support one another.
“They’re showing that they work together,” he says. “They’re showing that they can excel as a team — and not only excel, but that they can lose as a team and still have a positive morale.”
Beyond teamwork, Fox says the esports program is sparking real interest in technology. Students discuss aspects of the hardware and software they use, programming jobs and even esports college scholarships.
“They bring in a lot of that expertise that they have,” says Fox about the students’ tech know-how. “They actually teach me a lot.”
The league meets three days a week, focusing on teamwork and communication early in the week before facing other schools in competitions.
While the esports league is new to Armstrong, the school has participated in Verizon Innovative Learning programs for more than a decade. It was part of the first cohort of Verizon Innovative Learning Schools, a program that provides professional development around tech integration to educators and devices and data plans to students.
It was also a recipient of a Verizon Innovative Learning Lab, where students and teachers use hands-on emerging tech to explore new learning experiences within STEM and core curriculum.
“Verizon’s programs changed the whole approach for everyone — students, teachers, the administration. Everything kind of shifted into the new age of technology in education,” says Joe Marlow, a long-time Armstrong educator, about Verizon’s impact on the school.
That new age is exemplified by the esports league, now in its second year, where students are flourishing. Fox says that her more reserved students have developed confidence that is visible.
“One of the things I’ve loved the most is seeing these kids come out of their shells. I have a lot of them in my class, and they’re kind of quiet, they get their work done, they don’t interact much. But when I see them in a digital arena, they’re like completely different kids,” she says.
Verizon Innovative Learning is a key part of the company’s responsible business plan to help move the world forward for all. As part of the plan, Verizon has an ambitious goal of providing 10 million youth with digital skills training by 2030. Educators can access free lessons, professional development, and immersive learning experiences to help bring new ways of learning into the classroom by visiting Verizon Innovative Learning HQ.
