Spotlight 4 Success
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Spotlight 4 Success
Beyond Gaming: The Academic Impact of Esports
What if Esports could revolutionize education as we know it? Join us on Spotlight for Success as we sit down with Jeffery Harrison from the Louisiana Scholastic Esports Federation (LASF), who is at the forefront of this transformative movement. Jeffery shares how LASF is reshaping the perception of Esports from mere gaming to a dynamic educational platform that fosters skills in broadcasting, leadership, and event management. Students are not only learning but are being empowered to excel beyond their mentors.
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. We are here at LeCue. I am Devin Pintosi, your host, and we are here with Jeffrey Harrison with LASF. Welcome, jeffrey. Hey, thanks for having me All right, so tell us a bit about what you're doing here, jeffrey, with LASF and eSports. What does LASF stand for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, louisiana Scholastic eSports Federation. So we put Scholastic in. And eSports. What does LASF stand for? Yeah, louisiana Scholastic eSports Federation. So we put Scholastic in the eSports because a lot of people think it's just gaming. But we're here to prove everybody wrong, okay. So how are you doing that? So I mean, just like you're doing right here with this broadcasting. This is what a lot of our kids are learning. They're doing broadcasting production behind the scenes, they're doing leadership management while they're running the. We have an event space in Baton Rouge, but the students are running the tournaments in the event space. We have a student ambassador program, so they're the ones that help take the ownership over our program, to lead it, and they train younger students in the middle school how to take their jobs one day. But you know their goal is I don't want you to replace me. I want you to be better than me at some point.
Speaker 2:So we have a whole program that we're doing right now.
Speaker 1:That is great. It's really an impressive setup. I know we can't see it here on the camera, but really an impressive setup here, with all of the eSports, different sections here and the gaming that's going on. I saw there were a number of people from a certain parish correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was my district. I work for East Paddington Parish School System as well. I'm the director of network operations and eSports for that district. So we bussed in about 50 kids to come and play. And we also had our state title yesterday for Super Smash Brothers, which Brother Martin from New Orleans won.
Speaker 1:Gosh, that's awesome, and the karaoke was a lot of fun last night too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's something new we're doing. I've been coming to LaCue for a long time and then with esports, we basically are kind of having a, I guess a commingled conference here with LaCue, so we call it Lace Up Con, so we have a dedicated room to none but esports sessions. But they also come down here and see, you know, the work in action, because, again, trying to get everybody to see the value in it has been a difficulty, but now when they come down here at the tournament watching our students doing production and running the tournaments and all that stuff, then they're getting to see it. Oh wait, this is more than gaming, you know. So we're trying to. You know, work with LaCue and just keep pushing that message out and grow each other's. You know, work with LaCue and just keep pushing that message out and grow each other's. You know, conferences at the same time with a partnership, in a way that is wonderful, Jeffrey.
Speaker 1:how did you get involved with esports so?
Speaker 2:I've been. So I've been working for the school district for 24 years now, okay, since I was 18. And it's always been. You know, we always had like librarians or somebody that was a kind of a gamer hey, can we do this on the network and that kind of stuff. And I always had previous you know CTOs that would say, no, we're not doing that, we're not opening up the network. And you know my current CTO. She's been working with me for a long time and basically she said, if you can do it safely, do it. I was like, all right, it's going to happen and it's going to be big.
Speaker 2:And right now we have 56 schools in our district alone. So it's over 52% of the school district that has an esports program in it, and that's ranging from teams coming to our arena from after-school programs. So like, even with that, let's just say you have an after-school tutoring program and kids didn't really want to go to that. You know, I don't want to go. Stay in school after hours. Well, guess what's happening now? There's a waiting list because now you have an incentive you go do tutoring. You have to do tutoring, but you get to go to the eSports lab after tutoring.
Speaker 2:And it's helping GPAs go up in schools because of it.
Speaker 1:Wow, yep, that is a fantastic program. What a great win for everybody. That's great. How long has that been going on in East Baton Rouge?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we just started, pretty much last year, with a 21st century grant. They've been doing a grant for a while and then they asked hey, can we try to incorporate esports into our program, Like heck yeah.
Speaker 1:Gosh, that is awesome. That's great. Is there anything you'd like to share with the LaCue community about, about what you're doing?
Speaker 2:here. I mean we're just trying to bring esports in, bring it into a positive spin. You know, I'm real happy to be, and I just got elected to be on the LACUE board too.
Speaker 1:Oh congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 2:And you know my goal. You know one of my biggest goals is to help everybody out as I can. So even on LACUE, I have so many crazy ideas on how I can try to help even this conference and see what I can do to level it up, because that's just the way my mind works is competition, competition, competition. To bring out the best in everybody oh wonderful. But I also want to bring out fun. I mean, we're in New Orleans, let's have fun. They did karaoke. I was on one of their meetings like, oh well, we can help with that, no problem, help with that, no problem, let's help with that. And then the trivia night. I was over there DJing the 80s music because I love the 80s. So, whatever, I can help this organization grow with my organization growing at the same time. I can see us being the spotlight of Louisiana one day.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's wonderful Rising star here. We've got Jeffrey Harrison with eSports. And what's the name? Lacef, lace name LACEF, lacef, lacef. Thank you so much for being part of us here at Spotlight for Success and I hope the rest of the conference is fantastic for your organization. Appreciate it, thank you.