For Thursday 02/06/25, the campus will be closed until 12 noon today due to the severe weather. All classes scheduled after 12 noon will take place as scheduled. Students should check Canvas for details on classes.
SOUTHFIELD–The LTU Expo Saturday showcased the talents of Lawrence Technological University’s game design programs as well as the region’s anime-graphic novel culture Saturday to an audience of more than 1,000.
There were whimsical costumed characters wandering the Southfield campus, a gamers’ vendor fair with more than 50 booths, a demonstration of LTU student-designed games, arcade and tabletop game rooms–as well as serious conversations about careers in gaming -and of the discrimination and harassment women still face in the gaming world.
A panel discussion on gaming careers found gamers and game design graduates in everything from TV meteorology to a geotechnical laboratory to coaching college Esports team — a rapidly growing form of competitive gaming that’s a new source of college scholarships for gamers.
Many Esports gamers have never been on a team before, LTU Esports coach Danielle Sirekis said. “The usable skill that we’re actually teaching is how to be a teammate,” Sirekis said, “If you decide to miss practice or not show up, you’re letting your teammates down–it affects more than just yourself, it affects your team. They are learning how to work as a team, and those are transferable skills.”
Soft skills like networking are also crucial gaming succcess, panelists said.
But women still face harrassment in the gaming world, where many of the games are macho combat exercises.
“I’ve had every nasty name thrown at me, so now I just laugh at it,” said Codi McPeek, an LTU student.
Said Jenna Savage, director of Esports operation at an organization called Gamers First: “I try to make my online presence as large as possible. I use my voice. I speak loud, and I say what I’m thinking. The more women and members of marginalized communities speak up in this industry, the more normal it will be, and the less harassment and toxicity you’ll see in gaming.”
Michael Stevens, whose job at a Cadillac TV station combines being an on-air meteorologist and producing a podcast on the gaming world, was introduced to the LTU gaming program after he had Sirekis as a guest on his show. “I like to take college programs and show them to parents,” he said. “In Northern Michigan, video games are still considered a waste of time. I show parents that they aren’t.” Stevens said his station management thinks of the gaming podcast as a way to introduce a younger audience to local TV news, a format most young people ignore.
Steven Juncaj, a full-time student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and coach of the Detroit Catholic Central Esports team, also coaches a professional Esports team called 26 Rising, which is funded by Catholic Central alumni. He said he got into gaming becasue “I saw people who were making money playing Fortnite and I thought that was pretty interesting.”
LTU offers both a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design with a concentration in game design, and a Bachelor of Science in computer science with a concentration in game software development. For more information, see https://www.ltu.edu/architecture-and-design/design/undergrad-game-design and https://www.ltu.edu/arts-sciences/mcs-archive/undergrad-computer-science-archive.
Use Your Cell Phone as a Document Camera in Zoom
From Computer
Log in and start your Zoom session with participants
From Phone
To use your cell phone as a makeshift document camera