Electronic Arts Gives Grant to Gaming Program

Electronic Arts donates $1 million to Canadian colleges to promote digital entertainment courses.

Electronic Arts Inc. will be making a $1 million grant to the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) program at the Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver, British Columbia, one of Canada’s entertainment hotbeds. The donation is going to help improve the education for digital entertainment in Canada and offer students a paid internships with one of EA’s satellite studios.

Students who graduate from the two-year MDM program will receive a Master’s Degree sealed by the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology and the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. This fall will see the first 200 students to enter the program.

Paul Lee, President of EA Worldwide Studios, commented on the contributions. “Our goal is to help create an innovative educational environment that will lure talented people from across North America and around the world to the Great Northern Way Campus and make British Columbia the destination of choice for the next generation of creative leaders. This is an excellent opportunity for EA to invest in the future of the industry by providing today’s students with the skills and knowledge they will need to push technology and entertainment forward. … To create the next generation of entertainment, we need the next generation of talent. It is imperative for tomorrow’s creative leaders, designers and producers to acquire an education with both depth and breadth in order to achieve success in our ever-growing industry.”

Those in charge of the college involved see their investments as key to the future of Canada’s technology and entertainment industries.

“With this support for the MDM program, EA is demonstrating it’s commitment to making British Columbia a global leader in digital entertainment,” said Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia. “With an economy as strong as British Columbia’s, it’s critical that we all work together to provide new training opportunities that will produce the creative leaders competitive companies like EA need. I commend EA for their commitment to the future of the videogame industry in British Columbia.”

President of Great Northern Way Campus Dennis Pavlich added, “Our vision to develop Great Northern Way Campus into the international academic leader is further solidified by our relationship with the world’s number-one interactive entertainment software company. This is a partnership that will set new standards of educational excellence through innovation and collaboration in an entertainment industry that is constantly changing. Thanks to Electronic Arts, we can realize our vision of becoming the global leader in interactive arts education.”