Students game after school at Notre Dame Academy on Thursday, April 28, 2022. (Photo Courtesy Chris Brown)

By Chris Brown

Notre Dame Academy students learning and growing through gaming

Apr 29, 2022 | 3:27 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The days of playing video games in school being frowned upon are long gone at Notre Dame Academy.

And that’s helping set students up for potential careers in eSports, a field that one leading industry source projects to hit $1.8 billion in revenue this year to hit and to have an audience of nearly 600 million two years from now.

Instructor Chad Kletzel says growth is happening at Notre Dame, too, as the school winds down the first year of its Gaming Concepts program with a class, a club and a league.

“We’ve seen around 20-30 kids attending when we have our sessions after school,” he says. “So that’s been a good turnout for this year and I think the chatter around the school is people are kind of learning more about it and people are talking about joining next year and being a part of the league more than just the club and participating in that.”

Kletzel says the goal in the beginning was to meet students where they are and help them feel more connected to school in a different medium.

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Aidan Learned is an avid gamer, saying it’s one of his favourite things to do.

Joining the team improved his skills and confidence and allowed him to check off a bucket list item.

“I really like being here it’s super fun and I can talk to all my friends,” he says. “It’s been really nice. It’s just that they have been supporting me along the way and it’s just learning new tricks and it’s just been really fun.”

It hasn’t just been fun and games though. There is also a gaming concepts class at the school, where students learn about health and lifestyle issues in the gaming world and awareness needed anytime they’re online.

Gaming is at the heart of the program and students could stay on that path into adulthood. The growth of the industry has major brands like Amazon and Nascar jumping in with sponsorships and universities are beginning to offer scholarships.

But Kletzel says as the program grows at Notre Dame there will be a whole gamut of opportunities within for students to go beyond gaming. He points to social media, marketing and coding as some of the potential avenues.

“I think sometimes people have their own stereotypes about what this eSports stuff looks like but there is lots of skill involved and lots of different aspects in the industry,” he says.