Representatives from Twitch spoke with Kennesaw eSports in August about bringing their student program to the southeast region of the U.S. and to Kennesaw State.
Norman Reid, a junior computer science major and Kennesaw eSports coordinator, said that Twitch, the live streaming video platform, is using their student program to help students around the world find jobs in the gaming industry.
The Twitch Student Program strives to help students by providing resources for them to create their own self-sustaining communities and giving them room to represent their universities on Twitch.
Twitch has already helped students and universities in the northwest region of the U.S. where they are based. The program helped the University of Utah create accredited courses in esports that cover topics such as content creation, esports history, market analysis and more.
Twitch representatives said they are interested in bringing the program to the southeast region, and spoke with students from KSU and other universities in metro Atlanta.
Reid said that there are several steps that organizations need to take to partner with the Twitch Student Program, and Kennesaw eSports will be working toward partnering with them during the fall 2018 semester.
“The three pillars we strive to uphold are inclusivity, diversity, and collaboration,” it states on the Twitch website. “Twitch Student’s goal is to educate, empower and give students’ confidence to have their voices heard in the gaming and esports industry.
“We see the future leaders of our industry in the students of today as they’ve shown great promise in their amazing accomplishments, both academically and within the gaming community,” it continues.
Universities or student organizations that want to get involved with the program first have to get in contact with Twitch through twitchstudent@twitch.tv. According to the Twitch website, after a student club or organization has successfully broadcast at nine hours of content per week for at least one month, they can become an official Twitch partner.
Official Twitch partners will have access to ad revenue and Twitch swag to hand out and promote at club events. They will also be able to add a subscribe button and emoticons to their team’s page.
Reid said KSU has been fully supportive of Kennesaw eSports and will continue to support the club while they work with the Twitch Student Program to try to provide more opportunities for the students at KSU.
