King announces recipients of its first GDC scholarship for European women
King announces recipients of its first GDC scholarship for European women
STOCKHOLM, LONDON: King Digital Entertainment, a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world, today announced the recipients of its first scholarship, which will send 10 female students to the 2016 Games Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. GDC is the world’s largest and longest-running games industry event.
The Scholarship has been initiated by Diversi, a non-profit organisation which works for greater diversity within the gaming sphere and King’s employee network Women@King, which aims at encouraging more women into tech and gaming. The Scholarship aspires to provide more women with the opportunity to grow their network, exchange ideas and ease the transition from student life to work life. All of the women will receive a trip to GDC, hosted by King, and will attend a range of conference events and networking sessions.
Applications for the scholarship opened in December and were open to female-identifying students based in Europe. King and Diversi were overwhelmed by the response, with hundreds of talented women applying for the scholarship.
Roisin Lally, Campus Recruitment Manager, King, said, “The applications we received for this scholarship were incredible and just blew us away. Every single woman who applied to join us at GDC through this scholarship was exceptionally bright, talented and passionate about games and the games industry. The ten people who we’ve chosen for this scholarship were truly exceptional and we can’t wait to join them at GDC.”
Susie Harris, VP Legal and a Women@King founder said, “Until relatively recently, the games industry has been predominantly male and many people still assume that games don’t appeal to women – something which is simply not true. At King, we make games which are accessible to a really wide audience, and are enjoyed particularly by women. We’re very committed to encouraging more women to consider a career in the games industry, where they will have a huge impact creating games for a diverse audience of players. I’m so excited to meet all the amazing people who’ll be joining us this year in San Francisco.”
Albertina Sparrhult, Project Manager, Diversi, said: “This is one out of several initiatives we’re seeing through in order to work for a more qualitative and quantitative diversity within the industry. It’s been truly inspiring to receive so many brilliant applications, and in particular to see them leaning heavily towards the technical side of the craft.”
Diversi is a collective force working for greater diversity within the gaming sphere. The Swedish non-profit organisation was set up to enable people from the games industry, educational institutions and communities to encourage and support each other’s diversity efforts, promoting an inclusive culture where everyone can feel welcome regardless of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, age, body or function variation.
“We’re extremely excited to be working with King on this project as they stand on the forefront on matters of diversification, both in their company culture and the games they create.” says Albertina.
GDC will take place March 14-18, 2016 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. It’s the world’s largest and longest-running game industry event, featuring over 400 lectures, panels, tutorials and round-table discussions on a comprehensive selection of game development topics.
Recipients of the Diversi & King GDC Scholarship are:
– Anna Henningsson, Umeå University, Sweden
– Stella Delonge, Technische Universität München, Germany
– Georgia Collins, King’s College London, UK
– Olivia van den Born The Game Assembly, Sweden
– Elise Terranova, IT University Copenhagen, Denmark
– Dervla Hynes, Imperial College London, UK
– Jenny Yang, University of Oxford, UK
– Lou Isabelle Kramer, Technische Universität München, Germany
– Nikola Adamus, University of Tampere, Finland
– Alba Sanchez Serrano, U-Tad, Spain
-ENDS-
KING
Susannah Clark
VP Communications, Global
+44 (0) 7788 405 224
ABOUT KING
With millions of people all around the world playing one or more of their games, King believes that a great Saga needs all sorts of heroes. Hiring all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, King believes that working in games should have nothing to do with where you’re from, what you look like or what you wear. It’s all about your talent and your potential.
Women@King, is an inclusive King employee network, to promote increased female representation in the games industry as a whole. They’re thrilled to be partnering with Diversi for this specially designed GDC Scholarship.
ABOUT DIVERSI
Diversi is a non-profit organisation with a large network spanning the vast majority of Sweden’s AAA developers, indies, industry organisations such as Association of Swedish Game Developers, educational institutions and community organisations for gaming and e-sports.
Through their projects, website and social media they strive to accumulate and spread knowledge about diversity initiatives. Their network serves to connect people and organisations so that they may exchange ideas and find new ways to collaborate.