NYU Game Center adds full-tuition scholarship for women

Yo, women like games, too. But way more often than not it’s men that are making the games. Well, a new scholarship from at the NYU Game Center, funded by the Barlovento Foundation, is aiming to change that. The scholarship will provide full tuition for three female MFA students over the next six years.

“The Game Center is a welcoming and supportive environment for all students, and I was especially impressed both by how internationally and demographically diverse our student body was, and yet still by how comparatively few female students we had in my class,” NYU Game Center alumnus and Barlovento Foundation president Vanessa Briceno said in a statement.
“All female-identifying applicants to the MFA program will be automatically considered for the scholarship, which will be awarded based on a combination of merit and need,” the school said in a statement.
Despite the disparity in gender in game development, the NYU Game Center has produced several women making significant additions to game world. The center recently announced that it would have a first-ever artist in residence, Merritt Kopas. A game that came out in October, Beglitched, made by members of the NYU Game Center incubator, was created by two men and one woman. And at last week’s No Quarter Exhibition two of the four designers were women.
So, as with so many things in our very imperfect world, there is inequity, but organizations like the Barlovento Foundation and the NYU Game Center are trying to improve the world for others.