E-sports as an Inclusive Equalizer by Abdulazeem

E-sports as an Inclusive Equalizer by Abdulazeem - September 2019 Scholarship Essay

High school extracurricular activities. Besides academics, I believe that extracurriculars activities are crucial for a student’s success and development, as they can add so much more to one’s life. Extracurriculars can provide students with an outlet to relieve the stress of the day, they can help beef up a future college application. But more than those, I’d argue that the best thing extracurriculars can give to someone, is the sense of community and belonging. Since the dawn of civilization, humans have always sought to carve out niches and find groups of like-minded individuals with whom they can bare the hardships of life with. And in the big unknown jungle of high school, finding a group with who you can relate with is of the upmost importance. And to some degree, this task can be accomplished relatively easy. With groups such as football, soccer, music or dance, there are plenty of options to choose from. However, the problem that stems from a lot of these groups is that, while they are open to anyone who wants to join, to truly become part of the group, one has to have some degree of expertise in the subject in question. And while if you do stick around long enough, you’ll eventually learn the ropes, for many high schoolers, such as myself back when I was in high school, this task can prove daunting and can prevent them from ever joining a group. So, to answer the question on what high school extracurricular I would create if given the chance, I want to make sure that the activity can be as accessible to as many people as possible. So, because of that reasoning, I would choose a gaming enthusiast and e-sports team to become an extracurricular activity.
Now at first, having gaming be my choice may not seem like the most optimal decision. While it is different to the years of physical training of sports or the amount of latent talent of music and dance, to be good at videogames requires a lot of practice and dexterity which could lead to a similar problem of needing a certain amount of knowledge in the field to truly be accepted in the community. And while this may be true if the extracurricular was only an e-sports, this will not be the case because it’s going to be an e-sports and gaming enthusiasts’ chapter. By having this split dynamic in the extracurricular, you don’t have to be an adept gamer to join. A casual student looking to get in games could find themselves in a welcoming environment with very accessible games like Stardew Valley, Minecraft, and Mario Kart. And for the student who’s looking to test their metal against the best, they can be part of the e-sports team and compete against other chapters in competitive games like Dota 2, Rocket League and Overwatch. With this setup in mind, I truly believe that if a gaming enthusiast and e-sports team were to be implemented into high school, many more students, no matter their level of skill or hours available could find a home within the group.