The Game Exchange program will focus on teaching the participants to develop video games with a social impact. It will involve 2,700 students, aged 6-12, bringing them together through a medium in which they share a common interest no matter their home country: video games.
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The student participants of the new program will be put into teams tasked with working on at least two projects of their choice, which must be based on the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These goals were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015 and are considered an urgent call to action. They include topics such as ending poverty, improving health and education, reducing inequality, andcombating climate changeby working to conserve oceans and forests.
Teachers trained through Games for Change will provide guidance for the students as they work on their projects, and participants will also receive feedback from games industry insiders, former participants of the Game Exchange program, and “mentors from academia.”
Marie Royce, the former Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, helped develop the program. “I felt it was important to be where people are at,” she said in an interview with the Washington Post. “Young people have something in common and it’s that they play video games. I think it’s important to have initiatives around gaming.”
Games for Change is a nonprofit founded in 2004 with the goal of inspiring young people to learn about civic issues and the ways in which video games can have a social impact. An emphasis is placed on the importance oflearning STEM skills—science, technology, engineering, and math—while also training educators to teach game design. A few titles that have recently been featured by Games for Change areGRIS, Sky: Children of the Light,andDreams,all of which are believed to explore contemporary social issues in a meaningful way.
