Gaming is a specialty at Red Hook charter school, By Nathan Weiser

Summit Academy Charter School is a trailblazer since it is the first school in New York City to offer a fully equipped and operational gaming lab for its middle and high school students.

The students concentrate on Esports and receive instruction from their coach, Joel Lopez. The Esports Innovation Lab is a result of the joint vision and partnership of Summit’s leadership team and the Center for Educational Innovation’s (CEI) Esports Division.

After Summit and CEI developed their successful pilot program during spring 2022, their fully equipped and operational gaming lab that is designed to support students who are interested in the world of gaming opportunities and competitive Esports opened.

At Summit Academy, students can earn elective credits toward graduation through an Esports class and the students also have an opportunity to participate in after school sessions for fun and competition.

According to Louis Cuglietto, who is a consultant with CEI and has worked with Summit in building the lab as well as the Esports curriculum and instruction, Summit is the only school in NYC to offer Esports instruction for high school elective credit.

Summit Academy sponsored three after school Esports tournaments that were open to all students. The first one was a NBA 2K tournament on April 17, the second one was a FIFA tournament on April 18 and the third one was a Super Smash Bros tournament on April 19.

There was incentive for everyone who participated since coach Lopez told them that “we are playing for a a $50 cash prize for the winner.”

The creation of the gaming lab and Esports after school activity and elective class at Summit happened due to CEI, which is a Community Based Organization that was assigned to Summit Academy by the NYS Education Department.

According to Cuglietto, CEI is a organization that supports many schools and organization in New York State with resources and expertise that they might need. CEI undertook the planning and funding of the facility as well as the curriculum development and teaching.

CEI decided to undertake the building of the full-blown Esports lab at Summit, which is the only lab for a public school in New York City.

“We are partners, intent on helping this beautiful little school be as successful as possible,” Cuglietto said. “We have been methodically developing this program over the course of the past year.”

The lab was functional last summer for Summit’s BOOST program and was completed the start of this school year.

Summit Academy founder Natasha Campbell believes that having the first fully furnished Innovation Center makes the school a trailblazer and puts the scholars ahead of the curve.

A lot of work went into Summit’s Esports lab last summer to make sure it would be ready for the students. Towards the beginning of the school year improvements were made like adding blackout blinds to the windows to decrease light and adding tables to the room.

“Now we are officially streaming as well,” Lopez said. “During the day, whoever is gaming has the the opportunity to stream live on Twitch or Youtube.”

Esports is taught during the school day four days per week on Monday through Thursday.

When the teach during the day, the lesson is split in two halves.

“The first portion of the class, we are teaching them about Esports and we teach them about careers and potential opportunities for them,” Lopez said. “The second half is when we engage in gaming and the students come together and they get to play.”

During the classes, the gaming is secondary to the curriculum that they teach. In total, Lopez teaches about 45 students. His first two classes have high schoolers and those include 12-16 students and then the middle school class has 15-20 students.

There are two high school elective classes and one middle school Esports class. Some students have not been able to join his class so far but have been told about it from their friends.

The after school Esports enrichment club, which is open to anyone in the school, meets Monday through Wednesday. On Monday the concentration is NBA 2K, on Tuesday the concentration is FIFA and on Wednesday they concentrate on Smash Bros.

Being involved in Esports at Summit helps the students develop other skills and helps develop relationships as well as social skills.

“The greatest thing about Esports is it fosters community,” Lopez said. They are learning how to work as a team. They are learning how to be learners as well, it’s not just about playing the game and playing with each other.”

They get to learn different roles and positions that they can play within the team and game as well as what it means to be part of a team overall. Their coach thinks this is beneficial for when they go to college.

“They learn some of those skills and of course the engagement and positivity that comes with it,” Lopez said. “They make friends and have fun doing it.”

When the gaming happens during the second half of the classes or after school, there is active coaching happening during this time where the coaches circulate and find areas where the students can improve.

“We continue to work with them every day,” Lopez said. “Any opportunity that we get to see and spend time with them, we are coaching them up and practicing with them so they can get better and be prepared to come in and play these kinds of tournaments.”

After school, Lopez might go over techniques that might be found in the lesson during the day, but he said when they come after school they know what they are doing.

During the FIFA tournament on Tuesday that was open to all Summit students, 16 students came and there was integrated play, which meant that high schoolers got to play with middle schoolers.

There were three minute halves so that the tournament would be able to finish during the afternoon.

The Summit high school students wore their new Summit Eagles Esports jerseys during the tournament.

The tournament consisted of two rounds, then the semifinals and then the finals happened to decide the winner. Lopez told everyone to “get your tactics right” and had a microphone allowing him to give updates of the matches as they progressed.

The students watched intently during matches played on the big screen during the tournament. Other matches during the tournament were played on two smaller screens.

Brothers who had a three year age difference competed against each other in the tournament. The younger brother was excited when he pulled off the upset and their coach was proud of how he played.

The students got to choose their teams and the championship was FC Barcelona vs. PSG.

Their coach wished everyone good luck at the beginning and congratulated the students for competing. Everyone gave a round of applause at the end for the winner.

Since what Summit is doing is unique, a representative from a college has even asked Lopez for a recommendation on how to do something similar.

Summit’s founder believes that the Innovation Lab will give the scholars access to college programs that offer Esports as a major. The lab can also lead to more work with other schools.

“The Innovation Lab sets our scholars up to compete wit other students across the country,” Campbell said. “We believe that schools all over NYC will begin to develop Esports programs that will give our scholars the opportunity to collaborate across schools.”

Lopez hopes some students might pursue Esports at the college level. The time they spend in the class will be helpful if they put in the right amount of time and effort.

“Every time I teach a lesson, and even when we are playing casually, I remind students at the amazing amount of opportunities that they have,” Lopez said.

Santiago Ramos, who is a senior, was excited when he found out that Summit was having Esports. Gaming is a relatively recent hobby for him but one he enjoys.

He started to develop a passion for FIFA, his game of choice, during the pandemic. He likes that he can apply his knowledge of the sport.

“I played FIFA during my spare time during Covid, so I was excited,” Ramos said. “I like the game because I like to connect it to real life.”

He started being involved in Esports at Summit the beginning of the semester and has enjoyed the experience. He would like to continue Esports in college if possible.

“I would like to explore it because I know I am good at the game but don’t know how good I am,” Ramos said.

He was looking forward to the upcoming tournament against Business of Sport School (BOSS). Ramos anticipated testing his skills to see how far he could advance.

On April 24, BOSS was going to come and compete against the Summit Eagles NBA 2k players. This will give the Summit students a chance to see what they are made of.

“Business of Sports School is a high school we work with,” Lopez said. “They are top competitors and there is a bit of a rivalry between Summit and BOSS.”

After that competition, since BOSS does not have a lab like Summit does, the two schools will go to the Microsoft Experience Center for another event. Later on in May, the two schools will have a final match at the Samsung Center, which has a screen similar to one at a movie theater.

The Microsoft Experience Center is on 5th Avenue in Midtown, Manhattan. The Microsoft Center is a huge facility with a competitive gaming space that can accommodate school gaming competitions.

Summit is focusing on three games with their Esports programing: NBA 2K, FIFA and Super Smash. With their competition with the BOSS school, their main focus is NBA 2K, which means Summit will get their best NBA 2K players to compete against them.

When BOSS comes, there will be four teams from BOSS and four from Summit. There will be 12-15 students per school competing, and Summit’s gaming room will be set up so multiple games will be happening at the same time.

They will utilize both of the big screens and small screens and have a tournament set up to determine the winner.

Lopez first started working at Summit in January at the beginning of this semester. He started at Summit because he had been with CEI.

Before the pandemic, Lopez was the dean of culture at another charter school, but then during the pandemic he started to look for new opportunities and this led to him working with the CEI ESports team.

He was with the CEI Esports team as they developed their programming and opened the first fully functioning lab.

“I followed our last instructor Vincent Valerio, who was here and did a great job,” Lopez said. “Now I came and took over and am now pushing the initiative for competitions and it seems like we are in a good spot.”

He helped the CEI Esports team create great content and then they made the decision to have him come to Summit and get the competitions started. He thinks it has been going great.

The coach has been an avid gamer for as long as he can remember. He loves sports games and pointed out NBA 2K and FIFA as favorites. He remembers playing these games since 2001.

“They are playing games that I have grown up with,” Lopez said. “It feels good and it’s a great connection between us.”

Esports has gained a lot of attention from students. He thinks it’s a good tool to take with them to college since through the gaming and competitions there is a lot to learn and he hopes as many students take the opportunity as possible.

He enjoys putting in the extra effort to commentate and provide updates while the gaming is happening since it leads to the students having a good time and him as well.