The Gerald A. Lawson Fund provides financial support for under-represented students who wish to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees in game design or computer science from the University of Southern California's prestigious, #1-ranked joint program, USC Games.
With financial support from additional donors, game, and technology companies, USC Games' vision is to admit more under-represented students who will use the skills we impart to them during their studies to graduate and have successful and prosperous careers in Games and other STEAM industries.
Returns from the Endowment will support qualifying graduate and undergraduate games program students in both the School of Cinematic Arts and the Viterbi School of Engineering, beginning in the Fall 2022 semester. Student recipients of the funds will be known as Lawson Scholars.
Further support allows us to financially support even more students from these under-represented communities and invest in other aspects of diversity and equity related to our program.
Donations to the Fund will be ongoing and donations of all sizes are welcome.
To donate and for more information about the Lawson Fund, visit http://games.usc.edu/lawsonfund
To find out more about USC Games, visit http://games.usc.edu/
About USC Games
USC Games is a flagship collaboration offered jointly by the USC School of Cinematic Arts’ Interactive Media & Games Division (IMGD) and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Computer Science Department. This unified brand brings our programs under one umbrella, allowing students and faculty across the University of Southern California to collaborate together in creating innovative games.
The program at the USC School Cinematic Arts focuses on both the design and production of interactive media and games. Students emerge as creative media leaders, fluent in many forms of visual expression and storytelling, with a sophistication in designing and developing innovative interactive experiences that expand the state of interactive art and play across domains, such as entertainment, education, health care and social action.
The Computer Science Games program at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering provides students with grounding in the fundamentals of computer science and a cross-disciplinary background in game development. Students emerge with an engineering-oriented game-programming skillset, with an understanding of key technologies and the ability to lead complex technical teams in the development of games.
In addition to an Advanced Games class, USC Games presents the annual USC Games Expo, an event showcasing games created at the university that is open to the public, and also produces an industry event at the annual Game Developers Conference. USC Games also collaborates with game design programs at other colleges and universities. For more information go to games.usc.edu; or connect at uscgames@usc.edu.