By Harold Goldberg
It’s happening! Back in January at the 10th Annual New York Game Awards, we announced an ongoing education partnership with Rockstar Games that we’re proud to say has officially begun.
Rockstar, along with the Circle, has created a paid internship program that will be tailored to the interests and prior work of each candidate – with the hope of giving them a sense of the scope of work opportunities in videogame publishing. That’s our goal at the Circle: to prepare an assertive group of underserved students for exciting careers in the world of interactive entertainment, and work with them through high school and college to help achieve those goals.
The first of these valuable internships has gone to our Ronald Gordon. Ronald was one of two inaugural NYVGCC interns back in 2018, and our most prolific and most deadline conscious. Before that, he had taken our after-school courses at the Bronx’s Dreamyard Prep School. Ronald is now a valued senior intern with the NYVGCC and the first to be welcomed by Rockstar as part of the program, having earned this placement as a result of his dedication to writing, reviewing and interviewing in the world of games for us for almost four years now.
The Circle has a long mentoring history with Rockstar Games. Simon Ramsey, head of their Global Communications team, has spoken to our journalism and writing classes for years about the range of potential paths into games. This program will provide insights into those pathways and where they may lead, and our hope is that each intern will leave with a strong sense of the structure that supports some of the world’s biggest entertainment products. In addition, we feel that each intern will have a better an understanding of the wide-range of jobs available in videogame creation and publishing including communications, community management, narrative and more – all helpful to those looking to pursue a career in both games and games journalism.
Coupled with their work at Circle and the NYVGCC, the professional experience these interns will gain at Rockstar will be invaluable, bringing insights and opportunities to students from places beyond just name-brand or Ivy League schools – something we hope to see replicated at more game companies in coming years.
The Rockstar internship is something we’re truly excited about and looking forward to seeing grow in the future, and we are excited for Ronald to begin this program for us.
Author/journalist Harold Goldberg is the founder of the New York Videogame Critics Circle and the New York Game Awards.
