New esports college opens in New Jersey

At Stockton University and Camden County College, students learn skills that go beyond video games. The Cougar Esports Arena, which opened in January, has an area of 1,600 square meters where everything related to esports is learned.

The venue was built to host intercollegiate esports competitions and academic programs. With that, an important step was taken in New Jersey for esports in the region, joining the increasing number of esports universities around the world.

Study Esports in New Jersey

Camden County College’s William G. Rohrer Center in Cherry Hill is home to the new Cougar Esports program. Beginning this fall, the college will offer an associate degree in Esports Production. Using esports – or competitive video games – as a platform, the program will teach content creation skills that are transferrable to other areas such as video production.

Sean Dwyer, the director of Camden County College’s fledgling esports program, pointed out that the program emphasizes practical skills beyond video games: “This whole arena is geared towards making sure that the end product that we put into our streams is really professional quality, so we give our students the hands-on experience of working on that product.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Weilgus, Managing Director of the Esports Innovation Center, sees the region in a unique position: “We have Atlantic City operating nine casinos, 17,000 hotel rooms, and the rare ability to not only expand the ecosystem in terms of jobs but also to find this synergy with the gaming space.”

University as an organization

The William G. Rohrer Center is an independent organization based on the Stockton University campus, working under the direction of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. Weilgus has said the agency was created to respond to a rapidly changing industry in hopes New Jersey will discourage some talent from leaving the state.

There are 12 esports teams at Camden County College. Each team is geared towards titles such as Rocket League, Super Smash Bros., and Madden NFL. The college participates in two esports leagues: the National Association of Collegiate Esports and the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports.

Stockton University has opened its own gaming room for students since 2019 and has been developing an esports management program focused on event planning and hospitality since late 2021.

“We have been working on partnerships with the Esports Trade Association,” said Noel Criscione Naylor, associate professor and interim chair of the Hospitality Tourism and Event Management program at the university.

Naylor added that it’s similar to the program at Camden County College. Your graduates will learn transferrable skills to support almost any role within or even outside of the esports ecosystem. How many new esports colleges do you think we will see in the next few years?

Header: Cougar Esports