Growing the Lawson Fund; And a Diverse Games Industry
USC Games’ Gerald A. Lawson Fund honors the late Jerry Lawson, a Black engineer and pioneer of modern gaming.
by Desa Philadelphia
Sony Interactive Entertainment is the latest games industry partner to support USC Games’ Gerald A. Lawson Fund and its goal of increasing the number of game creators from underrepresented communities. Sony made a $3 million contribution with backing from its PlayStation Career Pathways Program in September 2022, and announced the program with a video celebrating the Lawson Fund goals.
“We are beyond excited to be one of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s partners and share their same vision to inspire and enable more diversity within the gaming industry,” said Jim Huntley, USC Games professor and the program’s head of marketing.
The Gerald A. Lawson Fund provides support to students who wish to pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees in game design or computer science at USC's prestigious, top-ranked program. It is named for Gerald "Jerry" Lawson, a Black engineer who designed an early game console and led the team that developed the first removable, commercial ROM cartridges. Mr. Lawson is widely considered a pioneer of modern gaming, with a 1982 edition of Black Enterprise magazine calling him the “father of the video game cartridge.”
“The USC Games’ Lawson Fund is more than a scholarship,” said Tiffany Johnson, senior director and global head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Sony Interactive Entertainment. “It’s our commitment to creating opportunities for Black and other unrepresented talent that want to enter the gaming industry. We have a responsibility to drive change and build an industry that is more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming for all. This contribution is just one of many efforts and it all starts with investing in the next generation of talent and creating more exposure and visibility for underrepresented communities.”
Sony is the third major industry player to support the fund. In May 2021, Take Two Interactive effectively launched the fund by providing the seed money to get it started. Huntley, who had been working to get a funding partner, says it was a turning point. "When Alan Lewis from Take-Two said 'We're in,' I got choked up. We'd been pitching this thing for months. To finally get validation from one of the largest gaming publishers in the world, I realized this isn’t me ‘tilting at windmills.’ Somebody gets it."
The other major contributor is Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studio, which joined the fund in August 2021.
Huntley says the goal now is to get other industry players to contribute to the fund so that it can provide more scholarships to deserving students. He says that one of the best ways to tackle representation is to provide pathways like this to deserving young creators. “We hope companies, publishers, and developers will reach out to us and invest in tackling this chronic problem, which the industry has been struggling with since its inception,” says Huntley.
USC Games, a collaboration between the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Science Department, is focused on the design and production of interactive media and games. Its graduates become creative media leaders with expertise in visual expression and storytelling across multiple disciplines such as entertainment, education, health care, and social action. USC Games is focused on supporting diverse cohorts of future creators, and that requires scholarship money.
For those who would like to donate and provide support for future game designers and developers from underrepresented communities, donations to the Gerald A. Lawson Fund can be made by clicking the button below.