We’re extremely honored to announce another year and a new recipient of the Nels Memorial Scholarship, continuing the long-standing partnership between SMU Guildhall and Certain Affinity. We had been hoping to present this year’s scholarship winner with their award in person, however, the safety of everyone during this global pandemic remains our top priority. Thankfully, we’ve all become well versed in the virtual world now, so the presentation was transformed into an online format last Friday, allowing for a larger attendance.

The day began with an intro about Certain Affinity and the partnership between us and SMU Guildhall, including of course, the main reason we’re all together, Nels Nelson. Sharing what his legacy continues to mean to our studio as we help the next generation of game developers. In fact, since the start of Nels Scholarship program in early 2019, we have hired over a dozen Guildhall alumni across all manner of disciplines, helping us to build our amazing titles. In addition, we also support Guildhall students in numerous other ways including teaching, portfolio reviews, career days, and guest lectures.

This day however was all about congratulating one outstanding student that has carried Nels’ legacy through not only their school work, but their everyday life, and our selection committee had come to a decision. This year’s winner of the second-ever Nels Memorial Scholarship is Rebecca McManamy!

With a history in education, Rebecca had mentioned she always wanted to be the cool history teacher who used games to help make her subjects come alive, similar to her upbringing. After nine years of teaching and the unfortunate passing of her father to cancer, she wanted to make a bigger difference to more students than just within the walls. This led her to pursue a Master’s in Interactive Technology from SMU Guildhall, where she’s absolutely excelled along the way.

Rebecca showed a spirit unmatched that really made her the clear winner throughout our blind selection process. We can’t wait to see how Rebecca’s career develops, and below we’d like to share a portion of her acceptance speech. We wish her all the best in her journey.

We look forward to meeting the next recipient of the Nels Memorial Scholarship and continuing to foster the values that made our friend Nels such a treasured member of the CA family. Congratulations once again to Rebecca on your outstanding achievement!

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