Game-Changers Beyond Gaming

Champlain’s first-ever Game Business & Publishing graduate has already hit the ground running, making a tangible impact right here in Vermont. Wolde North ’24 is an American Connection Corps (ACC) AmeriCorps Member serving as a teacher for Technology for Tomorrow (T4T) in Burlington, Vermont. T4T is a nonprofit dedicated to bridging the digital divide, giving new technical skills to people in need, and prioritizing New Americans, retirees, and employment seekers.

In his recent blog post for ACC, North shares a pivotal experience that shifted his perspective on teaching and learning. This encounter led him to set a list of three goals for every lesson from that point onwards:

• Building Connection
• Instilling Confidence
• Feeding Curiosity

What stood out the most is North’s approach to these goals. “The best practice of applying each of the three steps above is to think of them as exchanges,” he writes, creating a classroom environment where “curiosity supersedes skill.” North describes how we should view the classroom not as a one-way transfer of knowledge, but as an exchange where both the teacher and student grow and learn together.

The Champlain alum is impacting the lives of young Vermonters in big ways, and his work is just one example of how our students and alumni make a difference beyond their industries as they find their niche in the working world.