Zynga Offers Scholarships Totaling $20,000 For Masters Of Digital Media Program
Vancouver – Zynga, the industry leader in social gaming, has shown its support for the Masters of Digital Media (MDM) Program with three new entrance scholarships totaling $20,000. The three scholarships will be awarded in the areas of Game Design, Art and Programming. Students beginning their studies in September who have demonstrated remarkable talent in these fields will be considered. The MDM application deadline is June 30, 2009.
“At MDM, we’re thrilled that Zynga is keen to support our Masters of Digital Media students,” said Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Executive Director of the MDM Program and CEO of the Centre for Digital Media at Great Northern Way Campus. “The backing of an industry leader such as Zynga is a testament to the quality of the students joining our two-year program, and we thank the company for their support not only of our program, but of the digital media industry in Vancouver and throughout North America.”
This is the second initiative between Zynga and the MDM Program. Earlier in the year, a team of MDM students and faculty scoped, designed and prototyped a social network game. The team pulled elements of traditional game design into the social gaming space, a novel approach to developing games in this genre.
Zynga, based in San Francisco, is the largest social gaming company with 10 million daily active users and 45 million monthly users. Zynga was recently named the largest application developer on Facebook with more than 40 million monthly active users, according to AllFacebook and AppData. Zynga’s games are also available on MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Tagged, Yahoo! and the iPhone.
The Masters of Digital Media Program is a ground-breaking Master’s degree in entertainment technology and digital media. Students are offered team-based experiences focused on project learning in close collaboration with B.C.’s vibrant games and digital media industry. The degree is jointly awarded by four major post-secondary institutions: the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr University of Art Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology.