SAU Teaching Grad: She's Got Egame

A girl in the male-dominated landscape of Esports. A Baptist serving in Campus Ministry for a Catholic university. A Winter 2021 Elementary Education graduate melding the opposing worlds of academia and video games.

Alyssa Duran was the exception to those norms while paving her own personalized path to success at St. Ambrose. 

"It's really interesting to be at the forefront of collegiate Esports," said Duran, who will continue coaching SAU's newly crowned conference champion Overwatch team along with Esports head coach Chase Neukum after walking across the stage for Winter Commencement on Dec. 18.

"My freshman year, it was a thing that was becoming more common, but not every university had an Esports program. But now, a lot of high school freshmen looking to go to college are saying, 'OK, what games do you offer?'
"Esports just offers another opportunity for students who might not traditionally go to college to attain higher education because we're offering scholarships. Esports also offers a community at a college for you to get involved with and help students stay engaged."

Duran got involved as a second-semester freshman by answering an email seeking gamers interested in trying out for the school's first Esports team.

Duran not only made SAU's fledgling team but eventually ascended to team captain, educational assistant, and now game coach, introducing weekly programs to teach different skills applicable to the variety of games offered.

"I've really grown a lot with the program," said Duran, who now sees two women on SAU's program roster of 38. "Some people think girls don't play video games, but they do. People think about the stereotype of a guy alone in his room. But it's not like that; Esports is a team thing full of goals and strategy and problem solving."

The quick emergence of Esports nationally has the Davenport North High School alum exploring new career opportunities in addition to immediate plans of substitute teaching locally after graduation.

Duran's final fall semester at SAU included student-teaching in a Davenport elementary school. Advisers have told her graduating in only 3½ years gives her a chance to network now at several schools locally before chasing a full-time assignment for next fall. A master's degree is a future goal.

"My students caught on that I am an Esports coach and so they're like, 'How good are you at Fortnite? How many skins do you have?'" Duran said with a laugh. "Building relationships is so important with students. Almost all kids like video games, so it's great to just sit down and talk to them about it."

Duran uses that "street cred" to reinforce good study-habits and a proper life balance with playing games.

"There are so many great skills to learn from video games," Duran said. "But you can't play 24/7. You have to pay attention to all the aspects of your life."

To that end, Duran's Campus Ministry experience helped the Esports program keep proper perspective. She coordinated a special Saturday service project for the team doing volunteer work for a local food bank.

Before taking on the team captaincy as a junior, Duran served as a Peer Campus Minister in North Hall. The duties included disseminating information, offering special events and helping run retreats and mass for Campus Ministry. Duran said one of the reasons she got the job was because she offered a different perspective.

"I'm not Catholic but I know not everybody on campus is Catholic either," Duran said. "So that was a way of offering a space for people to come in and still practice their faith and talk about God and just connect with one another."