Debuting a travel app on the cusp of a global lockdown might not sound overly auspicious. For Liist founder and CEO Allan Holmes (B.A., advertising, 2011), it was an opportunity: "We'd launched in January 2020, and two months later people couldn't travel. We thought, ‘What do we do?' But people had more time at home to talk about traveling, so we spoke with as many users as possible, and ramped up research and development to make our product awesome."

A year, a few months, and a vaccine rollout later, Liist's moment has arrived. The user-friendly and visually-appealing app is for people who want to go places recommended by friends, and check out attractions based on their own investigations. "Before I travel somewhere, I'll check it out on Street View, and look at location-tagged photos on Instagram," Holmes says. "Exploring visually is more important and more possible now than ever."

Liist makes organizing it all easy; Holmes himself is not unlike his ideal user. "I've always loved to travel. My key takeaway is that when you go someplace, you want to do something different, whether that's go to a dive bar, or take a weird podcast walking tour. Recommendations from friends are important. If I was in Thailand and you said, ‘You have to go to this little surf shop,' I'd do it."

At launch, Liist's goal was to organize users' Google Maps, making them "beautiful and sharable." Since then, Liist has been integrated into IOS, and can be used on Instagram, complete with bespoke emoji-pins. Roll out on additional platforms including TikTok is imminent. Holmes doesn't hesitate to compare Liist to a well-known dating app. "With Liist, you swipe places, not faces, but the user experience is quite similar," he says.

Liist isn't Allan's first rodeo. He co-founded software company PopularPays in 2013, then worked as a creative director at Instagram for five-plus years, including a sabbatical in Berlin where he took a coding boot camp, an undertaking that helped him understand what developers go through when they're trying to make an idea into a reality.

Allan's inquisitive drive is part of what makes Liist a compelling fit for SCADpro Fund. "We're delighted to partner with Allan," says SCADpro Fund managing director Ray Crowell. "He's ahead of the tech curve in terms how people want to interact with the world around them."

Holmes shares Crowell's enthusiasm: "Before the pandemic I came to Savannah to conduct a tutorial with SCADpro students, which was a great experience. I speak with Eleanor [Turner, founder of The Big Favorite] at least once a month to bounce ideas. Rarely do you meet creatives who are CEOs and founders. We prop each other up as much as we can. I love being part of the SCADpro family."

Try Liist: www.liist.com/download.

Banner photo taken during SCAD StartUp 2020. Allan Holmes (in cap) served as mentor in the design sprint sponsored by FLUX and SCADpro.

"Jenna Rae Tooley paints the moments that we have when we are most alive," says professor Stephen Knudsen of his standout former student, who received a grant for representational painting from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in 2019.

To see Tooley's paintings is to grasp what Knudsen means. Her uncanny oils frequently depict children on the radiant cusp between innocence and experience, often in bucolic settings that reflect her own upbringing in Novato, California, north of San Francisco. The work displays a profound sensitivity to light, in both the mystical and physical senses.

This weekend, Tooley (B.F.A., painting, 2020) is a featured artist at the semi-annual SCAD Open Studio. The all-virtual event allows enthusiasts and collectors to peruse over 1000 works by SCAD students, alumni, and faculty, including Tooley paintings like "New Light," an intimate self-portrait, and the large-scale narrative work "Engulfed in Flames."

Jenna Rae Tooley, “Engulfed in Flames,” 2019, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 in.

When speaking of Tooley's incandescent depictions, professor Knudsen invokes another great artist from San Francisco: Jack London. "London called it the ‘sheet of flame', a place where one feels ‘so alive that there is a forgetfulness that one is alive.' When Jenna reflects on those moments in a painting like 'The Last Night of Summer,' she delivers with enigma and visceral crush. This is the language of the beautiful precariousness of remembrance."

"I have a memory book I've created," Tooley explains. "I draw little scenes in crayon. They're rudimentary, but I can get the essence of a memory down into this book. Then I can create a realist painting that's based in these memories, so it functions like an archive. Someday I'll have hundreds of these books that I can flip through to review my collected memories."

Tooley sites her studio classes with Knudsen as crucial, as well as coursework like Business and Professional Practices for Fine Arts (SFIN 413) with professor Vanessa Platacis. In combination, they helped define her forward-facing identity. "Those classes emphasized something engrained in me: document your work," Tooley says. "That means with proper lighting and a proper camera, and building an online presence that shows your evolution and your best work."

Tooley's own website presents her multi-dimensionality: The fine artist is also an accomplished production designer and director. (Step into the world of her short film Fuzzite Fighters.) "I'm so visual that if something doesn't make sense visually, it doesn't really click in my brain," she says.

This summer, Jenna will relocate from Savannah to Atlanta, the Southern capital of the filmmaking universe, to focus on her career as a production designer. Atlanta also offers significant infrastructure in the fine art world for the young painter. In the meantime, her visions come to life in her paintings, those oil-on-canvas, memory-fed sheets of flame.

SCAD Open Studio, curated by SCAD Art Sales, takes place Fri., Sat., and Sun, April 30-May 2, 2021.

Visit Jenna Rae Tooley.

The day after Variety named SCAD one of the Top 50 Film Schools and Instructors From Around the World, SCAD officially announced the construction of the Savannah Film Studios backlot at a ceremony commemorating the expansion of the university's film and digital media studios.

Speaking to a crowd that included Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, journalists, and invited guests, SCAD President Paula Wallace expressed her excitement over the development. "This ten-acre studio complex and backlot is unsurpassed in higher education," Wallace said. "This studio has a very special resource you won't find at any other film school, an indoor extended reality XR stage where the weather's always perfect and the magic hour never fades."

Those in attendance could look across the parking lot to see construction crews working as Wallace spoke. Designed in partnership with SCAD alumna Sarah Linebaugh (M.F.A., motion media design, 2014) and her studio MEPTIK, the XR stage conjures backgrounds from city streets to fantasy realms and everything in between. The technology uses augmented and extended reality, replacing the need for traditional painted backdrops. "This is unrivaled in higher education," Wallace said. "This stage will become home to revolutionary leaps in cinematic storytelling for years to come."

South and east of the xR stage will be a Hollywood-style backlot, complete with town square, brownstones, palatial mansion, and a cobblestone-lined Savannah street. In addition to the variety of homes and neighborhoods, the lot will include a sets for a police station, hospital, restaurants, and shops.

Loren Ruch, group senior VP of development and production for HGTV, said, "I am extremely pleased to hear about the expansion of Savannah Film Studios, and look forward to the potential partnerships that may ensue with SCAD in the months and years to come. I've always valued the incredible facilities and individuals associated with SCAD, so this only adds to what has already been a wonderful resource in the world of content creation."

There are nearly 20,000 SCAD Bees currently working or preparing to work in the film and television industry, including one-hundred and twelve individuals who worked on Academy Award nominated films for the year 2021. The Savannah Film Studios expansion promises to be a proving ground for students going forward and a hub of interdisciplinary intermingling.

Following Wallace's remarks, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson thanked SCAD for advancing the creative spirit in the city and emphasizing Savannah's importance to the film industry. He got a laugh from the crowd with his good-natured parting remark, "All I have to say is, Tyler Perry, eat your heart out."

The backlot is currently under construction with phase one of three planned to open in fall of 2021. The entire project is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2023.

Anna Haldewang's progress is worth tracking. As an undergraduate, Haldewang (B.F.A., industrial design, 2017) designed Plan Bee, a pollinator drone that could help endangered bee colonies do their job. She was featured in Teen Vogue, CNN, and Time, all before graduating SCAD. Now, as founder/CEO of InsightTRAC, the agripreneur is set to revolutionize the six-billion-dollar-a-year almond industry.

An iterative thinker, Haldewang connects Plan Bee's past with InsightTrac's present: "Forbes invited me to their AgTech Summit in California back in 2017. They wanted me to demo the Plan Bee prototype, even though I didn't have one yet." She constructed a purpose-built drone using a toy helicopter; an impressed Forbes crowd wanted to know when she was taking it to market.

The market, as Haldewang saw it, was the almond industry, "because they rely one hundred percent on bees to pollinate their crop." After Plan Bee trials, she realized her drone was less-than-ideally suited to tree-lined terrain, and pivoted to ground robotics, while still focusing on pollination. Then, in February 2019, during a meeting with the head of member relations for Blue Diamond Almonds, "he was upset about navel orangeworms, and I said, ‘Oh, tell me more!'"

The rotten truth: When almond trees get infested, the larvae eat the nuts from the inside, to catastrophic effect. For the industry, it's a plague. For Haldewang, it was a lightbulb moment. "I said, we're switching to winter sanitation, we have a market."

Her new company, InsightTRAC, based in Haldewang's hometown of Syracuse, Indiana, focuses on an industry where technology is long overdue for an update. For decades, almond growers have either beaten trees by hand or used mechanized tree-shaking contraptions that look like they date from the Harding administration. The attractive InsightTRAC rover is tech-forward and autonomous, with a site-tracking camera that identifies mummy nuts as it rolls through the orchard. The rover shoots down the offending mummies using biodegradable pellets, while the system simultaneously collects data about every tree in the orchard, providing growers with a fullly actionable report. 

"The best time to remove the pest is winter," Haldewang explains. This means a seasonal market for InsightTRAC in California and Australia, whose harvests are six months apart. InsightTRAC will conduct a second round of beta trials in Australia this June and July, before launching their pilot program in California in December of this year, with a broader commercial launch goal of 2022.

"SCAD definitely helped prepare me for this entrepreneur space," Haldewang says. "With prototype development, when something doesn't work, it doesn't surprise me. That's part of the process. Now, as we approach the manufacturing stage with InsightTrac and how it works in terms of materials and injection molding, I understand that from my studies in industrial and marine design."

As the almond industry continues to grow, it's as if Haldewang has picked her moment. It's also, even for a young designer and CEO, already been an incredible journey. Anna agrees. "It's nuts!"

Experience InsightTRAC.

"When I try my best to get the most from my SCAD experience, I feel really happy," says Aastha Agarwal (M.F.A., luxury and fashion management). The master's candidate is a SCADpro project manager, a SCAD FASH docent and content creator, a Fernbank-friendly nature-lover, and part of a trend of talented students from NIFT Mumbai choosing to earn their graduate degrees at SCAD. A native of Dahanu Road, India, Agarwal is committed to cultivating leadership skills to affect global change. Don't let her kaleidoscopic coiffure fool you — Aastha means business.

Aastha Agarwal:

I applied to SCAD because I wanted to go to the best place in the world to study the business of fashion. I received a scholarship and decided to pursue my dreams in Atlanta, a city of the endless opportunities. A year and a half later, two of my best friends from NIFT, Aarohi and Sneha, have joined me at SCAD Atlanta. It's nice to see students from Mumbai finding a home here.

I want to build my career within the social responsibility sphere, either as a sustainability expert or being a part of a brand’s corporate social responsibility team. Studying luxury and fashion management at SCAD is equipping me with the tools and resources I need to be a part of the companies that can actually bring about this change.

Last quarter I was part of a SCADpro project with Fox Sports. We had a brilliant team, students from three different countries and five different majors, representing from Mumbai to Mexico to Myrtle Beach. We worked together to create graphic inserts for major league baseball and college basketball for national TV. This quarter I'm project manager on another SCADpro project with Deloitte Digital. As a student, SCADpro is an excellent way to make initial contact with a company, show them what you can do as an individual and as part of a team, and create the preconditions for employment.

One of my favorite SCAD professors is [creative business leadership] professor Kobus. My first class with him was Financial Reporting and Analysis [BUSI 710], part of my LXFM studies. For most of the international students in the graduate program it was our first quarter at SCAD, and we were all a little scared, and not just from the math! By week seven, we were all trading virtual stock and competing in a game based in accounting, learning and laughing together. The last day, professor Kobus brought in kimchi that he and his wife made from cabbage in their garden. It was so good! SCAD professors really care.

I currently work as a docent at the SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film. I absolutely love working at SCAD FASH because I get to be a part of history. I wish everyone could experience the magnificence that is "Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design."

I created a presentation for the museum that highlights the different tribes who inspired the costumes featured in Black Panther, alongside details about the costumes from other films including Roots, Amistad, Do The Right Thing, and Selma. It's incredible to watch the twinkle in the eyes of the visitors as soon as they step into the exhibition. If I could, I’d be here everyday, especially to point people in the direction of my favorite piece in the exhibit — the aquarium shoes with the goldfish in them, from I'm Gonna Git You Sucka!

Follow Aastha on IG.

Makumbi Muleba puts the "multi" in multi-hyphenate: artist, musician, entrepreneur, and humanitarian are all part of this master's candidate's skill set.

As a high school student at Chengelo Secondary School in Mkushi, Zambia, Muleba ran a small design studio where he made custom printed T-shirts and designed record jackets all while managing his own dance crew, Cyber Graffiti.

"My secondary school art teacher, Mr. Saul Tembo, sat me down and we had a long conversation about my potential and my future possibilities," says Muleba (M.F.A., branded entertainment). "He told me about SCAD and I applied immediately. I knew something great would come from that."

Muleba recently returned to SCAD Atlanta after an extended hiatus in Zambia. "I had to fly home to get my visa renewed. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit my home country and what was supposed to be a two-week trip turned into a seven month stay. I made the best of it and partnered with Zambian Alliance for Empowered Communities (ZAFEC) to help young women gain access to computers and the internet for the first time in their lives."

Here is the incredible story of how one SCAD student changed the lives of young women eight thousand and ninety-two miles away.

Makumbi Muleba:

As the world was shutting down and we were starting to feel the first effects of the quarantine in Atlanta, I wanted to do something to uplift people and share a little love. I wrote and performed "Thank You 4 Being There (ft. Raphael Bahindwa)" under my musical alias Jak Mohn. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I knew I wanted to use it to create happiness for those in need.

When I realized I was going to be in Zambia longer than I had initially planned, I began to speak to local organizations about how I could use the skills and lessons I have learned at SCAD to help the community.

I began to work with The Pink House Project, an initiative within a community-based organization called ZAFEC, to help young women gain access to digital literacy programs and training. These women have very little in terms of modern resources and educational opportunities. ZAFEC aims at promoting empowerment among adolescent girls and young women, linking them to health services in their communities.

When I spoke with them, they told me they wanted to be fashion designers, teachers, and UN diplomats. They wanted to give back to their community, but they didn't know how or where to start.

Seeing these women unable to connect to the world around them gave me an idea. I would buy them computers.

The first step was to raise awareness. I spoke to a few of my friends in the music industry in Zambia and we made a music video highlighting The Pink House, the young women, and the local community. I set up a GoFundMe account with a goal of two thousand dollars and—thanks to a lot of support from my SCAD friends—we raised the money in less than a week.

I then bought five computers, built desks, and taught the young ladies how to set up an email account. They immediately began emailing each other as they sat elbow-to-elbow. Local government officials even came for a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The day I flew back to Atlanta for Spring quarter was the day the first set of young women received their digital literacy certificates. They were sending me photos, all of them holding their certificates in the air.

People back home can now see the power of creative careers and the ability for us to dream of a better, happier, more loving future for everyone. I could not have done this without SCAD and the relationships I have created here.

Banner photo and ZAFEC accent photo by Mutumbi Lungu.
Young women photo by Mwanga Simwanda.

Show love and follow Makumbi on Instagram!

"Preserving the world for future generations is my superpower," says Sam Hartman (M.F.A., design for sustainability). "I love figuring out how we can do better, be better, and provide a brighter future for us all."

Sitting in her home in Cleveland, Ohio, surrounded by small plants housed in pots she sculpted herself, Hartman shared her fondness of art, records, and furniture restoration. "When I was young, my mother would take me to the Cleveland Museum of Art and I would sit and draw the suits of medieval armor on display. She constantly championed the power of creative expression. Being an artist is in my blood."

Today, Hartman is applying her creativity in the service of sustainability. "Caring for our natural world is beautiful, relaxing, and therapeutic. It all starts by being more mindful of our habits."

Sam Hartman:

After receiving my undergraduate degree, I was at jobs in the design field and it seemed like every potential employer I wanted to reach out to had SCAD on their resume. It was a recurring pattern and I realized I needed to take the next step. I remember shaking with excitement when I received my acceptance letter for the M.F.A. program in Savannah.

At SCAD I fell in love with sustainability design after I took a class with professor Scott Boylston. As part of his course, I worked on a project for the Tybee Island Marine Science Center where we used the design philosophies of biomimicry to educate visitors on our impact to the local ecosystem. That was when my superpower began to come to life.

I then participated in two SCADpro projects, one with Gulfstream Aerospace and the other with Delta Air Lines.

Delta approached SCAD with a request to reimagine how their drink carts could have a second life after they were unusable for commercial flights. Usually, old drink carts end up in landfills. My SCADpro team came up with five alternative options. My favorite one involved transforming each cart into a small wind turbine for homes. Delta originally thought we were going to design trash cans or small planters, but that isn't what SCAD students do. They adored our solutions.

Sustainable design is imperative for the future of business. We need to change how companies traditionally operate and design their services and products. Waste needs to be factored in from the beginning. By designing for sustainability first, we will deliver better results for people, planet, and profits.

Alongside our corporate partners, individual consumers need to make a dramatic shift in our habits, design practices, and priorities for our world to continue to thrive. We need to support legislation on plastics and hazardous materials for manufacturers, and we need to take responsibility for our buying habits. In today's economy our decisions affect everyone and everything.

What we really need to do is stop being lazy. People don't fix their own clothes anymore, they just buy new ones. Stores sell pre-peeled oranges in individual plastic containers. We throw away home furnishings rather than re-upholster them or repurpose them in fun new ways. We cannot continue to waste in the way we have become accustomed.

We have the power to create long-lasting positive changes in our world, and I am committing myself to that end. SCAD presented me with the knowledge and tools to preserve and conserve for future generations and I am excited to get to work. We have do it now.

Visit Sam Hartman and learn more about her vision for our sustainable future.

"Your students and alumni never cease to amaze me," Academy Award-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter said to SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace as they announced the winners of the SCAD Changemakers Design Challenge.

The challenge, envisioned by President Wallace, invited recent SCAD fashion and production design graduates to create original garments inspired by Carter's iconic costume designs. The alumni garments embraced Carter's Afrofuturism aesthetic, while demonstrating the preeminent creative talent of the university's top ranked School of Fashion and School of Entertainment Arts.

"Alumni were given six weeks to concept and create garments honoring cultural leaders with global impact, and the results are as fascinating as they are fashionable," President Wallace said. "Ruth E. Carter and I had the privilege of celebrating the spectacular finalists. Congratulations to our winners, and bravo to all Bees who participated!"

The selection process began as SCAD faculty selected 10 garments from the numerous alumni submissions for inclusion in the Changemakers Design Challenge. The final garments were judged by Carter and President Wallace following Carter's appearance at the university's 15th annual SCADstyle signature event.

Winner:
Viviane Carvalho (B.F.A., fashion, 2016) designed for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Runner Up:
Austin Nelson (B.F.A., fashion, 2017) designed for Malcolm X.

Second Runner Up:
Mariana Alvarez Zubillaga (B.F.A., fashion, 2018) for the Barlovento Tambor Dancers.

Ruth E. Carter and President Paula Wallace with Viviane Carvalho's winning garment.

SCADstyle 2021 united the design community through powerful conversations on contemporary practices and future innovations, engaging SCAD students, alumni, and audiences around the world.

Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design is on view at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film through Sept. 12, 2021.

"Sometimes design can be intimidating, stuffy, and serious," said Jungalow founder Justina Blakeney. "I'm interested in letting people know that they can have fun with design. They can tap their own roots, history, and personality as they design a space for themselves and their family."

Blakeney was speaking during "The Style Guide: Making Media Work for You," her SCADstyle 2021 conversation with Architectural Digest digital director David Kaufman, moderated by Bernardo Coronado-Guerra (M.F.A., interior design, 2011). As the final event of this year's virtual SCADstyle, the conversation was especially suited to the moment, starring a cool influencer turned creative director who has built a popular home décor brand with her fun, funky personality as a key driving force.

"I had this idea that if I could build an audience, I could do whatever I wanted," Blakeney remarked of her beginnings as a blogger. "I was seeing that happen with other celebrities and influencers, where they'd just build an audience, and then oh, I don't know, come out with a pantyhose line. I thought, I'll see if I can build a following around what I love, then I'll be able to do whatever I want too. Somewhat miraculously, it worked!"

Jungalow now enjoys a fervent social media base (1.5 million Instagram followers). Its founder is a fixture on the New York Times bestseller list (this spring Abrams will publish her newest book, Jungalow: Decorate Wild). Words matter, of course, and Kaufman was interested in the etymology of her neologism.

"The word came when I moved back to L.A, after living in New York and Italy for a decade," the Jungalow founder explained. "I was living in a place that had botanical wallpapers and tons of plants. My girlfriends visited and loved it and said, 'Yours is like a jungle bungalow.' The word felt good in my mouth. So that's what I called my blog, my brand, the whole thing."

Kaufman lauded Blakeney for her strategic partnerships, noting Jungalow's licensed collaborations with Target, Pottery Barn, and Anthropologie, and asked: "How do you ensure these business pursuits don't overtake your creativity?"

"Doing these collaborations, I learned that one my deepest passions is product design and surface pattern design," Blakeney said. "I love designing all the rugs I have with Loloi, for example, and our Peking Handicraft bedding. These products allow me to practice the things I love from a creative standpoint. I don't feel that it drains me, I feel that it fuels me. But we are very selective with the partners that we take on and don't take on too many at once. That's how I put guardrails around my bandwith."

The conversation remained fixated on creative fuel. Specifically, how Blakeney keeps her tank filled. "Nature is my number one way to stay inspired. Hikes, or even walks around the neighborhood. Number two, I'm a total magazine freak. I get them from all over the world. I had someone DM me recently and they were throwing away a dozen boxes of vintage design magazines mostly from the seventies and did I want them? Now when I'm feeling low on inspo, I dive into a box of 40-year-old magazines and get fueled up."

Kaufman had one last question for the Jungalow founder: "What's the one thing that you haven't done yet that you'd most like to design?" Blakeney didn't hesitate: "A hotel!" Kaufman announced he'd be the first one there to check in. Blakeney decided this would be wonderful, as long as he put her on the cover of Architectural Digest. Kaufman didn't say no. Perhaps this media thing is working out after all.

Thanks for everyone who attended SCADstyle 2021!

Banner image courtesy Jungalow.

Ranked eighteenth in the nation and currently holding an 8-2 record, the SCAD Overwatch team is poised for success in the 2021 Overwatch Collegiate Championships. "Our students are competing at the highest level and only getting better," says SCAD director of esports Ian Escalante.

The world of competitive video gaming continues to boom at the collegiate level. The Overwatch Collegiate Championships — sponsored and held by Activision, the producer of Overwatch — pit a stunning 1024 teams in its seven-week tournament last year. This year, teams participate in ten rounds of games with each match being a best-of-three. Previous rankings have no impact on match pairings. "It is extremely tough to win and there aren't small wins along the way," Escalante says. "You either win the whole thing, or you go home."

After ten games, the Bees have now officially made the single elimination playoff round. "Our team has won some big matches so far this year," Escalante says, including defeats of notable opponents University of Delaware and University of Southern California. "We are really looking good as the tournament progresses."

Escalante was named director of SCAD esports in July 2018 and has worked to establish a force to be reckoned with. "SCAD had a significant presence in the gaming community when I got here. The students who made up our first varsity teams were already playing at a highly competitive level. Currently, we award scholarships for our two varsity teams, League of Legends and Overwatch. Our athletes practice every day and I have instituted calisthenics workouts outside of normal training."

Aerobic exercise and routine practice schedules might seem superfluous for individuals whose playing field is viewed through a screen, but Escalante sees his team as athletes. "Esports are sedentary in nature. Therefore, we have put in place a regimen focused on their mental and physical health outside of the arena."

Escalante has also implemented a robust recruiting strategy to strengthen the team. "Having the right talent is essential regardless of the sport. At SCAD, we are looking for excellent players that fit our system. We want students who want to develop outside of the game, and grow as individuals."

The 2020-2021 SCAD esports recruiting class incudes highly ranked newcomers Jude Dahdough (B.F.A., interactive design and game development), Matthew Kilmartin (B.F.A., interactive design and game development), and Javier Sauce Diaz (B.F.A., industrial design). Also featured in the Overwatch starting six are Wilson McGuirt (B.F.A., interactive design and game development), Jae Teska (B.F.A., graphic design), and Avery Oliver (B.F.A., illustration). The additional players on the SCAD Overwatch roster (who Escalate deems "a big part of our success") are Riley DelVasto (B.F.A., architecture), Emily Odenwald (B.F.A., illustration), and Christina Wright (B.F.A., illustration).

While the COVID-19 shutdown prevented players from practicing together in-person, they continued to hone their skills. Escalante's admiration is unwavering: "They're all almost professional players, and this game means so much to them. They played every day, and participated in tournaments on their own. Now that we are back, they're rocking."

SCAD esports continues their tournament run this weekend. Playoffs begin April 10.

Follow the team on Twitch.