Current students

Congratulations to the Class of 2024 (June AND October graduands)!

You made it! To honour your achievements, the Faculty of Arts invites you to pick up your "grad gift"!

Velocity is proud to present an event which will take place over two lunch hours for GBDA and students at the University of Waterloo Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. You will have the opportunity to form teams and get creative with using Virtual Reality (VR) programs to elevate your UI/UX skills.

BLEND: What to expect

At Blend, you'll connect with like-minded professionals, hear stories of designers and leaders facing the future and redefining realities, and participate in workshops that will help you in your industry.

This year features keynotes and workshops from industry leaders and the BLEND after-party. And the best part? You'll be surrounded by people who are just as passionate about breaking boundaries as you are. We're talking about entrepreneurs, creatives, and boundary-pushing thinkers who will inspire you to think bigger and bolder than ever before.

Over the day, you'll be inspired as we hear inspiring stories of people in our community of designers breaking boundaries and overcoming obstacles to redefine our world.

We'd love for you to be part of the conversation. We promise it'll be worth the investment.

When is it?

Join us on March 2, 2024 at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business. This event includes breakfast, lunch, and light appetizers at our networking social evening.

For more information including schedule and speaker line up please check out the Blend website. 

"Building Equitable and Sustainable Game Development Education" Workshop led by Kenzie Gordon (University of Alberta), Dr. Sean Gouglas (University of Alberta), Dr. Alison Harvey (York University), Vishal Sooknananl (Western University), Dr. Johanna Weststar (Western University), and Dr. Jennifer Whitson (University of Waterloo). 

  With recent waves of layoffs, high-profile workplace harassment cases, and a notoriously short career length for gender minorities and people of colour, the transition of new workers into the game industry involves navigating a spate of barriers to equity and success that have been understudied in academic research. The First Three Years is an ongoing longitudinal study of graduates of game programs in Canada and the United States, following the journey of 207 students as they move into the game industry. In this workshop, our research team will summarise the primary challenges students have identified in their game programs. This summary includes equity and diversity issues inherent in common curricular practices such as the efficacy of capstone courses and internships, the inclusion of crunch-like practices in the classroom, the systematic failure to inform students of actual workplace conditions, and the mismatch between student preparation and industry hiring practices. Afterwards, participants will address whether/how these problems manifest in their own institutions, and what solutions might improve equity outcomes for students seeking careers in games.