Blog 13 - 10 Hours Mentorship Check-In

I love this place. 

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

I am doing my mentorship at the Game Innovation Lab, located on the campus of the University of Southern California. 

2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?

Elizabeth Swensen and Sean Bouchard are both game designers and research associates at USC, both of whom are staff in the lab and educators to game design students. Both Elizabeth and Sean attended USC and shared some classes together, both receiving MFAs (Masters of Fine Arts) before going on to work as staff in the lab. Aside from creating incredible work under USC Games, they're also professors within the program. 

Tracy Fullerton is the director of the Game Innovation Lab at USC, as well as a game designer and professor in the Interactive Media Division of USC. Being the director of the lab of this division, she has been involved with numerous projects at USC over the years, working as a game designer or faculty adviser for said projects.These projects include several titles such asThe Night Journey and Walden, among many other impressive works. Before her work at USC, Tracy has been involved with several other game developers and interactive studios, including Spiderdance and R/GA Interactive, both of which she was the founder and founding member of, respectively.


3.   How many  hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).

48 hours total, including both Summer hours and School Year hours. 


4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.  

When we go to mentorship, oftentimes Sean and Elizabeth tell us all about a Really Cool Thing that is going on on USC campus, always regarding the games program. Sometimes, that includes viewing current Game Program students recent works, sitting in on classes, participating in activities normally reserved for the Games students, and more. It's all very much a learning experience.

As for how well I work with my mentors: they're awesome. Sean, Elizabeth, and Tracy are amazing people. We see Sean and Elizabeth more often, simply because Tracy is a pretty busy person (when we do see her, we are in awe, mostly 'cause she's that cool). I'm very comfortable with Sean and Elizabeth. I always see them every mentorship session, and they're very easy to work with. Aside from being great sources of knowledge and information, they're really great people, and it's fun to learn from them. 

As for the rest of my hours, I plan to continue going to the Game Innovation Lab regularly and learning from my variety of experiences there. I've had some pretty incredible education experiences so far, so I'm excited to learn more. There is also potential to sit in on a Introductory Design class in the program, so that's definitely possible, as well.