NEWS

Nov. 3 - 9, 2021

2 The Daily Aztec

News

EDITOR: Katelynn Robinson • news@thedailyaztec.com

Esports courses to be offered through Global Campus, available Spring 2022

The new year will be the beginning era of electronic sports education. An Esports Certificate Program will make its debut at San Diego State’s Global Campus in January.

Estimated total cost for the course is between $4,650 and $4,850. The program will offer two professional development tracks that students can

Photo courtesy of FreepikSDSU Global Campus will offer Esports related certificates with a pathway in Esport Design and Esport Management.

by Sumaia Wegner CONTRIBUTOR

choose from: Esports Management and Esports Design. After taking three core classes, students can then customize their courses, according to the Global Campus website.

SDSU students or anyone else interested in this program can earn a professional certificate in the business of Esports through a fully online eight -week course.

This program has an elite group of advisors and instructors at hand,

including Newton Lee a ten-year game developer and producer at The Walt Disney Company and James “Bonzai” Caruso a six-time Grammy Awardwinning recording and mixing engineer.

Program advisor Dane Henderson said the Global Campus wanted to provide an educational platform for the gaming community.

“For us to be the home of Twitchcon, Comicon, Gamercon, Rockstar Games, and Sony, we wanted to make sure we had an education platform to be at our home base where the gaming community is,” Henderson said. “When we looked around, there was not any. We want to help create games. We want to help make the next generation of games, making sure those unreal engines are being used.”

Advisor and game design instructor Wallace Wang said people do not take the gaming industry seriously.

“The video game industry is a 100 billion dollar industry,” Wang said. “It is huge and yet so many schools don’t take it seriously. They don’t think of it as an academic area. They think it’s just fun and games, but it is really so much more. That is why we also wanted to start this program; it is a serious industry.”

Goldman Sachs Inc. a leading global investment firm predicts “by 2022, the market for Esports will top $2.95 billion dollars.”

“Everyone in this room (all the instructors) wanted to make sure the program we came up with would answer the call. At the end of the day, it is about helping them get the job,” said marketing and advertising instructor Katherine Amoukhteh. “We wanted to emphasize that the classes we produce and outline build a portfolio so that every student can go where they want with their career.”

Broadcasting and streaming instructor

Eric Constein said, “We are pretty much making Esports soldiers. We hope that by having connections with major companies, this program can become a credit course”.

The textbooks for these programs are written by expert teachers with industry experience according to creative development instructor Newton Lee. Teaching will help give the Esports program a valid structure, added team management instructor Sam Diamond.

On Nov. 27, there will be an event hosted by these advisors and instructors at The Music Box for Esports and education for students, parents, and teachers to learn how to utilize this program.

Aerospace engineering senior Keon Moore is a student advisor for Esports and the president of Aztec Gaming.

“I think it is amazing that there are classes on Esports,” Moore said. “There has been a lot of momentum from faculty all around regarding Esports. I am hoping this serves as another way to get admins to push this program to start looking at us more and see that this is what a lot of other schools are doing. I am hoping this pushes for Esports to become more involved with the school directly and maybe become an official Esports program on campus and not just an online certificate.”

Senior Cody Nephew, a student and gamer, is excited to learn about this new program.

“I have seen a lot of people interested in it,” Nephew said. “I know SDSU hasn’t had something like this, so having this as an option is pretty cool.”

With just two months away from the launch of this program, the education system for Esports is about to “change the game” for those who are seeking a career in this industry.

Anthropologists find missing persons in Guatemala

by Lucelis Martinez SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A webinar titled “Pathways for Searching and Identifying the Disappeared” celebrated 24 years of hard work from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) on Oct. 26.

Some of the event’s guests included Rosalina Tuyuc, Marta Macz, and Freddy Peccerelli. Peccerelli,a forensic anthropologist and executive director at the FAFG, explained the issues in Guatemala more in depth.

“Let’s think that Guatemala is in the middle of an armed conflict which left 200,000 victims, 160,000 of these people killed in massacres and 40,000 of those people missing,” Peccerelli said.

Peccerelli explained that most of the people “missing” were actually just killed and hidden during the Guatemalan Civil War.

“The foundation arose in this space, where women like Rosalina Tuyuc, like lady Marta looking for their family members, looking for support,help,” Peccerelli said. “Someone who knew how to look and that they could trust. Then, they invited Dr. Clyde Snow.”

Peccerelli commented on the relationship he had with Snow, who

Photo courtesy of FAFG 's Instagram "Pathways for Searching and identifying the Disappeared" webinar celebrated the hard work of forensic anthropologists.

was his mentor and close friend.

“He taught me perhaps what was most important,” Peccerelli said. “That the work we do is an act of respect to the families. It’s in the act of giving answers to those families.”

Snow is recognized as a forensic anthropologist, and in fact has been mentioned as a legendary detective, according to the New York Times.

The same article mentioned Snow identified John F. Kennedy, the Nazi criminal Josef Mengle, and “the disapperead” in Argentina, amongst other peoples. He testified against Sadam Hussein and inspired a movement centered on using forensic anthropology to help with genocide cases in Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda and Chile.

Macz, a Maya Q'eqchi community leader and another featured guest, founded the Council of Mayan Women in the northern region of Cobán, Guatemala. According to the foundation’s website, Macz was the first woman and first indigenous woman candidate for mayor of Cobán.

She said the kidnapping of her brother was what originally inspired Macz to involve herself in humanitarian work.

SEE MISSING PERSONS, PAGE 3

Nov. 3 - 9, 2021 EDITOR: Katelynn Robinson . news@thedailyaztec.com

News The Daily Aztec 3

Hush Hush Auction raises $900 for breast cancer awareness, American Cancer Society

by Adam Correa STAFF WRITER

On Oct. 28, the Hush Hush Auction was finally back in-person after being virtual last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The auction was located on the third floor of the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union in Council Chambers. The room was full of pink decorations and pink themed pictures for Think Pink Week and breast cancer awareness.

Camille Pico — one of the hosts of the auction — said the turnout for the event exceeded Sigma Theta PSI’s expectations.

“It means so much to us to see so much people coming out to support not only us but our cause as well, our philanthropy,” Pico said.

Philanthropy is where you raise money for an organization other than yourself. Their philanthropy was to make strides against breast cancer and for the American Cancer Society.

“It was just so good to see so many familiar faces. It almost felt the same just before COVID [in 2019],” Pico said.

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, in 2021, approximately 43,600 women and 530

men will die from breast cancer in the U.S. One in eight women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.

The auction started off with introductions, then Greek Life chants, trivia, raffles and auctioning goody baskets.

Photo by Adam CorreaStudents and Greek Life gather to participate in auction for goody baskets to support "Hush Hush" fundraiser.

During the auctioning of the goody baskets, the Drake-themed basket was presented very enthusiastically. When Pico was describing the basket, “Way 2 Sexy,” by Drake was playing in the background.

Alfredo Lezama — an auction attendee and Pico’s boyfriend — won

a movie night basket that was sold to him for $180 and said he was glad he attended.

“I told her (Pico) if I get those movie tickets we’re going to watch Dune,” Lezama said. “It is always nice to show support to the sororities and it is for a great cause.”

The Daily Aztec tried to reach out to women attending the auction but they declined to be interviewed.

Caroline Hall — another host of the auction — said her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and recovered. “It is about seven years cancer free for her (Hall’s mother) now, that is a huge accomplishment,” Hall said.

Hall was in middle school when her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and tried to help her out in many ways.

“I took on the role of being her nurse when she was going through breast cancer and thankfully she caught it early on so she didn’t have to go through chemo (chemotherapy) she just had to get surgeries but it was such a struggle,” Hall said.

Sigma Theta PSI ended up raising about $900 from the goody basket auction and raffle.

88TH ANNUAL HOMECOMING COURT ANNOUNCED

Missing persons: continued from page 2

by Eugènie Budnik STAFF WRITER

On Nov. 12 and 13, San Diego State Aztecs will be celebrating the university’s 88th homecoming celebration. This year’s homecoming celebration will be the first in person one since 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To celebrate this return to normalcy, the Homecoming Steering Committee chose the theme of “Together as One.”

Homecoming includes events such as pep rallies, carnivals, football games and the crowning of two SDSU royalty.

The Homecoming Court consists of ten SDSU students who are active members of an SDSU recognized student organization or hold a leadership role on campus. Nominees must also have completed 60 units by the time of nomination, and must be in good academic and disciplinary standing.

Interested students had to apply online via a comprehensive application. These applications were then reviewed by a team of faculty, staff, and alumni to choose ten distinguished students to serve as this year’s homecoming court.

According to the official San Diego State University Homecoming website, the purpose of homecoming court is to “honor those exceptional students who have shown their dedication through extraordinary commitment to leaving a legacy of pride.”

On Oct. 27 a crowd of students, including the Aztec Marching Band and the Aztec Cheerleaders, gathered in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union to hear the announcement of this year’s homecoming court.

“These individuals have achieved academic excellence and completed great community service,” said Associated Students Executive Vice President Karina Esteban.

Photo courtesy of Associated Students In recent years, SDSU has transitioned from nominating a king and queen to two royals to be more inclusive.

The students on this year’s court are Alexia Oduro, Meghan Mahoney, Jenna Meyer, Jacquelin Banal, Jacinda Molina, Setareh Sterling, Margot Elmer, Orlando Ochoa, Brenda Drew and Karla Lora- Acosta.

Integrated communications and marketing fourth year Jacquelin Banal, is involved in Kappa Delta and acts as the communications director of the Mortarboard honor society.

Banal stressed the connection between her status as a transfer student and being nominated to the homecoming court.

“As a transfer student, I think it's important for me to represent that population and show that transfer students are doing amazing things on campus,” Banal said. “A lot of the time, students taking a non traditional college route are kind of stigmatized.”

Speech and language science third year, Alexia Oduro, is the Associated Students “Student at Large.” She described her nomination as a celebration for her community.

“My nomination is important to me to uplift the communities that I’m a part of,” Oduro said. “I take being nominated not about me, but about my community and the work we have done together. I think it is awesome that I have the opportunity to support my communities in such a capacity.”

Those on the homecoming court will be responsible for attending all of the homecoming events, as well as a special homecoming court dinner. All of these events culminate in the crowning of two homecoming “royals” at the Aztec football game against Nevada on Nov. 13.

In recent years, SDSU has transitioned from nominating a king and a queen to instead nominating two royals in order to make the homecoming court tradition more inclusionary to those who do not identify within the binary genders.

The two selected royals will be crowned at the Nov. 13 football game, and will also receive special recognition on campus.

“[He] worked in cooperatives, that was his sin,” Macz said while visibly tearing up. “The cooperatives stopped existing and many people that worked in the cooperatives also disappeared.”

The search to find her brother led her to hospitals, to the press and to knock on doors in different military zones. Her brother was kidnapped by members of military intelligence from the Guatemalan armed forces.

They didn’t know what could have happened to her brother for 29 years. Macz said she met many “brave” women who had also lost people and they united to find their families.

“In this organization we were primarily centered with getting the psychological attention that we all needed,” Macz said.

Macz said a lot of the women who formed part of the organization lost their lands and were wandering from one place to another because they had nowhere to go.

In February of 2012, Macz and her group were allowed to look in mass graves used to bury the disappeared close to the military center after many efforts from the forensic anthropologists who participated in the searches with them.

“My brother was face down with a noose made from a military shirt around his neck,” Macz said.

In 2015, she was given the the body, which she buried —fulfilling a promise she’d made to her parents —before they passed. Macz said she wasn’t counting on the presence of many people at her brother’s funeral service, due to the fear the military installed. To her surprise, at least 200 people showed up. Macz mentioned finally having a place to put flowers, including for Dia de Los Muertos.

“Following a season of solidarity with each other the reports about sexual abuses against women, abuses against families who had members detained/disappeared initiated,” Tuyuc said. “We have the right to look for families, we have the right to demand justice and the right also to beat that fear which stayed behind after 36 years of militarization.”