10-Minutes of Real Talk about Women in STEAM
Here’s a really special moment that deserves a listen. Agatha Hood, VP, Customer Success & Operations at @Unity Technologies, sat down with Urban Arts alum and current NYU student Faiza Mohamed for a forthright conversation about working in the games and tech industry.
Agatha has over two decades of experience in games, and almost ten years at #UnityTechnologies. She’s worked with major developers and brands, held different roles from ops to creative production, and worked on everything from downloadable PC games through VR. Currently, Agatha runs the Customer Success & Ops team at Unity helping customers successfully adopt and use Unity’s products, as well as optimizing internal productivity through data, #AI, and software.
Impact Report: ALUMNI 2026. We hire our most powerful advocates.
WHY GAME DESIGN?
At Urban Arts, students don’t just play games—they create them. As the nation’s premier nonprofit teaching video game design, we prepare young people for college and career by blending coding, 3D modeling, animation, and storytelling with the essential workforce skills of collaboration, leadership, and design-thinking. Students learn to build original games from the ground up, pitch their ideas, and develop portfolios that colleges and employers notice.
Game design fuels creativity while building critical problem-solving and technical expertise for a $300B industry and beyond. The results speak for themselves: Urban Arts students have earned over $46M in scholarships and launched careers at Lucasfilm, Unity, Amazon, Salesforce, and more. With Urban Arts, creativity isn’t just encouraged—it’s the pathway to the future.
A Brand New Partnership is the _______ of Our Eye
Urban Arts is proud to receive support from @Apple to expand its work and impact across New York. In celebration of #BlackHistoryMonth, Apple is working with organizations around the world to expand access to educational and creative opportunities to young people in under-resourced communities—and we are honored to be among them. “This support from #Apple […]
The 2025 Yearbook is Here!
Get impressed! Packed with innovative programming, stories of impact, and intrepid youth.
“The Vanishing Enigma” Honored in Congressional App Challenge
NEW YORK, NY (2025) — Urban Arts, a New York City-based nonprofit that teaches digital game design as a pathway to college and wide-ranging careers, is proud to announce that The Vanishing Enigma created by Studio Capstone team “The AristoRats” has won the 2024 Congressional App Challenge for New York’s Eighth District, hosted by Representative […]
Impact Report: Why We Teach Video Game Design 2025
WHY GAME DESIGN?
At Urban Arts, students don’t just play games—they create them. As the nation’s premier nonprofit teaching video game design, we prepare young people for college and career by blending coding, 3D modeling, animation, and storytelling with the essential workforce skills of collaboration, leadership, and design-thinking. Students learn to build original games from the ground up, pitch their ideas, and develop portfolios that colleges and employers notice.
Game design fuels creativity while building critical problem-solving and technical expertise for a $300B industry and beyond. The results speak for themselves: Urban Arts students have earned over $46M in scholarships and launched careers at Lucasfilm, Unity, Amazon, Salesforce, and more. With Urban Arts, creativity isn’t just encouraged—it’s the pathway to the future.
Impact Report: College Access 2025
Here! And below ⬇️
Why Learn Video Game Design?
Why Learn Video Game Design with Urban Arts? We program hard fun for the future’s hard challenges.
If you love video games, imagine turning that passion into a college degree and a career you’re excited to launch. At Urban Arts, the premier nonprofit teaching digital game design as a pathway to college and career, you’ll learn how to design, code, and build games while preparing for your future in the creative tech industry. Urban Arts students are creators, not just consumers.
Philip Courtney, CEO, Named Notable Leader in Philanthropy 2025
Philip Courtney Named a Notable Leader in Philanthropy in New York City
Urban Arts CEO Recognized for Visionary Leadership and Transformative Impact on Local Students
New York, NY — June 2025 — Urban Arts proudly announces that its Chief Executive Officer, Philip Courtney, has been named a Notable Leader in Philanthropy by Crain’s New York Business, a prestigious recognition honoring individuals who are driving meaningful change and championing social good across New York City.
Under Philip’s leadership, Urban Arts has emerged as a powerful force for equity and opportunity, particularly among underserved communities. Since stepping into the role in 2003, Philip has overseen explosive growth, producing profound mobility and personal success for students, including:
• Winning a 3rd highly competitive $4M Education Innovation & Research (EIR) grant from the U.S. DoE (totaling $12M),
• Stewarding the #CreativeCoders partnership with Minecraft Education serving middle schools nationwide,
• Gaining the @collegeboard endorsement of Urban Arts’ #STEAM curriculum that’s shared freely with all Title 1 schools,
• Crafting a college access program that has 100% of seniors matriculating to college, earning $46M in scholarships,
• Challenging the organization to a new goal—$100M in scholarships by 2030.
CEO Philip Courtney X Spark ⚡️ Talk
Urban Arts CEO Philip Courtney delivered the energized Spark Talk “Video Gaming: An Equitable On-Ramp to Workforce Development” at the Infosys Foundation conference in Indianapolis May 8, 2025—and coined the phrase “digital DaVincis.”
How many times would you have raised your hand?
Read the speech below to catch the spark.
Let’s play a game…..