Game Design Is an Economic Mobility Engine. We Have $71 Million in Proof.
Eight years ago, I made a decision that a lot of people in arts education thought was a mistake.
It was time for Urban Arts to grow up and decide where we would focus and where we could be really good. Urban Arts had spent years as a broad-based arts education organization, a little of everything, for as many kids as possible. In 2018, I decided to bet the whole institution on a single, almost contrarian idea: that the art and science of game design could be an engine for economic mobility. Not enrichment. Not exposure. A pathway to career-ready skills and to STEM and STEAM degrees for students who too often don’t imagine themselves within the industry.
That bet required conviction, a board willing to follow me into it, and a curriculum built from the ground up. And it required choosing the right platform to build on. Unity was the platform.
Why Unity?
We evaluated the available game engines against two requirements that usually pull in opposite directions: accessibility for a tenth grader writing their first lines of code, and rigor for a senior designing in 3D. We needed a platform that could meet a beginner where they are and still refuse to let an advanced student coast.
OpportUnity and CommUnity
Two years later, that choice stopped being a technical decision and became a transformative one. At the Unity for Humanity Summit, I met Jessica Lindl and Rachel Pohl. They cared about game design as a creative medium, but what made the partnership real was that they cared more about outcomes. They asked the questions I wish every funder asked: What are your students actually achieving? Where are they enrolling in college? What are they studying? What careers are they walking into?
That alignment — an obsession with student trajectory, not just student participation — became the foundation of everything that followed. We learned from Unity’s engineers and educators. We traded curriculum ideas. Philanthropic investment came too. But the capital was never the point. The shared belief was.
Urban Arts’ Class of 2026 Achieves 100% College Acceptance Rate, Bringing Cumulative Scholarship Total to $71 Million Since 2020
A group of teenagers from low-income communities across New York City has earned $25 million in college scholarships this year, not through a traditional academic pipeline, but through video games.
These students are not outliers. Urban Arts, the national nonprofit that teaches video game design as a pathway to college and career, announced that its Class of 2026 has achieved a 100% college acceptance rate. This year’s results bring Urban Arts’ cumulative scholarship total to more than $71 million. All instruction and college access services are provided free of charge to students and their families.
At the Urban Arts Game Academy, students build original games, creating narrative, music, animation; pitch their work to industry professionals for real-world feedback, learning entrepreneurship, iteration, teamwork; and graduate with portfolios, credentials, and career networks that most of their peers, at any income level, don’t have.
Celebrating Gary Andersen: Game On Teacher Named Finalist for NC CTE Teacher of the Year
As we finish up the 2025-26 school year, we are proud to celebrate our outstanding Game On by Urban Arts teachers. One of those incredible teachers is Gary Andersen, Computer Science teacher at A.L. Brown High School in Kannapolis, NC, who was named a finalist for the NCCAT 2026 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Career & Technical Education Teacher of the Year Award. Gary was one of 23 exceptional educators selected from across North Carolina for this distinction, and he joined his fellow finalists for a week of professional development before being honored at a special ceremony this past December.
Game Design Workplace Challenge: Students Design Real Games Using Godot
Urban Arts, the national nonprofit that teaches digital game design as a pathway to college and career, recently led a Workplace Challenge where high school students tackled real game design problems. The challenge was developed in partnership with the Manhattan Early College School for Advertising (MECA), a high school that prepares students for careers in marketing, media, creative technology, design, and business, and Endless Access, a nonprofit and global game-making community that empowers youth through open-source and accessible tools.
The Workplace Challenge model is part of NYC’s work-based learning framework where NYC Public School high school students tackle real design problems from industry partners, moving through the complete professional development cycle from ideation to finished product. The students worked with the professional-level Godot game engine to design and build fully playable game levels, debugging code, troubleshooting mechanics, and gaining experience in teamwork and presenting. Students also heard from Phoenix Stroh, a Godot expert and game developer with Endless Access.
Urban Arts Color Ball 2026: A Million Dollar Night
At Urban Arts’ Color Ball April 30th, four extraordinary young people took the stage—and owned it. Their powerful stories and remarkable achievements received a rousing response from a room filled with nearly 500 guests. It was a night that celebrated not only their success, but the limitless potential of every Urban Arts student.
Because of you—our incredible supporters, champions, and dance-floor legends—Color Ball 2026 raised $1.1 Milliom in a single night! That’s right, you made it rain (philanthropically speaking), and our Urban Arts students are the real winners! Rafael Martos, our inspiring Nagler Scholar, deserves a standing ovation. His story reminds us why we do this work—because talent deserves opportunity, and every student deserves a chance to create their future.
“Urban Arts became a second home. It didn’t carry the same pressure as high school. I made close friends and we’ve shared and nurtured our passions with each other, from photography, art, to narrative and programming. It was at Urban Arts I became inspired to take the first step in producing my own music. At Urban Arts I realized I can create anything.” —Rafael Martos 2026 Nagler Scholar
A huge thank you to our honorees, Phil Wiser, CTO of Paramount, and Alia Jones-Harvey, Associate Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, for their leadership and unwavering partnership. We couldn’t ask for better collaborators in this mission to fuel access and opportunity.
How Urban Arts is Using Video Games to Open Doors to College and Careers
Game On by Urban Arts is a year-long AP Computer Science course that teaches students to code by designing their own video games, combining industry tools like Unity with project-based learning. Developed through a multi-year, research-driven process with WestEd, the program was continuously refined using real classroom feedback from teachers and students across diverse schools. Findings consistently show strong student engagement, high-quality teacher support, and growing evidence that students build core computer science skills through game design. While challenges like school technology infrastructure remain, the curriculum, training, and materials are now considered ready for broader implementation. With a large-scale impact study underway, Game On By Urban Arts is positioned as a scalable, engaging approach to expanding access to high-quality computer science education.
Urban Arts Opens Google-Powered Studio, Designed by Award-Winning Producer IMAKEMADBEATS
We’re proud to announce the opening of our state-of-the-art sound studio at the Urban Arts Game Academy—powered by Google and built by Memphis-based artist/producer and UNAPOLOGETIC. Founder and CEO IMAKEMADBEATS. Our students helped build the space themselves—hands-on, with power tools and high-tech installations, making it a true reflection of our mission: creativity in action.
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 […]