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Marissa Chai Hibbert '18 Wins Scholarships for Esports
Marissa Chai Hibbert

During her years at Norfolk Academy, Marissa Chai Hibbert '18 was an avid member of the school's Robotics Team--a group where boys heavily outnumbered girls.

As a result of her work on that team, in her junior year, she was one of just 20 students in a field of thousands of competitors around the globe to win a Dean's List Award in the FIRST Robotics Competition.

Now, as a senior at William & Mary, Hibbert is again making her mark in an arena where women are vastly outnumbered by men--esports, a form of competition using video games. She is the head of social media for the college's new esports interdisciplinary program and the only woman out of seven individuals who the college considers "esports pioneers."

Her accomplishments in esports, which took flight during the Covid pandemic, recently earned her a $10,000 scholarship from The Gen.G Foundation, a worldwide esports organization that helps young people interested in gaming develop into leaders of the gaming and esports industry. She also won a second award from the 1,000 Dreams Fund, intended to highlight and support young women with funding and mentorships. 

Hibbert spoke to William and Mary's student newspaper, The Flat Hat, about her interest in the burgeoning field: “My hopes are definitely set pretty high. I would love to work in esports after I graduate."

Read more of the interview and explore the website that Hibbert created for the esports program. Congratulations!

 

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