As the Director of Esports at Illinois Tech in Chicago our program leans into building community and memorable experiences through gaming. Our events are designed to showcase the technology and careers connected to the esports ecosystem including game design, production, and content creation. This summer we taught a paid esports apprenticeship in partnership with One Summer Chicago, DFSS, and Apple. Students learned to organize and market a tournament, create promotional material, and create 3D assets/digital art in our Kaplan Innovation Center to fund the esports tournament through a student organized online auction.