To the GMG Fellowship Application Review Team,
Hello, my name is Jeremy Bernier. I’m a PhD student at Arizona State University in the Learning, Literacies, and Technologies program. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to apply to the Girls Make Games fellowship this year. As a lifelong gamer and educator with a commitment to diversity and equity, I believe that I am an excellent candidate
As an educator, I have had a diverse array of teaching experiences. I’ve had the chance to observe and assist in urban and suburban classrooms in the greater Boston area, and I student taught at an all-boys private school in Sydney, Australia. After a year spent working at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, I returned to my rural home state of Maine. There, I taught middle school mathematics at Maine's first all-online charter school for two years and taught undergraduate mathematics at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. Each of these teaching experiences has been quite different, which has really brought to focus for me how teaching is not a “one-size-fits-all” equation: so much of what you do as a teacher is way more about what’s going on between you and the learners in front of you, than anything in prewritten curricula or lessons. I believe that my diverse experiences as a teacher and learner would make me well-suited to facilitate the learning of game design among the Girls Make Games campers.
While I am not a professional game designer or programmer, I have had opportunities to work with both. As part of a research project on Vector Unknown, a game for learning linear algebra, I had the opportunity to supervise a capstone team of undergraduates in developing a three-dimensional version of the game. I worked with them on a weekly basis, providing feedback on their designs and programming from the dual perspectives of a gamer and mathematics educator. Additionally, my work with my advisor, Dr. Elisabeth R. Gee, has involved designerly thinking in playfixing broken games. This project involves using incomplete or flawed board games (broken games) collecting data on how players redesign the game when prompted to play and fix (playfix) them.
My experience with programming is a bit more limited. In high school, I became quite familiar with Visual Basic and Java, earning a 5 on the AP Computer Science Exam. I have not since written programs on a regular basis, but I have retained some knowledge of programming that has proven useful as I have learned to use R, a program for statistical analysis that largely follows the conventions of programming languages rather than using a GUI. Additionally, I have worked on multiple projects on introducing computational thinking and computer programming at elementary and middle grades levels, developing some familiarity with Scratch. Finally, I occasionally delve into some very minor bits of programming in order to create patches between mods I have installed for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
All that is to say that, while I may not be the most accomplished on the game design front, I believe that my background in education along with the experiences I have had with game design and programming mean that I could be an effective facilitator for a group of young women in developing their own games.
Moreover, I truly believe in the mission of Girls Make Games. We are at a crucial point for diversity and equity in STEM fields. While there has been greater acknowledgement of inequities in STEM in recent years, and increasing efforts to correct them, we have also seen increased backlash against these efforts - and the games industry is no exception to this. If we want to change this, and ensure that technology and art are being made by diverse people coming from numerous perspectives, we need programs like Girls Make Games to get historically excluded populations involved in game development. If I could play a small role in that, I would consider it an honor.
Thank you for your time spent considering my application. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me via phone or email.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Bernier
207 713 0933
[email protected]
As an educator, I have had a diverse array of teaching experiences. I’ve had the chance to observe and assist in urban and suburban classrooms in the greater Boston area, and I student taught at an all-boys private school in Sydney, Australia. After a year spent working at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, I returned to my rural home state of Maine. There, I taught middle school mathematics at Maine's first all-online charter school for two years and taught undergraduate mathematics at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. Each of these teaching experiences has been quite different, which has really brought to focus for me how teaching is not a “one-size-fits-all” equation: so much of what you do as a teacher is way more about what’s going on between you and the learners in front of you, than anything in prewritten curricula or lessons. I believe that my diverse experiences as a teacher and learner would make me well-suited to facilitate the learning of game design among the Girls Make Games campers.
While I am not a professional game designer or programmer, I have had opportunities to work with both. As part of a research project on Vector Unknown, a game for learning linear algebra, I had the opportunity to supervise a capstone team of undergraduates in developing a three-dimensional version of the game. I worked with them on a weekly basis, providing feedback on their designs and programming from the dual perspectives of a gamer and mathematics educator. Additionally, my work with my advisor, Dr. Elisabeth R. Gee, has involved designerly thinking in playfixing broken games. This project involves using incomplete or flawed board games (broken games) collecting data on how players redesign the game when prompted to play and fix (playfix) them.
My experience with programming is a bit more limited. In high school, I became quite familiar with Visual Basic and Java, earning a 5 on the AP Computer Science Exam. I have not since written programs on a regular basis, but I have retained some knowledge of programming that has proven useful as I have learned to use R, a program for statistical analysis that largely follows the conventions of programming languages rather than using a GUI. Additionally, I have worked on multiple projects on introducing computational thinking and computer programming at elementary and middle grades levels, developing some familiarity with Scratch. Finally, I occasionally delve into some very minor bits of programming in order to create patches between mods I have installed for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
All that is to say that, while I may not be the most accomplished on the game design front, I believe that my background in education along with the experiences I have had with game design and programming mean that I could be an effective facilitator for a group of young women in developing their own games.
Moreover, I truly believe in the mission of Girls Make Games. We are at a crucial point for diversity and equity in STEM fields. While there has been greater acknowledgement of inequities in STEM in recent years, and increasing efforts to correct them, we have also seen increased backlash against these efforts - and the games industry is no exception to this. If we want to change this, and ensure that technology and art are being made by diverse people coming from numerous perspectives, we need programs like Girls Make Games to get historically excluded populations involved in game development. If I could play a small role in that, I would consider it an honor.
Thank you for your time spent considering my application. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me via phone or email.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Bernier
207 713 0933
[email protected]