Electronic Arts partners with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund

SOMOS EA, the Hispanic / Latinx Employee Resource Group at Electronic Arts (EA), recently partnered with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) to support the Latino community reflecting EA’s commitment to build a more diverse and inclusive environment in the video gaming industry.

At EA, we believe in the potential of every human being. Building a culture of inclusion allows us to create games and experiences for our global player community that reflects our diverse world. With the global gaming audience expanding beyond 2.5 billion people and reaching players of all backgrounds, we believe interactive entertainment has the profound ability to both reflect and propel the cultural equality movement. Creating experiences with strong Latinx representation is an intrinsic principle for our company, both rooted in our creative processes and helping to inspire inclusive communities.

SOMOS EA, the Hispanic / Latinx Employee Resource Group at EA, recently partnered with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) to support the Latino community. This partnership represents a significant milestone for SOMOS EA, a group launched in 2016 with now more than 300 members in 3 locations: Redwood Shores, Austin and Orlando.

The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is an organization whose mission is to empower Latino families with the knowledge and resources to successfully complete a higher education, while providing scholarships and support services to as many exceptional Hispanic American students as possible. The HSF Scholarship is designed to assist students of Hispanic heritage obtain a college degree. Since 1975, HSF has awarded over $588 million in scholarships to more than 65,000 scholars from across the United States. In addition to the scholarships, HSF creates programs and events to celebrate the value of higher education, achievement, leadership, and community. 

One of those events is the HSF STEM Summit, which is an annual “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math” conference that gives the best and brightest HSF STEM scholars an inside track to career success in STEM fields, through a combination of mentoring, professional insights, and career guidance. A select group of 100 rising junior and senior students are chosen from a highly competitive pool of current HSF STEM scholars to attend the Summit.

As a “Friend of HSF” Sponsor, EA had the opportunity to participate in the recent HSF STEM Summit held on September 5 to 8 in San Jose, California. SOMOS EA’s Executive Sponsor Chris Bruzzo, CMO, opened the Summit in a fireside chat with Fidel Vargas, CEO of Hispanic Scholarship Fund, where they invited attendees to embrace opportunities to achieve professional excellence. On day 2, Nadine Blackburn, Sr. Director, Inclusion, Diversity & Outreach, shared insights with scholars during the panel “An Insider’s Guide to Recruitment” where she touched on some personal notes around career progression that resonated with the audience. 

“After the Summit, I felt motivated to pursue my dream goal, thanks to EA, among many others. I now know that just like everyone else there I can: I can enter the video game industry, I can pay it back to those that have been there for me, I can pay it forward to the next generation, I can be a role model,” said Osvaldo Jimenez, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, who received an offer to join the EA team at Industrial Toys as a summer intern next year.

SOMOS EA was represented at the Summit by Gloria Belanger, Valentina Diaz and Martin Bilello, in addition to Alex Cantero, Deb Lau and Chris Menezes from the Partnership Committee. They attended different activities during the 4-day event to connect with the scholars, share their experiences on being Latinos in the tech world, and provide them insights on how to land their dream jobs. 

The experience was as exciting for the HSF scholars as it was for the EA team. Chris Menezes, Development Director at Maxis, reflects back after the Summit: “Being able to be part of HSF as a sponsor was an amazingly rewarding experience. I went in expecting we would meet some smart students and while I was not disappointed, I was more surprised by the quality and compassion with which the students approached such a Summit. They demonstrated a level of communication and leadership that shows why they are the top 100 in their field in the HSF program, and combined it with a major passion and desire to learn more and grow as individuals with a company that could support their cultural and personal growth.”

“The students I met were at the top of their game, radiant leaders whose passion, professionalism, and intellects would be a boon to EA. I hope that we can cultivate this exciting talent,” said Rebecca Davis, Recruiting Sr. Consultant. Rebecca joined the EA team for the Summit’s Career Expo on day 3 to answer questions from the scholars who visited EA’s booth to learn more about available positions at EA.

The Summit “allowed me to interact with incredibly passionate and bright young scholars to share our own stories. Listening to their questions and future plans made me leave with a renewed sense of confidence that we can make a difference in our community. I am so grateful for the opportunity to represent the CTO organization and SOMOS EA, I am very proud of being part of the EA culture and commitment to build a more diverse and inclusive environment,” expressed Gloria Belanger, Manager Ops Procurement, who traveled from Austin for the event.

“I’m ignited by the passion, curiosity, and professionalism of the HSF scholars. It was great to see the EA team come together and deliver an exceptional candidate experience and brand presence within the Latinx community. The energy was contagious, and the high caliber of talent was evident,” said Deb Lau, HR Business Partner, University Relations and Next-Gen Talent, who coordinated the Partnership Committee in the weeks before the Summit. The Partnership Committee also included Dilip Varadarajan, VP, Engineering Commerce & Identity and SOMOS EA Board Member Luza Jaramillo, Sr. Security Program Manager.

“Attending HSF STEM Summit was remarkable! Being able to learn about (and from!) the students over the course of the Summit was special. For me the fun part is yet to come: seeing how they’ll continue to grow and how they will impact EA as future hires,” said Alex Cantero Senior Recruiter, University Recruiting, UR and Next-Gen Talent, who led the recruitment planning process to reach EA’s goal of securing 2 interns and 1 new grad hire from the Summit scholars pool. With 3 offers already accepted and 3 more in progress, EA’s partnership with HSF is already exceeding that goal, which ultimately will help increase the representation of Latinos at EA, impacting positively the way we build games.

Interested in being an intern at one of our global locations? Find out more information about how you can be in our next class of interns here!

Stay in the conversation of all things Inside EA: Visit our site, follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.