‘My Eyes Lit Up’: After An Exciting Campus Visit, Izzy Kaplan Joins First Class of Esports Majors

Emily and Stephen Kaplan could see it in their daughter’s eyes.

When then-high school junior Isabelle “Izzy” Kaplan visited Syracuse University in March 2023, the University had just announced it would be offering a new, first-of-its-kind degree program focused on esports starting in the fall of 2024. The Esports Communications and Management program would be offered jointly by the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics and the Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Kaplan was already interested in majoring in communications, but she also enjoyed playing esports and was excited when she heard about this new major during her visit. When she later told her mother that she wanted to attend Syracuse and enter this groundbreaking program, Emily Kaplan wondered what took her daughter so long.

“My parents support me being happy; they want the best for me,” Kaplan says. “They were there when I was told about this program, and they saw how my eyes lit up. When I mentioned it to my mom, she said, ‘You know, I’m surprised you’re just saying something about it now because I saw how you first looked, and I’d thought you’d immediately jump on that.’”

Kaplan, who’s from Long Island, New York, is now a member of the inaugural esports class. The program is unique because it features three tracks that combine elements of Falk College and the Newhouse School – esports business and management, esports communications, and esports media and design – and as Kaplan starts her academic career, she’s leaning toward the communications track.

But for now, first things first, and Kaplan is one of about 20 students taking Esports Executive Director and Professor of Practice Joey Gawrysiak’s Introduction to Esports class. Gawrysiak says the introductory class is designed to help students understand the esports ecosystem how it operates in society and at Syracuse, and to get them excited about the major because of the hands-on opportunities they’ll experience throughout all of their courses.

“An esports education is not about just classroom learning, and it’s not just about preparing students to work in esports,” says Gawrysiak, who built the esports program at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, before coming to Syracuse. “It’s about preparing them to have a very successful career by the time they graduate in whatever career it might be, whether it’s esports, esports adjacent, the entertainment industry, traditional sports, broadcast journalism, business, or whatever they might want to get into.”