Champlain College Graduate Speaks at UN About 'Breakaway'

BURLINGTON, VT (02/18/2011)(readMedia)-- Lauren Nishikawa, a 2009 graduate of Champlain College and the project manager for "Breakaway" video game, will participate in a panel discussion on using technology to end violence against women and girls at the United Nations on Feb. 23.

Nishikawa joins representatives of the UN and Google on the panel, which will convene at 1:15 p.m. at the UN in New York City. The panel is part of the annual meeting of the "Commission on the Status of Women."

Final touches are being added to the fifth and final chapter of Breakaway, which has been two and a half years in the making. Champlain students, with support of the United Nations and behavior change expertise of Population Media Center of Shelburne, Vt., debuted the online game this past summer at the World Cup in soccer in South Africa.

The primary audience for the game is boys so they learn how to respect girls and women. The Breakaway web site (http://www.breakawaygame.com/) has had visitors from more than 165 nations, and seems most popular in the U.S., Canada, Germany, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, U.K. and Japan.

More than 70 Champlain College students from a wide array of majors developed the innovative, episodic web-based soccer game for boys ages 8-15. Working at Champlain's Emergent Media Center, they created a tactical and narrative soccer game. To research the game, students traveled to South Africa and St. Lucia to study how best to tailor a game toward youth on a global level.

Nishikawa, who has been involved with the project since its inception, says Breakaway is designed to instill in boys positive values and behaviors, so that they grow up respecting girls and women. "It challenges players to understand the nature of a true champion while having fun practicing football and personal skills," she says.

ABOUT CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE:

Champlain College, a private, residential college founded in 1878, has a long tradition of educating professionals for leadership roles by providing a high-quality, career-oriented education. Champlain's distinctive educational approach embodies the notion that true learning only occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain was named a "Top-Up-and-Coming School" by U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges 2010. To learn more about Champlain College, www.champlain.edu.

ABOUT THE EMERGENT MEDIA CENTER:

Champlain's Emergent Media Center, located in the Champlain Mill in Winooski, Vt., works directly with industry, public institutions and non-profit organizations to provide a laboratory/studio environment for discovering concepts, processes and application in electronic and video games. It allows students to experience learning and become leaders in the areas of technology, media in real-life work situations. www.champlain.edu/emc