DigiPen was honored to host Rep. Suzan DelBene as she visited DigiPen’s campus as part of her tour of businesses within Washington’s 1st congressional district.
Rep. DelBene came to DigiPen to learn more about the school and its programs, see what DigiPen students are learning, and hear from DigiPen administrators about their concerns regarding higher education. Rep. DelBene met with DigiPen executives Angela Kugler and Raymond Yan to hear about the federal rules and regulations that have impacted the availability of student financial aid and discuss the challenges of providing adequate computer science and engineering curriculum in K-12 education.
Three sophomore game teams, comprised of approximately 20 students from across DigiPen’s degree programs, presented their game projects to her as an example of the type of collaboration that happens at DigiPen. She spoke with the students about their backgrounds and what made them decide to pursue their degree at DigiPen. DelBene also took a tour of the campus, during which she spoke to WaNIC students in their second year of WaNIC’s Computer Science program. DelBene was also able to see the robot that DigiPen’s FIRST Robotics team recently built for the FIRST Robotics regional competition.
“I was very impressed during my visit to DigiPen,” Rep. DelBene said in a statement. “I particularly admire the school’s integrated approach to learning, allowing students to work together in teams across disciplines so they experience multiple facets of game development – graphics, music, game design and project management.”
Rep. DelBene was elected in November 2012 to represent Washington’s 1stcongressional district, which includes Redmond, as well as the majority of Washington’s Whatcom, Skagit, and Snohomish counties. DelBene is a former Microsoft employee of 12 years and was V.P. of Marketing for Drugstore.com when it was a start-up, so she understands the mix of entrepreneurship and software development that many DigiPen graduates go on to pursue.
The students were honored to present their work to the Congresswoman, and the administrators and students appreciated the opportunity to speak with DelBene in person.