By Kyle Swirbliss
If an opportunity arose to pursue exactly what you wanted to do in life, would you know what to do?
Kort Furman, a sophomore resident student at Fitchburg State University, knew what he wanted to do. His hometown in Greenwich, New York is a little over a three hour drive from Fitchburg, keeping him from friends and family and all the comforts of home, but for him it’s all worth it.
For students deciding where to go to college, most general concerns include price and location. Arguably the most important aspect to consider when choosing a school is the major you’re looking for and whether or not it’s offered.
“I’m here for Game Design, it’s not a major as widely offered like psychology or nursing but I know that this is something that I wanted for myself,” Furman said.
Game design is becoming an increasingly popular choice as a major, however because this major is a relatively new and upcoming, most colleges still don’t offer Game Design to its students.
He recounted the steps he took when looking at schools, “Most of the schools were very expensive and the ones I got accepted into didn’t have game design. I would’ve had to enroll into interdisciplinary studies to essentially be a game design major there.”
Since the idea of an online university didn’t appeal to him (the better majority of schools that offer game design are primarily online) he pondered going the more non-traditional route of interdisciplinary studies. Like other students before him and for students looking for a major that isn’t offered by their school, interdisciplinary studies would allow for students to pick classes based on what they wanted to study combining elements from multiple disciplines to make a major.
Furman said, “I ended up deciding to come here [Fitchburg] after I got a letter from the school saying they now offered game design as a major. I just knew this was the school for me.”
Now residing in Mara Village , Furman makes his way to class each day with a number of individuals who also share in his passion for games to learn more about the field itself and all the parts that make up the game industry.
A Game Design major allows students like Furman to pursue a number of different careers for a number of different companies nationwide and worldwide in the gaming industry.
The classes equip students with the knowledge they need for allowing them to design game art, game code, and anything else necessary for them to create games of their own. This will prepare them for the rigorous journey of finding employment after all their years of learning.
Because of his leap of faith, Furman will now be a part of the first to graduate in the 2017 class from Fitchburg State with a degree in Game Design. Furman is planning on graduating with his degree and embarking on a pursuit to design his very own games full time, and this goal was all made possible because Fitchburg State helped open up new possibilities for not only Furman, but for other young and ambitious students in the New England area.
He finished off by saying, “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for admissions sending out those little postcards and because of that, I have a better chance of being able to do what I want to do once I graduate. Normally kids complain about getting tons of junk from schools looking for kids to apply, but for me, I’m just happy my postcard came when it did.”