For OU ECCI aggressive supervisor Josh “Thumper” Riesenberg, his journey by means of college and OU Esports has been, and can proceed to be, a winding journey of exploration.
Riesenberg’s roots in gaming go all the way in which again to when he was 9. From a younger age, he competed in titles from Name of Obligation to Rainbow Six: Siege. He even gained semi-pro standing in aggressive esports earlier than he retired early in his school profession.
“However a pal of mine on the Overwatch group requested, ‘Hey, are you able to simply assist us with this one factor?’” Riesenberg stated. “I didn’t actually have any expertise. I used to be skilled in instructing however not teaching. So I made a decision to strive that and actually cherished it. So I simply saved working by means of and received higher teaching.”
Finally, Mike Aguilar, present director of OU ECCI, noticed Riesenberg’s potential in administration and inspired him to be the primary to coordinate and lead all of the OU Esports aggressive groups. However Riesenberg continued to stretch his limits from there and was a pivotal a part of the division’s newly fashioned analysis committee.
“Each time I’ve moved, it’s right into a place that beforehand didn’t exist,” Riesenberg described. “So it’s not like somebody had finished this job they usually graduated or stated they weren’t doing extra and Mike wanted a fill, and I used to be the very best candidate. There wasn’t an precise head coach of the Overwatch group earlier than me.”
For Riesenberg, being in his roles all through OU ECCI has given him experiences which might be uncommon in school, and he has been in a position to develop abilities that even these within the workforce wrestle with.
“The second something comes out of your mouth, it’s not what you stated anymore, it’s what your viewers hears,” Riesenberg defined.”So it’s about understanding communication goes each methods and goes up and down the hierarchy. You usually take six months to 2 years in an organization earlier than you’re like, ‘Okay, that is who I talked to for this that is who I discuss to for that’.”
Although Riesenberg has accomplished his MBA with a certificates in entrepreneurship, this isn’t the tip of his tutorial journey. He has utilized for a PhD in strategic communication by means of the OU Gaylord Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, and he expects to begin within the fall of 2025.
His time with OU ECCI has ready him for the challenges that include the curriculum planning and analysis that he’ll full as part of his PhD program.
“I’ve to make sure that every part I’m doing is relevant,” Rosenberg described. “One of many issues that makes OU Esports completely different is that we’re getting ready the scholars for engagement and employment, even when it’s not inside the gaming or esports trade. Doing analysis and instructing the courses that I’m going to design and educate, they’ll’t simply be this nebulous factor up within the cloud that nobody apart from one other PhD will ever learn or perceive. This must be right down to the widespread scholar.”
Although wanting ahead to his PhD and persevering with to work with OU ECCI, Riesenberg can also be taking the second to look again on what the division has meant to him.
“It’s every part,” Riesenberg stated. “The flexibility to remain linked with the neighborhood, I way more establish with, in addition to having the ability to assist youngsters discover their method somewhat bit. You already know they’re not fully on their very own. After which they construct their very own communities. It’s a very completely different tradition.”
