BELOIT, Wis. (WMTV) – Miss Beloit 2023 is combining her pageant role with her passion for video games to improve diversity in the STEM digital development industry.
Angelica Chapman-Sykes won her title as Miss Beloit 2023 in March and is using her platform to promote an initiative called Game Changers: Diversifying STEM Through Video Game Development.
On Tuesday, Chapman-Sykes brought technology companies to her hometown of Beloit to teach children about video game software engineering, coding and production.
”I work in the video game industry and there’s not a lot of diversity and I saw the lack of diversity and I wanted to do something to help change that and especially help out my community,” Chapman-Sykes said. ”Growing up, I was told that science was only for boys, video games were only for boys and for them to come here and see a woman who works in the gaming industry talking to them about these opportunities brings me a lot of happiness.”
Marlee is a 12-year-old from South Beloit who participated in Chapman-Sykes’ career workshop held at Hendricks CareerTek in Beloit. She loves video games and expressed interested in the digital design process.
”It’s pretty cool how they make it and it doesn’t just take someone a couple of hours to make a video game. It could take months probably to make really good ones,” Marlee said.
She said some parents or other people tend to associate video games with violent behavior, but she says video games are more educational. She enjoys playing Minecraft, Fortnite and other games to help her learn how to make friends digitally and in the real world.
”You can learn all kinds of skills. The main skill I learned is socializing,” Marlee said. ”I always talk to new people and I always try to start the conversation first and it’s helped me in real life too by starting conversations first.”
Chapman-Sykes hopes to inspire girls like Marlee to turn their love of video games into an artistic or scientific career in digital development.
”Even though this is a lot of work, it’s all worth it in the end,” Chapman-Sykes said. “To see kids from all different backgrounds [here], especially young girls.”
Chapman-Sykes’ unique initiative could help her win Miss Wisconsin.
The statewide competition starts Monday in Oshkosh where Chapman-Sykes will compete all week for the crown.
The Miss Wisconsin winner will be announced Saturday, June 26, 2023.
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