Club Name: Rotary Club of Laguna Niguel
Project Name/Title: Introducing the Agents of Influence Video Game to Aliso Niguel High School
The Agents of Influence Video Game is a unique video game created by Rotarian Anahita Dalmia and Rotaractor Jasper McEvoy, members of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach. This Project recently won the Grand Prize at the Aspen Institute’s Information Disorder competition. This nonpartisan game was presented to our Club on November 19, 2021, by Anahita and Jasper. Our club was very impressed with the way Anahita exhibited such passion about the primary goal of the game; to combat “TRUTH DECAY” by teaching youth to think critically and seek the truth through the medium that is a universal recreational activity of the 13-15 year old age group; VIDEO GAMING!
The game was spawned by Rotary’s venerable and legendary Four Way Test and the goal of the game’s creators is to teach media literacy skills to youth at the time they are most vulnerable to believing misinformation. Three games (conversation, analysis and research games) provide a doorway to sound civic literacy and honorable engagement in the gaming world for youth. Our Club will work with the Rotary Club of Newport Beach and it’s President, Steve Bender, along with the game creators and Rotary clubs in the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) to become the 4th school district to pilot this ingenious and prize-winning project. The amazing high school youth of Aliso Niguel High School and students in the Capistrano Unified School District are the beneficiaries of this fantastic and innovative project!
