Gerald Lawson was a video game pioneer.
Gerald Lawson was a video game pioneer.
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Microsoft contributes to USC Games’ Lawson fund for Black and indigenous students

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Microsoft is making a financial contribution to USC Games‘ fund for Black and indigenous students in honor of game pioneer Gerald Lawson.

The contribution will help establish the Gerald A. Lawson Endowment Fund for Black and Indigenous Students at USC Games, which has been ranked as the No. 1 university game program for 11 years in a row.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.