Charles Lee of Bellevue was recently selected as one of 30 students across the nation to receive a 2009 Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation Scholarship recipient.

The scholarship will help fund his studies in Real Time Interactive Simulation at the Digipen Institute of Technology. The sophomore at Digipen hopes to become a game programmer or technical director after graduation, working for a company such as Electronic Arts or Microsoft.

“We are delighted to support these young men and women working to transform their passion for games into careers,” said Michael Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. “We look forward to these awards enabling them to realize their dreams and become leaders in our innovative and artistic industry.”

Since 2007, the ESA Foundation Scholarship Program has assisted students who strive to work in the computer and video game industry. More than 200 colleges, universities and trade schools now offer video game courses or degrees.

The ESA Scholarships are offered annually for full-time study at accredited four-year colleges and universities for students pursuing degrees in video game development, computer science, digital animation, programming and software engineering.

To date, the Foundation has raised over $10 million for a wide variety of worthy causes.

For more information about the ESA Foundation, please visit www.theESA.com/foundation.

Students interested in the 2010-2011 scholarship program, may complete an application beginning in January 2010 at http://www.theesa.com/foundation/scholarship.asp