Full Sail University, Tribe Gaming Launch Esports Internship Program

Full Sail University, located in Winter Park, Florida, and North American esports organization Tribe Gaming are coming together to offer an esports internship program. 

The goal of the two entities is to expand and open career opportunities for students and graduates interested in the industry. 

More About The Relationship

Tribe Gaming focuses primarily on content creation and mobile esports. Today, it's among the largest mobile-focused organizations in Western esports. 

This relationship with Full Sail began in early 2025, when Casey Gilblom, Vice President of Content & Creative at Tribe, and his team toured the university and met Full Sail's Director of Esports Strategy, Jacob Kaplan. The conversations then ramped up later at the 2025 DreamHack, and the internship program idea came from there. 

“At Dallas DreamHack, Jacob, Sean Smith [Tribe CEO], and I were talking about how [Tribe was] looking for young and up-and-coming talent who want to get into this business of gaming and content creation,” Gilblom explains. “That’s kind of where this all started.”

From there, the Full Sail Career Development department got involved, with Industry Outreach Representative Angie Duplis leading the initiative. 

"I’m really excited to have a professional esports company hiring our Esports grads," said Duplis said. 

To Full Sail, Tribe seem like a great fit as it includes mobile sports, influencer talent, and creative agency services. 

“Tribe is uniquely positioned as a gaming organization because we’re mobile gaming focused,” Casey said. “But that’s a smaller percentage of the work that our creative team is doing.” He explained that beyond esports, Tribe supports a roster of creators through influencer marketing and offering creative services for developers, publishers, and other brands. “We offer a lot of different services, from live production to the content side,” he said. “It kind of runs the gamut.”

Results Thus Far

In the first round of postings, Tribe opened up three paid internships in broadcast coordination, content creation, and talent and esports support. Then, the Full Sail Development team helped with the hiring process, including running a virtual pre-select day, pre-screening candidates, and helping prepare for interviews. 

“So we opened those up, and then we offered what we call a pre-select day,” explains Duplis. “We pre-screened the candidates and sent over the ones that we felt like were a fit.” She added that Career Development also worked closely with Full Sail’s education teams to help identify standout candidates.

Now, three people have been hired: Two from the Game Business & Esports program and one from the Film program. 

Other Universities Working With Esports

There have been other examples of universities working alongside the esports industry: 

• On January 14, the Maryville University team, in partnership with NRG, are set to launch a VALORANT academy program. 
• In October 2025, PUBG Mobile partnered with USC to use the World of Wonder creation platform in USC's Games as a Service and Live Operations class.