NMSU’s Esports team held their monthly Girl’s Night in the Lab on Jan. 31, to promote diversity and inclusion in the gaming community.
Sophia Unruh has seen a member of the club since 2023 and said the tradition of girl’s night has existed for years. After the old hosting members graduated, Unruh, Marissa Grajeda, and Maddie Reed worked together to make this year’s first girl’s night happen.
Drinks and snacks were provided, and they did more than just play games. These specialty nights create a chance to form new relationships within the gaming community for women.
“Everybody gets to talk and bond, and we do crafts together,” Unruh said. “And if we have time, we’ll play video games. Usually, we don’t have time because we’re too busy talking.”
The event even attracts the attention of non-club members like resident assistant Ranasia Griffin. Griffen’s residents informed her about the occasion and invited her to partake in the festivities. Griffin said she enjoyed the girl’s night for the fun environment it created.
“This is actually my first time coming here, and I think it’s super cool,” Griffin said. “I’ve never been in [the lab]. I didn’t even know this place existed, to be honest.”
Esports club members Grajeda and Reed, have been gamers since childhood. They worked alongside Unruh to plan the girl’s night.
“It was very interesting because we had previous experiences from attending as guests,” Grajeda said. “So now that the three of us were in charge of actually planning it, we kind of figured what we wanted to do and what we wanted to spend our money on for the majority.”
In the future, the club hopes to see a continued increase in attendance of Girl’s Night in the Lab and women joining NMSU’s Esports.
“We always like having new girls come in and then we welcome them in because it’s a very male-dominated field,” Reed said. “So, it’s nice letting, like, the new girls come in and making them feel comfortable with coming in because it is kind of intimidating when you walk in and you see a lab full of guys.”
Unruh, Grajeda, and Reed want to continue the tradition of the girl’s night to create a more space for women gamers in the community at NMSU. They hope that through girl’s night more girls will be drawn toward the Esports club.
For those with an interest or talent in video games, the computer lab is open to all students Monday through Friday, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m., in the Game Room on the 2nd-floor patio of Corbett Center. More information about Girl’s Night in the Lab can be found on NMSU’s Esports’ official Discord.
