It is almost unheard of for universities to ask to scrimmage high schoolers, let alone recruit them before graduation- But both of these situations are happening at Health Arts Robotics and Technology High School (H.A.R.T.) in New York. This school has achieved the incredible feat of developing a software engineering program built on coding and competitive gaming that colleges seek out to learn more.
However, this success didn’t happen overnight, nor was it an accident of enthusiasm. No, on the contrary, the program grew from a deliberate decision to treat gaming as rigorous coursework and from learners who adapted to a grueling but beneficial standard that most schools won’t reach for another decade.
In our conversation with Principal Kayode Ayetiwa and Assistant Principal Anna Raghubir, we uncovered that the key to this success likely lies in the school's decision to put coding first, using gaming to spark interest and attract students. If you want to learn more about how they built a game-design program colleges now recruit from, stick around because the story itself is one of hard work, dedication, learning, and perseverance.
Why Did H.A.R.T. Develop Its Program Around Coding Instead of Just Gameplay?
H.A.R.T. chose to center its program on coding rather than gameplay because the school wanted students to create games, not just play them. It went a step further by adopting Mastery Coding as the foundational curriculum for its software engineering pathway, so students could pick up transferable skills and apply what they learn in situations well beyond the classroom.
"We decided to go with Mastery Coding for exactly what we wanted our students to do, which was to learn coding through gaming, not the opposite," said Anna Raghubir, the assistant principal who oversees the school's Career and Technical Education pathways.
Those priorities shaped how the school chose a platform when it opened the software engineering program in 2025, leading H.A.R.T. to be strict in its decision process and to look past the shiny sales decks by testing each option itself before any student touched the coursework.
As Raghubir put it, "We don't just look at something and say, 'Oh, that looks good, let's do it.' We asked for a two-week trial across multiple platforms, and we all put it through the ringer, the teachers especially."
During those trials, it quickly became clear that the school wanted students focused on coding, which is why they now write C# in Unity across the school's game foundations and game development courses.
"The students are coding in C# in the Unity platform, which we think is critical and essential for a game development pathway," Raghubir said. So although gaming may draw students in, the program gradually shifts their role from player to creator, and that's crucial.
We don't just look at something and say, 'Oh, that looks good, let's do it.' We asked for a two-week trial across multiple platforms, and we all put it through the ringer, the teachers especially.
What Changes in a School When the Program Works?
When a game-design program works, it changes how students respond to school itself, and this stands out against a backdrop of discouraging absenteeism. For example, New York high schools recorded a 43.1% chronic absenteeism rate in 2022-2023. This statistic means more than four in ten students miss at least a tenth of the school year.
At H.A.R.T., Ayetiwa says the program has helped move attendance in the opposite direction. "They're excited to come to school. It's improved our attendance, and our data shows that," he said. "Our students say, 'I love coming to school to do this. I didn't think this was possible in a school.'" What’s more, students are even eager to attend outside of the scheduled timetable and are tying their coding to other subjects while building their confidence in the classroom.
It's improved our attendance, and our data shows that.
According to the school, some students arrive during holiday breaks, including spring break, to keep working on esports, and Raghubir has seen learners connect their code to subjects such as Algebra 1. In addition, one parent told the school that a formerly shy student had found his voice through the team.
As word spread, parents came around as well, with the arrival of NBC's cameras bringing attention that had some families unsure at first, until seeing how engaged their children were won them over and prompted enough interest for H.A.R.T. to add dedicated parent tours.
Ayetiwa believes the game-design room itself helps create that initial pull. "We have a pretty phenomenal esports setup that's unique to any New York City school," he said. Once students are inside it, though, the expectations reach well beyond enjoying the equipment.
"We hold them accountable to continuing that for their professionalism in the building and their other classes," Raghubir said. She describes students who run their own brackets and coach one another, take responsibility for how the program operates, and make more day-to-day decisions themselves. So, this gives H.A.R.T. another way to judge whether the program is working. After all, attendance can show that students want to be there, but the responsibility they take for the program shows what that engagement can become.
Where Does This Leave Students After They Graduate?
Through a Mastery Coding program and H.A.R.T.’s emphasis on technical work, students graduate with something few others achieve, which is Unity certification. This is a widely recognized industry credential that ties them to their programming work.
This year will be the first time students sit for the certification, and Raghubir is frank that the practical work excites students more than the assessment attached to it. "They're excited until there's an exam," she said. "They're more than willing to build the games, play it, code it, recode it, debug, all of that. But when they hear 'exam,' they're like, 'oh no.'"
Still, students appreciate the certification and understand its ramifications, which Raghubir frames eloquently. "If a student has their Unity certification, they're a Unity-certified programmer, which means they can also become an entry-level programmer," she said. "That gives them more opportunity and flexibility than game animation alone."
Earning that in high school means a graduate can pursue paid programming work right away or enter a college program with proof of the work already behind them, and because the coding is taught through game development, the skill carries well beyond the gaming industry into any field that runs on software.
We're in talks with three different universities right now for our gaming pathway specifically.
Additionally, certification isn't all these students get, as they are also exposed to university interest. According to Ayetiwa, a major university had approached H.A.R.T about competing against them. "College students versus high school students," he said. "They were impressed when they came to see our facilities, which actually outmatch theirs."
That curiosity intensified once universities looked past the competition to the coursework behind it. "When I shared our whole four-year curriculum, they were blown away," Raghubir said. "We're in talks with three different universities right now for our gaming pathway specifically." These talks are likely to benefit students even more in the future.
Why Can't Other Schools Just Copy It?
From the outside, H.A.R.T.'s program can look easy to copy because the most visible parts are the equipment and esports success. Ayetiwa and Raghubir say the harder part is the structure underneath it, especially the four-year progression and the expectations for what students should be able to do by graduation.
That emphasis on what students should be able to do by graduation increasingly mirrors where New York education is heading. In July 2025, the Board of Regents adopted a Portrait of a Graduate that places greater emphasis on demonstrated skills and performance-based learning.
Ayetiwa sees H.A.R.T.'s existing approach as closely aligned with that shift. "What we're doing currently is ahead of the curve. When these shifts come into play, we're already doing it," he said, describing the Mastery Coding coursework as that framework "in practice."
Raghubir believes the school has pushed the expectation further still. "If anything, we've shifted the baseline, elevating what is expected of programs and of schools," she said, estimating that the facility and course design run roughly fifteen years ahead of the norm.
Yet the part other schools rarely see is everything that came before those results. "They see the success. They don't see the journey," Raghubir said. "They don't see the details, the planning that goes into it day in and day out. It's hard to do something when it wasn't built on the passion you already had and the vision that came from you."
That vision, she notes, belongs to her principal. H.A.R.T. has since won national esports competitions in both the fall and spring through the United States Academic Esports League, earning its esports curriculum free for the coming year.
Could Your School Build Something Similar?
H.A.R.T.'s success comes from giving student interest in gaming a viable academic direction. What begins with esports develops into coding experience and a pathway students can carry into college or entry-level technical work. Its attendance gains and growing university interest show what can follow when that structure is in place.
For schools considering a similar model, the goal is not to copy H.A.R.T.'s setup exactly, but to develop a game-design program with the same sense of purpose from the start. Mastery Coding provides the curriculum behind that progression, helping schools turn enthusiasm for gaming into structured learning with a destination beyond the classroom.
We encourage you to request a demo to see what that could look like in your own program.
