From Call of Duty to Candy Land There was a time when video game developer Austin Krauss鈥 (鈥05 M.S.) dreams pretty much consisted of making 鈥渞eally cool explosions.鈥
Nine years working as one of the lead engineers on Call of Duty certainly gave him plenty of opportunities to do that.
Nowadays, Krauss, who鈥檚 a father of a 3-year-old, is channeling his talent in more family-friendly directions. Along with a couple of partners, he recently launched a new startup that he describes as 鈥渧irtual reality meets board games.鈥
鈥淚ronically, we try to limit screen time at our house, so we鈥檙e finding ourselves playing a lot of analog board games,鈥 Krauss said. 鈥淭he classics, like Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, still hold up and have a real nostalgic appeal. And there鈥檚 a whole new generation of board games that are so fantastically designed. We think virtual reality can open up their potential even more and give them a whole new audience.鈥
Doing What鈥檚 Right鈥淧ick up your basket and you go on.鈥
Kay McGowan (鈥82 B.G.S.) lives by those words of wisdom passed down from her grandmother, a woman of Mississippi Choctaw and Cherokee heritage.
So when McGowan 鈥 who helped write the United Nations鈥 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 鈥 sees injustices, she continues to pick up the basket.
As a teen, McGowan noticed unfair treatment among retail clerks where she worked. She helped organize efforts for equity.
As a young adult, she saw many instances of female abuse. She founded the Downriver Anti-Rape Effort and a domestic violence shelter.
Today, the Michigan Women鈥檚 Hall of Fame inductee and 2019 Susan B. Anthony Community Award winner continues to work on behalf of the United Nations. In addition to drafting the landmark Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, McGowan continues to represent indigenous people from around the world at UN meetings.
鈥淒o what鈥檚 right regardless of who doesn鈥檛 like it,鈥 shared McGowan. 鈥淧ick up your basket and, when needed, help others with theirs.鈥
