Iona University’s Anaya Potter ’23 is Rewriting the Esports Gender Narrative
Iona University senior Anaya Potter ’23 is featured in a new esports documentary series produced by Yahoo!’s In The Know. Esports is a new addition to Iona’s campus, and the series will follow the team and players over the course of the fall season.
When Iona announced the formation of its new esports program last year, Anaya took a leadership role in forming a League of Legends team. She is also team captain, telling In the Know: “I love gaming because I love sharing it with my friends. It’s been a big part of my college experience.”
The experience has also provided her with a platform to change the face of esports as a whole, which is typically dominated by her male counterparts.
“Being a woman in esports can be challenging at times because online, women are not usually met with respect,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve learned to not let that get to me. They don’t know me in real life, and they’re not going to stop me from playing the game.”
The series shines a light on both Iona’s inclusivity and Anaya’s own inspiring story.
Watch the first video with Anaya and read the full article here.
ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 students and an alumni base of more than 50,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona is widely recognized in prestigious rankings, including The Princeton Review’s 2024 national list of “The Best 389 Colleges” and The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse’s “2024 Best Colleges in America,” which ranked Iona at #66 in the nation overall and #8 in the nation among Catholic schools. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just six percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review recognized Iona’s on-campus MBA program as a “Best Business School for 2023.” Iona also offers a fully online MBA program for even greater flexibility. In July 2021, Iona announced the establishment of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences, which is now principally located on Iona’s Bronxville campus in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian. Connecting to its Irish heritage, the University also recently announced it is expanding abroad with a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.