Pensacola State College is bringing a little old-school fun and a little new-school pizazz to the Pensacola campus this fall.

The inaugural PSC Pirates esports team will start competition in October and has already signed two student players with more expected to join in the coming weeks.

Also coming this fall is the PSC game room, which will have a pool table, air hockey, arcade games and foosball. The game room will be in the PSC Delaino Student Center – Building 5 and located in the large room that was formerly Academic Advising. A rear portion of the room is being remodeled to be the PSC esports arena where the esports team will compete.

Gulnaz Okumus speaks Turkish, English, Russian and Tatar. If numbers are a language, she speaks that too.

A native of Turkey, Okumus is an accounting specialist for the Pensacola State College Foundation ─ joining the Foundation team in June. She only arrived in the United States a year ago, but said she feels that her new hometown is “a piece of heaven.” 

“I have seen many beaches but never such a clean and beautiful beach,’’ she said of the stunning Pensacola Beach. 

Nicolas Salazar just graduated from Pace High School a few months back, but he’s already made Northwest Florida a better place.  

Salazar, an incoming Pensacola State College freshman, was named by WEAR-TV Channel 3 as a community “Angel in Our Midst” in November 2021 for his work to help needy animals in the community.

In fall 2019, Salazar launched a service project called “Happy Paws-giving” to collect food, toys and treats for dogs and cats sheltered at Santa Rosa County Animal Services.