About Cor Thomas Jacobs (They/Them)
Background and Experience
Hello! My name is Cor, a 21 year-old student hailing from the Berkeley, California area. I grew up in El Cerrito, California with my two mothers and my brother.
I currently attend Occidental College in northeast Los Angeles, where I also work as a part-time inventory manager for a local game store and make weekly rounds to several other local game stores across LA. My work history involves extensive teamwork and collaboration, completing meticulous tasks with efficiency and accuracy, online retail procedures, and involvement in passionate interest-based communities from automobiles to card games.
​
During my three years at Oxy so far, it has been a priority to remain engaged with the larger community, using my individual interests as distinct angles from which to do so. As someone of Dutch-Indonesian ancestry, I am a member of Oxy APIDAA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Assocation), as well as a member of the APIDA Hall Themed Living Community. I have also been published in The Oz, Oxy's literary magazine, I am active member of Oxy's gaming and esports club as a player on the League of Legends roster, and I am the founding president of our new and rapidly-growing Magic: the Gathering club, which I have spent the last three years rallying and now officially lead with my beloved executive team of six. Check us out on Instagram @oxymtg!
​
Creative writing is another lifelong interest of mine, primarily expressed through poetry in projects such as my work-in-progress poetry collection titled MANUEL.
I have a keen interest in the exploration of identity, memory, and family history, and have developed a poetic style that blends fact and fiction and aims to embody a sense of "horror" through vivid imagery and visceral language.
​
MANUEL and my other projects can be found on the Portfolio page.
​
Why Games?
My gaming upbringing includes many beloved physical and digital titles, such as Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, League of Legends, and Sid Meier's Civilization among many, many others. While I still have a great deal of love for playing all of these games, what they have most importantly instilled into me was a recognition for the medium's inherent and unique power to bring people
together and naturally synthesize community. Between the bond formed with my brother through Pokémon battles or the lifelong friends I have made playing Magic: the Gathering and League of Legends, it has always astonished me how games, in any form, naturally create and reinforce joyful and lifelong friendships.
​
During my adventures across California and beyond, I have always made it a priority to encourage the development of these communities wherever I go by sharing my love for my interests with fellow veterans and newcomers alike. This mission has led me to find work at a community cornerstone game store, immerse myself in the greater Los Angeles TCG/LGS scene, become an active member of Oxy Gaming, and establish the Oxy Magic: the Gathering club.
​
It is no exaggeration to state that games guide my life. To me, every day is a new opportunity to engage with games----and that goes beyond just playing them. My daily life involves organizing and participating in card and video game events, designing new cards and mechanics for long-standing titles and my own prototypes, and discussing with my friends and colleagues what the medium has to offer that we are yet to discover.
​
Thank you for reading, and I look forward to working with you and making those discoveries!
​