SELAH GRIFFIN, Special to The Denisonian—
Abby Conturo ‘25, leads her videographer around the Slayter Auditorium in a full-length glittering gown and silver ankle boots while recreating a scene from Shrek 2.
“Denison Survivor” is the newest student organization to join the other 160 plus that are registered through the Community Leadership & Involvement Center (CLIC).
Noah Chartier ‘25 took inspiration from the reality TV show Survivor and has created an in-person version of the game on campus. The group is in their second semester or “season” of running, and aims to provide a space for people to meet and to have fun.
Chartier is the sole host and founder of the organization “largely on accident,” he admits. “I was just trying to do a fun, one time, game with my friends, but it went really really well.” He decided that Denison Survivor could be more than a one time thing.
“We’re running it very similar to the TV show Survivor. The way that it starts is that we begin with two teams of around ten players. From there they compete in different challenges,” he explains. “The team that loses has the next 24 hours to vote someone on their team out of the competition.”
Conturo has been given the opportunity to play a second time as a contestant after being the fourth player eliminated last semester.
“This season I’m going all the way in,” she said. After making it through the first half of this semesters’ challenges, her momentum refuses to diminish.
Proving her point, her performance for this upcoming week’s talent show-based challenge will be anything but disqualifiable. She has her fingers crossed that her rendition of “Holding Out for a Hero” will win plenty of points for her team.
Sarah Shoenberger ‘25, who was the runner up of last season’s game and this semester’s head of spectator engagement, encourages students to join next semester and ensures that there are positions of involvement for everyone, even if they’re not as outgoing as Conturo.
“Anyone is welcome to join to be a spectator,” says Shoenberger. “Even people that live off campus or that don’t go to Denison.”
“Specating Survivor is a lot of fun and it is not a hard thing to do,” says Chartier. Spectators are able to update each other on the events of the week by posting daily Too-Long-Didn’t-Read (TLDR) summaries along with heads of spectator engagement doing weekly Up To Date videos.
It is not uncommon to see contestants running around campus in a frenzy to complete the weekly challenge. Oftentimes spectators and producers alike will bump into each other on campus and “geek out” on the latest developments and drama, according to Chartier.
The current season started around a month and a half ago with 21 players, and they currently have 11 still in the running.
The Denison Survivor Discord chat has a compilation of over 80 Denison students that are either players, spectators, production members, or other positions that make up the organization.
Those wanting to play next semester are encouraged to submit their applications through the Denison Survivors Discord server, but are advised to fine tune their unrestrained competition personas to increase their odds.
The group is currently taking applications for next season, and encourages those interested to apply through their Discord server. Members of the production team are open for questions. Spectators are also encouraged to join in the activities through the Discord.