Recently on the Crimson Community, Orientation Week took place with 5 different events over the span of one week. The events ranged from a friendly Debate Competition, Scavenger Hunt, Trivia Night, Hackathon, and to top it off, an open ended Campfire session on Friday.

In order to accommodate as many students as possible, each event was held twice at 10am and 9pm GMT throughout the week.

Kicking things off on Monday, the Debate Competition drew together members of the Crimson Community from Crimson Core and CGA. With students hailing from Singapore to the US, they were to debate about whether or not they believe universities should set mandatory application essays for all applicants. Unfortunately for some unlucky debaters, they were assigned to a team arguing against their personal opinion on the issue.

A Scavenger Hunt rounded off Tuesday, through a series of tasks judged by the first team with the correct answer, and best answers. The first task was to submit a wild meme. Students then had to search up and down for Jamie Beaton’s Valorant handle, a children’s book writer (Sana Rafi), as well as designing a piece of Crimson merchandise within 4 minutes! If you look carefully on the Crimson Community for posts, you just might be able to find remnants of the Scavenger Hunt in various groups.

Trivia Night was what you’d expect – a whole night dedicated to trivia. Sections were split into general knowledge, music, history, Disney as well as an advanced general knowledge section near the end. Questions ranged from the origin of why the 1812 Overture was written (Celebration of Russia defending against Napoleonic forces), to the actor for Queen Elizabeth II on Netflix’s ‘The Crown.’

 The last competition took the form of Crimson’s Hackathon. Students were randomly assorted into teams, and had to develop an app or program to allow programming students to showcase their projects or work-based experiences through text, images or video. Given only 48 hours to try and complete a feat, students had to manage their time to each group’s needs. 

Rounding off the busy week, the Crimson Campfire was a chill and relaxed session for students to meet others. Some revealed their various antique collections, favourite shows and even gruesome medical stories told by Fawzan, the moderator. It was a nice way to end a thriller of a week.

When asked about her opinion on the events, CGA Student, Karin Rezkalla said ,“I had an amazing time during the Crimson Community Orientation Week events! It was a great opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, share experiences and compete for a much wanted 1-on-1 session with a professional in your field. Personally, debating was the highlight of the week and although we lost, we had a blast arguing in a highly civil manner about a highly engaging topic. Crimson Campfire was a chance to get to know my peers better and celebrate their achievements, as well as an opportunity to have a look at people’s crazy collections. Trivia night got the gears in our brains slowly rotating after the holidays and it was a hugely enjoyable night. Overall, I think these events brought us closer together and allowed us to get to meet new people in this brilliant community we’ve created.”