Once the ten-minute timer started on Thursday night, students raced around Ford Salvatori Hall searching for rolls of pennies; it was just one part of the SC Survivor Club’s student-run, semester-long version of “Survivor.”

In an effort to bring fans of the 50-season show together at USC, Kylie Monterosso and Norah Wall founded the SC Survivor Club this semester, which combines group watch parties of new and old episodes of the real show and a student-run, semester-long version of the game.

The two sophomores used to meet together every week to watch the newest episode of the long-running CBS competition show “Survivor” and talk about the show’s top moments. They weren’t the only students with the same routine. 

“[We created] a club for either fans of ‘Survivor’ or the people who are interested in the show to get together both to watch the show and talk about it, but also to play a mock, mini version of the game,” said Monterosso, president of SC Survivor and a sophomore majoring in math and economics.

The original show typically follows 16 to 20 strangers in a remote location as they compete for safety and vote to eliminate their fellow contestants at tribal councils. At the game’s end, a group of the most recently eliminated players serves as a jury to select one winner.

As part of the semester-long Survivor-inspired game, Monterosso said 22 members are divided equally into two tribes and will face new challenges each week of the semester. 

The members have already participated in three challenges and tribal councils each. She said the first challenge was a list of side quests that gave points to tribes for tasks, including feeding squirrels around campus or getting former “Survivor” players to follow the club’s Instagram. As a part of the challenge, members of the club successfully convinced Janet Carbin, who finished fifth on “Survivor’s” 39th season, Island of the Idols, to follow SC Survivor.

The third challenge came at their weekly meeting Thursday night. The competition had both tribes split into two groups. One group was tasked with finding pennies hidden around Ford Salvatori Hall, while the other group built a boat using three sheets of aluminum foil. The tribe that sank the other team’s boat first, using the weight of pennies, won the challenge.

Mattice Ureel, a sophomore majoring in chemical engineering, said his group was uneasy about voting out another member this week because his tribe has been on a two-challenge losing streak.

Ureel worked with another teammate to build an aluminum foil boat that would withstand the weight of around 50 pennies and stay afloat in the Shumway Fountain at the center of campus.

“We used a lot of our engineering principles to build our boat,” he said. “But I think the majority of the contribution has to go to the side of our team who found the most pennies because that’s what ended up determining the challenge.”

Ureel’s tribe won as the members collected more pennies, securing its first immunity win of the semester, meaning they did not have to vote one of their own out. Afterward, the club’s leaders began the season 50 watch party by turning on the roughly two-hour season premiere that aired the day before.

Wall, who is majoring in electrical and computer engineering, said she was unsure how many people were interested in joining the club, but the eagerness of the members to actively participate in the challenges and watch episodes together multiple weeks into the club’s existence has excited her.

Ureel said that he enjoys the creative Survivor-style challenges because they stand out from the typical college experience.

“[SC] Survivor allows you to go outside your comfort zone, explore beyond what you would normally do in a day and have fun and laugh while doing it,” Ureel said. “It’s a moment of release to enjoy this thing that everyone here enjoys doing.”

Monterosso said production teams, who have filmed competitions at other schools, motivated her to found the club in the first place. Monterosso said the club is hoping to partner with media groups on-campus to film future seasons.