Four years ago, an idea sparked between a couple of freshman friends—John Greninger ’25, current student body president, and Noah Norman ’25. The two noticed that other colleges have organized games based on the popular reality tv show “Survivor,” and were interested in creating a Covenant-specific spin on the concept.
Photo taken by Covenant Survivor team
“Other college campuses do ‘Survivor’ in their own ways,” Greninger said, “but the one that [Norman] knew personally was Clemson Survivor. They have an Instagram where you can see all the challenges, and we copied that format.”
Greninger and Norman’s idea was realized the next year, Fall 2022. Greninger was class president, in his second year on the senate, and through this position managed to get the ball rolling. He said, “Going into sophomore year, I was like, ‘oh, we could actually make this a thing.’ So that was the idea, taking challenges from what we saw online or what was in the show.”
At first, the event was only open to sophomores and was called Sophomore Survivor. In an effort to get more participation in 2023, they renamed the event to Covenant Survivor and opened it to everyone. Interest skyrocketed, and they had to pare down the numbers based on the competitors’ written applications. “We had 50 applicants, so we had to cut it down to 20,” Greninger said. “This year we only had 30 applicants, and we cut it down to 18.”
This fall, the team focused on improving the production. Greninger said, “This year we brought more of a camera crew, aiming for higher video and post production quality.” He had a lot of fun running the livestream and seeing how the live audience, survivors and online audience interacted. He said, “The survivors were making inside jokes with the people that were watching on the live stream, and it was fun to be a part of that once I joined it.”
This year’s winner, freshman Ainsley Stanfield ’28, also appreciated the community building aspect. She said, “I’ve been able to retain friendships from playing, and it’s been cool to talk to people I wouldn’t have gotten to talk to before.”
When reflecting on her experience competing as a freshman, Stanfield said, “I kind of accidentally perceived everybody else as freshmen because they were all new to me, so in my mind we were all on the same playing field. There may have been an advantage to being a freshman, I’m not sure—there were definitely more of us.”
Stanfield remembers feeling relieved when she had achieved victory. She said, “Libby was on the jury, so she got to vote at the end. She looked at me and she was like, ‘You got it.’ In that moment, I felt tons of relief and was like—it was all worth it.”
Since the students who have organized the event these past three years are graduating, there are questions about how the event will change in the future under new leadership. Greninger said, “Since I’m graduating, the hope is that Covenant Survivor will come back in some capacity, though it won’t be run by the same people. We have some plans in the works for people who might take it over.”
Thumbnail photo taken by Covenant Survivor team