On Friday, Nov. 30, almost fifty MSFS students gathered in the program’s lounge for a competition of wits. MSFS Trivia Night featured twelve teams of four students each, all tasked with answering a set of 35 questions ranging from history to sports to the weird and wild. The event was organized by MSFS Student Representatives and required that teams be composed of a mixture of first and second-year students.
Paul Mithun, a first-year student representative, said the event’s goal was purely social. “The goal was to support mixing between first and second-year MSFS students. Sometimes all you need is to get everyone together in the same room.”
Mithun went on to explain the importance of strengthening ties between classes in a professional Master’s program like MSFS. “From a first-year’s perspective, it’s important for us to mix with the second-years because they’ve got a whole extra year of experience, not only with classes, but also in the professional sphere.”
Team Curious George, composed of first-years Colin Grubbs of the US, Ségolène Dufour-Genneson of France, Ana Calvo Langdon of Spain, and second-year Alex Kelly of the US, took first place. Dufour-Genneson says she wanted to participate to strengthen ties within the program: “Trivia Night just seemed like a really fun way to get together outside of the classroom setting.” As for her team’s victory, she was circumspect: “We may not be the best students in the program, but we do have the most random knowledge.”
Second-year student Julie Ann Burandt says that these types of student-organized events really bring the student body together: “Absolutely, it generates a lot of camaraderie among students, and it brings people together from both years. It really stimulates your creativity and it’s just fun to take a break and make each other laugh.”
Javier de la Pena Saenz, a first-year student, said that the event is a reflection of his experience thus far in MSFS: “The best thing about MSFS is that you meet people from all different backgrounds. My team included people from Spain, the US, and the Middle East.”
“Inherent in the competition is the need to have broad-based knowledge about the world,” says Mithun, weighing in on the international composition of the program, “and that really reflects our student body.”
Trivia night is the second in a series of student mixer events organized by MSFS student representatives. The next will be a formal ball, to be held on Dec. 8.