First-Years Battle It Out at Freshman Feud

On Saturday night, freshman blocking groups gathered in the Cambridge Queen's Head Pub to compete in Harvard spin-offs of popular game shows.

The teams battled it out in rounds of Newlyblocked, Minute-to-Win-It, and Freshman Feud. The event was funded by the Freshmen Class Council (FCC), a newly formed subdivision of the Undergraduate Cou­­ncil that aims to finance social events for the freshman class.

While playing Newlyblocked, participants were tested on how well they knew their blockmates. Minute-to-Win-It required freshmen to complete trivial tasks (such as stacking chapstick tubes with chopsticks) in under 60 seconds. Freshman Feud tested students' knowledge of Harvard trivia.

"The event was an attempt to get [FCC's] name out there so that people are aware that sources do exist for social funding on campus," said Alejandro A. Jimenez Jaramillo '15, a member of the FCC who hosted the evening's activities.

In the future, the FCC plans to provide funding and support for student-proposed social events. "If anyone has an idea for an event...we will be distributing money to make it happen if it sounds reasonable," said Jimenez Jaramillo, who added that events need to attract at least 50 freshmen in order to receive funding. "You can have the event and then ask us to pay you back for it if it had over 50 freshmen, or you can ask for upfront funding."

Valentina I. Perez '15 participated in Newlyblocked with her blockmates and linkmates. "I'm happy with how we did because we knew some random things about each other," she said. "I would definitely look forward to other things like that."