Students of different nationalities competed in a campus-wide scavenger hunt Friday to promote the awareness of international education.
On Friday, the Office of International Services and Study Abroad hosted the Pangea Race. The race, designed similarly to the television game show “The Amazing Race,” led participants from clue to clue. At each destination, teams had to either answer a question correctly or complete a challenge to advance to the next location.
The race was open to all N.C. State students, and approximately 47 students from 18 different countries signed up to participate, according to Ethan Harrelson, the event coordinator.
Racers could either sign up with a team or sign up individually and be assigned a team at random. Four to five people comprised each team.
Genya Kalinina, a junior in marketing, raced for the first time this year with her roommate and two other partners. Kalinina said she was excited about winning and heard about the race from an email from the Office of International Services.
Harrelson said that a lot of the challenges were internationally themed, and some were even games from other countries.
Teams left Daniels Hall at separate times to ensure one team couldn’t just follow another team. Event organizers set up two courses with the same destinations but in different orders. The winning team had the fastest time.
Racers were allowed to ask people on the streets, use their smartphones or use any other method to come up with the answers to questions that tested their knowledge of different nationalities.
“The idea is for your team to be more competitive, it needs to be diverse,” Harrelson said.
Michael Ramos, a senior in political science, won the Pangea Race last year and came back this year to defend his title.
Ramos said it was important to have “a diverse team and group cohesion.”
The race covered all of main campus, taking racers from the Court of Carolina, to the rock wall in Carmichael, to the Memorial Bell Tower.
Teams included “The A Team,” which had two previous winners from last year’s Pangea Race, and the “Globetrotters,” a team composed of Polish international graduate students.
The race was free, and there were prizes at the end at Caldwell Hall, the last stop in the race.
In honor of International Education week, the Office of International Affairs, the Office of International Services and the Study Aboard office are hosting several events throughout the week to raise awareness for international education. More events being hosted during International Education Week can be found on the Office of International Affairs’ website, oia.ncsu.edu.