Let’s get weird: Scav judges revel in oddball challenges

While examining the 2022 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt list, Gabi Garcia, AB'23, noticed a seemingly difficult task: Her team needed to send a spool of thread as far away from Chicago as possible. 

Garcia, who was preparing for an internship with United Airlines that summer, asked her intern group chat if anyone was flying out that weekend. Fortuitously, one incoming intern was making a quick stopover at O’Hare Airport on his way to São Paulo, Brazil. 

A member of the Snell-Hitchcock team met up with Garcia’s co-intern in Chicago and gave him the thread, which he then brought on his flight. Surely over 5,000 miles would be far enough to win the longest distance traveled from Chicago, right? 

“I think there were three different groups that managed to all get the thread to São Paulo, which was really wild,” Garcia said.

This year, Garcia returned once again to Scav, this time as a new judge for the 2023 hunt, which was held May 4-7.

Any UChicago student or alumnus can apply to be a judge, even if they didn’t participate in Scav during their time in the College. But typically, judges have Scavved in previous years and enjoyed the experience.

Scav, of course, is a 36-year-old large-scale, multiple-day scavenger hunt known for its unconventional challenges. In 2011, it set a Guinness World Record-setting status as the largest of its kind. In 2018, Leila Sales, AB’06 compiled the best stories of Scav adventures, highlights and lowlights in a book called “We Made Uranium!”

In many ways, Scav is the lighthearted embodiment of the “Life of the Mind” culture that UChicago is known for. 

With almost 300 items on the 2023 list, there were a variety of things for each Scavvie — students participating in Scav — to challenge themselves to find, program or even eat. 

Judging these items, which range from tracking down “an unnervingly lifelike chocolate chip sea star chocolate chip cookie” to procuring a postcard from the South Pole, can be just as challenging. 

The judges wouldn't have it any other way. 

“I think that everyone should Scav — there’s something for everyone in Scav,” Garcia said.

Shrouded in secrecy

The end of the four-day hunt is called Judgment. True to its name, Judgment, always on a Sunday, is when teams bring their items to Ida Noyes Hall to be judged. It’s also when Showcase items, which garner the largest number of points, are judged.

Sabrina Sternberg, AB’21, a returning judge, is among the many alumni who stay involved with Scav after graduating. 

Because many, if not all, items on the list are open to interpretation, Sternberg was purposely vague on the process of judging the validity of each one. All she was able to reveal was that she enjoys seeing the creativity Scavvies put into completing the assigned tasks.

“This is a process of the Judgeship that has a certain level of secrecy so I can't share much about this,” Sternberg said.

This year, Snell-Hitchcock’s team, Sally’s Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Scav Team, won for the second consecutive year. A total of 19 teams competed.

Though Garcia also emphasized that judges “operate kind of under a veil of secrecy,” she was able to reveal her role on the team: Scav’s webmaster, or as she’s been nicknamed, Cyber Horsegirl.

This year, Garcia used her coding skills to rewrite the Scav website, which she said formerly “looked fresh out of 2005.” 

Each judge utilizes their unique strengths. Sternberg’s task was working with her co-judges to organize and create the 2023 list and run Scav.

Hunting for a community

Once someone has been selected as a Scav judge, they remain one for life. But to be an active participant in the judgeship, judges must attend regular meetings in Hyde Park during the weeks leading up to Scav and be fully committed throughout the event’s four days.

Sternberg, who lives in Chicago, has enjoyed connecting with other judges, both in the city and around the world. She said many alum judges continue to stay involved with Scav to a certain extent, even after moving away. 

Many, Sternberg said, stay connected in order to be part of the fun and see the joy on the Scavvies’ faces throughout the Hunt.

“I stayed involved firstly because I love being a judge and I love the other judges,” Sternberg said.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a particular challenge for the Scav judges, as they had to shift to an entirely online format. 

Sternberg said that by combining a diversity of perspectives, from older alumni who helped launch Scav to current students, the judges were able to continue doing Scav, and even more accessible to a broader group of participants. The lessons the team learned are something they still utilize, even as Scav resumed an in-person format in 2022. 

Garcia and Sternberg encourage anyone interested in becoming a Scav judge to apply when applications open in October. The written application includes a sample list of 30 items. Upon completion of this kind of “mini-Scav,” selected applicants are then invited to interview with the judges. 

“We're a cool team and we always win,” Garcia said.

—This story originally appeared on the UChicago College website.