This past August the incoming Class of 2012 competed in House Wars, which is an event during freshmen orientation composed of a series of physical and intellectual challenges, for the esteemed Carnegie Cup.

On the night of August 24 – the Friday of Orientation week – first-year students stormed onto the Cut with their house colors and cheers for the Carnegie Cup.  Mudge House and the apartments of Oakland made up the pink team; Morewood Gardens yellow; New House green; Donner, West Wing, Resnik, Doherty Apartments and the Intersection were blue, and “the Hill” (made up of Hammerschlag, Boss, McGill, Welch, Scobell, and Henderson) was red. 

The preparation started after dinner, although much anticipation began before that.  Many had their entire body painted with their house colors; many from the Hill dressed as Spartan warriors; Donner first-years held water guns and water balloons, and one person even dressed as a banana.  The houses were divided into smaller teams to compete at each station.  The games played included limbo, trivia, shoe search, orange pass, watermelon pass, and ping-pong relay.

SHS sophomore Swati Varshney, a Morewood Orientation Counselor, described House Wars as "absolutely phenomenal."

With a series of events planned in a 29-page schedule throughout the week and especially events like House Wars, "this is the best orientation that a campus can provide," Swati said.

The parents of SHS first-year student Tianjiao Qi came to see House Wars as well.  When asked to describe what they thought of orientation, they replied: "our English is not very good, but the orientation is very good."

House Wars was sponsored in part by the Student Dormitory Council. For House Wars, many yellow-shirted SDC members were serving water and Gatorade to the first-years.

The Red team took the Carnegie Cup for the second year in a row.

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