Seniors Juhi Naik, Heba Alwan, Erica Wayland and Tara Vinzant recreated the reality TV competition series The Amazing Race for their MESA senior project. The competition was centered around Charlottesville, with contestants from AHS.

Naik: “When I had knee surgery at the end of last year, I was so much of The Amazing Race. I think I watched 10 seasons, and I came to school on the first day and our teacher was like, ‘Make a presentation on the things that make you happy,’ and I put The Amazing Race in it. When we started planning our senior project, I pulled out the slideshow, and there it was: The Amazing Race. My friends decided to help me and it was very lovely.”

Wayland: “The most fun part for me was watching all these teams run around with no clue of what to do. I was the puzzle master and got to conduct all these chaotic and complex puzzles and see [the teams] react and struggle.” The challenges varied from slide puzzles and historical trivia quizzes to scavenger hunts at the downtown mall and an Easter egg hunt.

Alwan: “During one of the challenges, the contestants had to find all ten Easter eggs, and inside each egg was a letter, and they had to rearrange the letters to spell ‘Stonefield.’ But, Jett [Hawken] guessed ‘Linden’s feet’ and that was a memorable moment in the show for us, because it wasn’t even close.”

Once all the episodes are edited, they will be uploaded to YouTube and premiered at a watch party at AHS with all the producers and contestants. Naik encourages people to come watch.