Zombies are outside the apartment ready to attack, while those trapped inside look to leadership skills and critical thinking to solve puzzles, unlock the door, and escape alive.

The Escape Room Experience, a new Emerging Leaders workshop never before done at San Jacinto College, is a collaboration between the offices of Student Engagement and Activities (SEA) and Career Services.

According to South Campus SEA Specialist Samantha Martinez, the escape room is one in a series of workshops intended to grow students’ leadership abilities with the help of challenging activities. This time, participants must survive a zombie apocalypse.

“Zombies are everywhere, and they are hungry for pizza,” Martinez said.

Participating teams on all three academic campuses will face the same escape room scenario. They are trapped in an apartment surrounded by walking dead and must cooperatively solve puzzles to progress toward escaping the apartment and defeating the zombies in a set amount of time.

Martinez said time slots on the South Campus filled up quickly with only a few times remaining; therefore, interested teams should sign up well ahead of the event. Organizers will assign individual participants a team after sign up.

Meanwhile, SEA created the Emerging Leaders series as a way to help students learn through interactive, hands-on activity-based workshops. Martinez said The Escape Room Experience is an opportunity for participants to hone a wide range of leadership skills including problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking.

“Trapped in an apartment on the 28th floor,” she asked, “can you rescue the pizza, get the gun, unlock the door, and defeat the zombies?”

The Escape Room Experience takes place: Nov. 5 on the Central and North Campuses and Nov. 7 on the South Campus. Times vary, and space is limited. Participants must sign up in advance. Further information is available at www.sanjac.edu/engage.