On Saturday, Jan. 20 in Frazer lobby, the MSMS students had the opportunity to participate in an exhilarating activity involving coded quotes and deciphering them. Arranged by Thomas Robinson, a member of Frazer’s residential staff, the CryptoQuotes puzzle activity had numerous participants and each student who attempted to crack a code discovered something new about working as a team and using logic to solve seemingly impossible riddles.

Robinson directed this activity based on one of his favorite pastimes: reading the newspaper.

“While previously conducting this activity, I have noticed the “CryptoQuote” section.  I found this section of  the newspaper to be interesting, thought provoking, and somewhat of a challenge to be conquered. A significant amount of thought goes into attempts to present MSMS students with fulfilling activities or programs. The ultimate conclusion for deciding upon an activity or program proposal follows a course of instinct and inspiration,” Robinson said.

Devin Chen found that the activity was “fun yet challenging” and he was able to not only crack a code, but also learn more about the importance of cooperating as a team.

“When a code was cracked, there was a great amount of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment even though it was simply a puzzle. Working in a team setting really helped as it gave various perspectives on a common puzzle. Not only this, but it was a great bonding experience,” expressed Chen.

Junior Loveish Sarolia found the activity especially difficult, but was similarly able to succeed with the help of his friends.

“At first, solving the puzzles was difficult, but soon after I started, the puzzles became easier to solve.  I didn’t really solve a full quote by myself, I kept getting help from others around me, but it felt good when I finally finished one,” Sarolia said.

Activities such as these can also provide insight into the importance of encryption–or the absence of encryption–in the world we live in today.

Robinson describes his thoughts about encryption in modern technology. “It severely grieves me every time I hear about a failure of encryption techniques when hacking activities prevail within certain societal operations. This grief is elevated when it becomes apparent that the person [or persons] responsible for the hacking activities are going to escape all accountability and consequences for their activity.”

MSMS students thoroughly enjoyed challenging themselves to cracking codes and working as a team to discover exciting and interesting quotes.