Every Thursday night, students all across Charleston are tuned in to watch who will stay and who will get voted out of the Australian Outback on the popular television show Survivor.

Tonight, instead of watching from across the world, students can participate in a survivor challenge all their own.

A surthriver workshop titled “Survival Skills for Happiness” will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the 1895 Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Sandy Cox, assistant director of the counseling center, is the facilitator for the workshop.

The Surthriver workshops are designed to be both fun and educational, said Mark May, assistant director of academic advising and learning assistance.

The word “surthriver” is a combination of “survive” and “thrive,” May said. The workshops are designed by the Learning Assistance Center to help students survive and thrive in college, May said.

“Survival Skills for Happiness” will focus on the skills needed to pursue happiness, May said.

Other workshops include “Brain Benders” on Tuesday, “The Note Taking Challenge” on Wednesday and “Finding Information on the Internet” on Thursday. Each workshop is at 5:30 p.m. in the 1895 Room of the union.

“We try to follow the theme of the television show,” May said. “I will try and come dressed in my best jungle outfit.”

Each workshop this week will feature groups of students trying to complete challenges given to them by the facilitator of the workshop, May said.

“The challenges will be specific problems, and we’ll see who can solve the problem the quickest in regards to the skills they’ve been taught,” May said. “Depending on what night you’re there, you may find a camera in your face, pictures of exotic locations and people asking you what you think about teammates and opponents,” May said.

At the end of the last workshop on Thursday, many prizes will be raffled off, May said. Raffle tickets will be awarded for attendance and for successfully completing challenges.

Included in the prizes are five packages of 10 free games of bowling, two $5 gift certificates to What’s Cookin’, five free deserts from Dairy Queen, five free movie rentals from Family Video, free theater tickets to Will Rogers Movie Theater, 10 12- packs of soda, free food from Boxa Pizza and an Alpha treatment from the Razorz Edge, May said. Winners do not have to be present to win.