After enduring 26 days of grueling competition and braving the harrowing elements of Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands, Eva Erickson GS managed to outwit, outplay and outlast her fellow castaways on “Survivor” until the final moments of the show.
Erickson, a rising fourth-year graduate student in fluids and thermal sciences, took second place during the show’s season 48 finale on May 21, just barely missing the million-dollar prize. While she did not walk away with the title of “Sole Survivor,” Erickson cinched runner-up and amassed a loyal fan base in the process.
“It was just such an amazing experience, and to do that in the middle of my PhD at Brown here was not an opportunity I ever thought I would have,” Erickson told The Herald.
When Erickson came back to Brown, she was surprised to find that her time on the show had transformed her into a campus celebrity.
“I certainly did not expect it to be as big as it was,” she said. “It’s crazy walking through the (Engineering Research Center) here where I work and seeing pictures of me on the screen and people recognize me.”
In February, Erickson made headlines for being the first openly autistic "Survivor" contestant. She said that the spotlight has offered her a platform to raise awareness about her condition.
“My social media following just blew up overnight, especially after episode five, where I got to share my story,” she said. “It’s such an amazing thing to have a voice that people listen to.”
In the fifth episode, contestants competed in a puzzle challenge. As Erickson attempted to complete the puzzle, she began feeling overstimulated.
“My biggest enemy was my own brain,” she said. “I couldn’t get past this mental block of ‘why can’t I do this?’”
Erickson said she “couldn’t use the strategies that I use in my real life to help me process and deal with being overstimulated because it was such an intense situation that I couldn’t step away from,” she added.
Erickson pushed through and ultimately finished the puzzle, but broke down crying soon after. After being comforted by a fellow contestant, Erickson revealed to the group that she was diagnosed with autism and explained how she can have episodes when she gets overstimulated.
Her speech brought Jeff Probst — the host of "Survivor" — to tears for the first time in 25 years of Survivor history.
Now, Erickson uses her platform of over 140,000 Instagram followers to create videos educating her fans on autism and dispelling common misconceptions about her condition.
She also uses her social media following to boost Fiji Hockey Club, a "Survivor" merchandise website she created to benefit Minnesota Special Hockey. The organization gives people with autism and other developmental disabilities the opportunity to play hockey in an environment tailored to their needs.
But Erickson said that although having autism made her experience on the show a part of "Survivor" history, she wants viewers to know that it isn’t the only thing that defines her.
“I have this whole other side,” Erickson said, explaining that she is an athlete, a referee and a PhD student.
“I’m very grateful that the parts of my story that were shown had such an impact on other people, but there is always a little disappointment when you’re summed up to one thing,” Erickson said. “The title is autism, but underneath that, the subheading is so many other things.”
Among those subheadings is her ability to strategize, Erickson explained. As a contestant on the show, Erickson relied on the same methods that she used as a student playing the drinking game version of "Survivor" with her friends at Georgia Tech.
When playing with her friends, Erickson usually “picked an ally early in the game and stuck by them to the very end,” she said. “So it’s fitting that I used that exact same strategy in the real game because that’s really who I am — I’m a very loyal person.”
Erickson’s strategy proved unusual for a game known for cunning and manipulative tactics. “I’m playing this game with a team, and I’m going to get to the end with this team,” she explained.
Her strategy not only got her to second place, but also allowed her to make connections with many fellow contestants, including first-place winner Kyle Fraser.
“My team won, Kyle won — and he was one of my closest allies out there,” Erickson said. She added that Fraser is now “one of the people I’m closest with in my life.”
Amber Marcus-Blank is a senior staff writer covering undergraduate student life. She is a sophomore from outside of Boston studying Political Science and Public Health on the pre-law track. She is interested in working in politics and journalism in the future and enjoys playing soccer and making playlists in her free time.
