OCS Staff Member Joins 'Survivor' Cast

Linda L. Spencer, an assistant director at the Office of Career Services, will be trying to out-survive 15 other contestants and win the $1 million bounty in the third installment of the wildly popular reality CBS television show, “Survivor: Africa.”

Spencer, 44, was selected from more than 50,000 applicants to spend this summer in the Shaba Reserve, Kenya.

The show will premiere Oct. 11.

Spencer declined to comment, and CBS publicist Michelle Hooper said contestants were forbidden from giving interviews before the show airs. She also declined to comment about Spencer or the selection process.

Hooper did say that the contestants trained for three days with bush experts, being taught “how to make a fire... what kind of food you can or can’t eat and how to prepare water.”

The African version of “Survivor” was shot on location for 39 days in Kenya. The reserve was also the location of the 1965 movie Born Free.

Spencer, a Boston native, was a director of African adventures at an overseas adventure travel company, according to her biography on the CBS website.

The contestants range in age from 22 to 57, and their occupations vary from a goat and cattle farmer to a behavior research analyst.

“It’s a really diverse and interesting set of people,“ Hooper said.

Winners of the past two “Survivor” installments were Tina Wesson, a 40-year-old nurse and Richard Hatch, a 39-year-old corporate trainer.

Spencer describes herself as “adventurous, competitive and determined,” in her CBS biography. And having spent two summers in African villages without any electricity or running water, she appears to be one of the best prepared contestants.

In the first “Survivor,” contestants were so hungry they were forced to eat rats. In “Survivor: Outback,” an exhausted contestant collapsed into a fire, suffering third-degree burns on his hands, and was subsequently disqualified.

“Survivors” are not new to Harvard. Nick Brown, a student at the Law School, participated in “Survivor: Outback” last year, surviving 10 rounds before finally being voted off the show. In his “final words” he cautioned, “If you’re going to apply for Survivor 3, make sure you’re ready, because surviving out here is real.”

Spencer is married, and has two young children.

In December 1999, Spencer was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and underwent intensive treatment, though she is now cancer-free, the website said.