Shirley Gao, a cherub from Davis, Calif., woke to an odd, piercing sound. She sat up in her bed and heard another shrill buzzing noise.

“At first I thought it was a bomb,” she said. “Then I woke up a little more and was annoyed because I thought it was someone’s cell phone or radio or alarm.”

Curious to find the source of the noise, Gao hurried out of her room to the nearest common room.

A wave of relief swept over her as she saw several cherubs playing Taboo, one of the more popular board games on the third floor. The game requires a buzzer, and Gao soon realized the game was the source of the racket.

Journalism cherubs at the National High School Institute say planing games -- board games, cards and even punch pong -- helped them break the ice and make friends at Northwestern University. The games provide a moment to bond in a carefree environment, Gao said.

Maggie Love, of Libertyville, Ill., was one of the many cherubs to bring party games. She brought Taboo, Apples to Apples, Catchphrase and four decks of cards to the program.

“I saw on the Facebook group that people were bringing games, and I thought it was the smart thing to do to get to know each other,” Love said.

Apples to Apples was one of the signature games of the program, said Alex Jones, a cherub from Kansas City, Mo.

The game consists of noun and adjective cards. Each player places a noun card to match the one adjective card in the middle. A judge then selects the noun card that best fits the adjective card.

The game was so popular that even the instructors were compelled to join in on the fun after floor hours. Instructor Sofia Javed said that after a game of Scrabble, the instructors decided to seek out one of the cherub’s Apples to Apples games.

Cherubs on the second floor could hear the instructors’ laughter, despite the fact that they were isolated in the “cherub-free zone.”

“The instructors were so loud that I was tempted to go over and spit list them,” Daphne Hsu, of Cincinnati, said.

Cherubs said Apples to Apples sparked many of the friendships formed in the first few weeks.

“With Apples to Apples, no one’s asking personal questions,” Love said. “You get to see everyone’s personalities, joke around and find people who have the same interests without interrogating them.”

Andra Lim, of Orinda, Calif., said playing Apples to Apples with strangers can sometimes be awkward.

“When you play with family and friends they know what you mean, like when you put down cards that don’t make sense to be funny,” she said. “But with strangers it’s hit-or-miss.”

Gao believes that randomness is exactly what breaks the ice.

“It’s one of the wackiest things we’ve done after floor hours,” she said. “At 1 or 2 in the morning, everything you say is infinitely funnier.”