Inspired by The Greatest Showman’s award-winning song, “This is Me,” Brianna Diaz junior liberal arts education, Joni Belonio, sophomore liberal arts major Grace Johnson, sophomore public relations major, and fellow singers came together to recreate the performance on stage and win this year’s Talent Show. Belonio explained that her joy at winning increased all the more when she saw the shock and excitement on the faces of her group members.
“I planned this for them. For me. For everyone," she said. "I wanted for everyone to have the song, This is Me, as their anthem. After we finished, I believed that we accomplished what needed to be done. And winning was just the nice little cherry on top.” This year, instead of having a panel of judges decide on the winners, the winner was decided by the audience's vote. Social Vice President Jake Strauss felt that method only allowed 3-4 people to express their thoughts. “When we allow the audience to vote, we have more opinions,” he said. Other acts of the night included a video submission by senior marketing major Rich Abernathy freediving, a hula hooping act by freshman international studies major Audrey Kramer and a live portrait painting by sophomore fine arts major Darcie Denton. There were also other music acts by senior general studies major Neicie Rice and junior biology maor Marchley Registe, junior music education Alissa Tanguay and junior medical labortory science Jedel Butoy. Strauss gave special thanks to both the acts and the Audio Visual (AV) team who “did an amazing job and were so helpful.
They really ran the program and it could not have happened without the performances or AV department.” Although this is the last Student Association (SA) event Strauss will be in charge of, it’s not the last event of the year. He will also be helping out with the This Is Us event and Strawberry Fest while working on other projects he’s involved in. “The work is not done, but it does feel good to be done with the SA events," Strauss said. "It’s been a fun year and it has felt worth it.”