The first Annual Upper School Talent Show was on November 7. This hour-long event featured nine acts involving students, teachers, and teams. Student government and Director of Student Life Jared Winston planned and organized the talent show, which showcased various skills and abilities and allowed participants to express themselves in front of an audience in whatever way they wanted.
The motive to create an Upper School Talent Show came from Senior Student Government President Reese Roaman.“We have been talking about doing a talent show for a while in Student Government. Over the summer, I was thinking of ways to bring the community together and allow people to display hobbies outside their “niche” Roaman explained. “So I approached Mr. Winston with the idea of executing a school-wide talent show.”
She also hinted at this idea in the Polygon article, “Meet Poly’s Senior Student Government Leaders,” written by Rose Filippazzo and published on October 22 of this year, where it mentions that Roaman’s plans for the school year “include more pep rallies, competitions, talent shows, candy grams, buddy opportunities between different grades, and a surprise she is planning but has yet to disclose.”
Roaman hoped that the talent show would help people realize skills that they hadn’t recognized as part of their identity and “learn, grow from it, and implement [it] into other sectors of their life.” She also added that it encourages others to learn talents or skills after seeing them performed.
When Winston heard Roaman’s idea, he said that it “aligned with who we [were] as a community” and discussed it with Head of Upper School Sarah Bates before adding it to the Assembly Calendar. Every year, the Assembly Calendar is reviewed by Bates, Winston, and the deans to fill it with legacy programs that have become annual traditions over the years. However, with the remaining openings, they can “introduce [things] that might spice things up in a way that’s innovative, but also in line with our cultural values as a school,” such as the talent show.
Winston believes the talent show to be “a really healthy exercise in vulnerability as well, building school culture.” He defines culture as, “something that’s unique to a specific community and reflects, in many ways, the values…the aspirations [and]…the expectations of that community.”
In Winston’s first year as the Director of Student Life, the 2021-2022 school year, he says that they had begun discussing the idea of a talent show but without much student interest. “It was our impression that the lack of student interest in participating in the talent show stemmed from a student need to come back to school as normally as possible and gain their bearings before necessarily putting themselves out there, artistically in front of their peers,”explained Winston.
However, in the Middle School that same year, a new event was scheduled titled Poly’s Got Talent along with the Poly Spirit Cup competition. Polygon article “Jared Winston Takes On A New Role” written by Ryan Geisler in 2021 regarding Winston’s new role as Director of Student Life covers this, writing, “…now Poly hosts the Spirit Cup, which features events throughout the year like Poly’s Got Talent and Spelling Bees, along with traditional volleyball, capture the flag, and many other team-building activities during this year.”
Winston explains that they went through with Middle School’s Poly’s Got Talent but not with the Upper School because “Middle School students are a bit more uninhibited.” He continues by saying, “Just because of the nature of the average middle school student, Poly’s Got Talent tradition is always a smashing success.”
More recently, Upper School interest for events such as the talent show have increased. “We did a survey last year, and students really enjoyed it when it was their peers on stage, […] so we thought that this would be kind of a new, interesting way for the upper school to…be involved,” according to Dr. Bates, advisor of student government.
Students may have gained more interest in events such as the talent show since the 2021-2022 school year due to the gradual drift from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown procedure. “Students have opened themselves up more year after year after year since we’ve returned to campus in a way that feels more like school as it as it typically is, and school as it typically is is a place where students shine bright,” Winston said. Many students now feel comfortable putting themselves out there artistically, but back then, the isolation of the lockdown could have restricted them from being willing to do so.
Leading up to the talent show, Poly halls were filled with anticipation. “I cannot wait to see who wins,” said Senior Mila Taendler. “The lead up has felt like forever!”
The tension ended on November 7th, after Freshman Arhan Sengupta took the stage and claimed first place! Sengupta sang “Hotel California” while playing the guitar. This was his second year winning after performing in last year’s middle school talent show.
Going into the performance, Sengupta’s mindset was simple: “I just thought to myself, what’s the worst that could happen?” he said. In fact, the best happened, and Sengupta was indeed a closing act for the first annual upper school talent show.
