As the end of the school year is wrapping up, Poly seniors had their final assembly on Friday, May 8. This year’s assembly was quite different from previous years, as it combined three Poly events that are usually spread across several different assemblies, into one. These events included familiar ones such as Poly’s Got Talent and Shark Tank in addition to a new event making its debut this year: Poly Beats. Introduced by Naomi Bobbitt ’27 and Zahra Collymore ’27, Poly Beats is a talent contest separate from the Student Government which “exists solely to promote musical acts,” said Bobbitt.
This decision was made by Dean of Students Jared Winston as a solution to figure out how they would fit all of these events into the calendar. “We look at the Assembly calendar every year during the summer as an administration, and we fill it in with three categories of assembly programs. One category of assembly programs is legacy and traditional assembly, another is school spirit-based assemblies, and [then] cultural programming,” said Winston.
This year, there was a surplus of guest speakers such as Jennifer Wallace, who spoke about achievement culture and Saul Malek, who spoke about gambling and the psychology of addiction. Winston stated that these assemblies, which were informative, made it increasingly difficult to preserve time for the rest of the assemblies. “Coordinating all of that can be really difficult,” said Winston. “Screening the presentations in advance, screening the performances in advance, [and] making sure it all comes together in a way that feels manageable is always a challenge.”
Despite the difficulties in planning, the event turned out to be a culmination of the talents of Poly students. The assembly started off with Shark Tank, a competition where students pitch ideas, businesses, and products, which featured seven different proposals. These ranged from Poly focused initiatives, such as an idea for a mixed martial class called the “Blue Devil Dojo” presented by Tess Levy ’27 and Bridget Young ’27, to an app titled “SectionZero,” that would help combat Ticketmaster fees and resellers taking tickets away from real fans, presented by Shane Goldberg ’27.
The event was emceed by Student Government President Anna Brandmeyer ’26, Secretary Lila Daniels ’26 and Vice President Henry Crowley ’26. Grade 10 Representative Sadie Hart ’28 said, “I feel like it makes sense to [combine the events] together, considering a lot of the talent acts are usually music related. I think it’s just inspiring to see how much talent and passion for arts our community has.” Some of the highlights of the Poly Beats and Poly’s Got Talent acts were Konatsu Iwai ’26’s captivating piano performance and a guitar serenade-turned promposal by Quinn Foley ’26.
“We made the decision to combine them this year on the seniors’ last day, because it’s a celebration of community. Both of those programs are student run and student driven,” said Winston. Due to the scheduling, seniors ended their year of a note of Poly school spirit.
