By: Sherry Xiao
On Friday, April 30, parents and schoolmates gathered at Gomes Elementary School to watch MSJ’s Class of 2014 Talent Show. The event, emceed by the four class officers, boasted 22 different acts from sophomore performers. This year is the second year that the class hosted a talent show, and so the sophomore officers introduced a competition segment of the show in addition to the usual exhibition segment. Winners of the competition were selected by combining the scores of judges Connie Chen, Tarang Patel, and Nealay Vasavda with audience votes.
Amber Ma came in first place among the ten exhibition acts and was awarded a cash prize of $75 for her vocal rendition of Yesterday by Leona Lewis. Ma said, “I’m really surprised [that I won] because I was competing with all these amazing, talented people… This was my first time competing and it’s really a great experience.” Aaron Ching and Jessica Zhang shared the second place prize of $50, awarded for their performance of We’re in Heaven by DJ Sammy, which featured Ching on piano and Zhang singing. Alton Lin and Austin Lee, also a piano-vocal team, were awarded third place and $25 for their version of Ordinary People by John Legend.
Both the exhibition and competition sections were comprised of vocal and musical performances interspersed with dance numbers. Sophomore Class President Tammy Tseng said, “Many of the acts from last year came back and improved… this year the acts were more mature and diverse.” The maturity displayed in the high quality of the acts as a whole and the diversity in acts was duly noted and enjoyed. The vocal performances included ballads, pop, ukuleles, and pianos. The dance performances ranged from jazz to hula and even included a comedic boys dance. The audience of friends and family supported the performers, 
clapping to the beats of songs and cheering for their friends and relatives on stage.
The talent show provides the sophomore class a place to showcase talents, raise money to fund future sophomore class events such as homecoming and junior prom, and build a sense of class identity. Sophomore Stage Hand Amy Hoffman said, “We really came together and worked as a group… rehearsals ran much smoother and just in general there was a lot more unity.”
