“Fossil’s Got Talent” rings true

Serena Bettis • December 2, 2015

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Sixteen students showcased their shining skills and strengths Tuesday night in the PAC as part of Fossil’s Got Talent, the annual show put on by the student council. Performers’ friends, family, and classmates all came out on December 1 to not only support and watch the acts, but to support the multitudes of clubs the participants represented.

The overall purpose of the talent show, aside from allowing students to share their passions with their peers, is to donate money to the winner’s favorite school organization. It is against federal policy for STUCO to give money directly to clubs at Fossil because they could potentially choose to discriminate against one club over another. Having students vote for other students who choose where the money goes to is a great way to provide money to clubs in need. Prizes consisted of five hundred, three hundred, and two hundred dollars, going to first, second, and third place winners, respectively. Places were decided fifty percent based on audience vote and another fifty percent on scores from judges Mr. Neal, Ms. Neal, Ms. Hudson, and Ms. Yeager.

Nikki Shinn reciting a poem. Photo Credit: Serena Bettis

Many students either sang, danced, or played the piano. Nikki Shinn, representing FRESH Club, recited a poem, Daniel Kim beatboxed for Mu Alpha Theta, and in support of FCCLA, Olivia Osborn showed a video of her aerial skills. Two acts involved ukuleles, with Lauren Creech playing and singing Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”, along with Alyssa Ankney who played while her friend Cale Gonzalez sang “House of Gold” by twenty one pilots. Jaden Ochs commented, “I liked Lauren Creech because she had a really amazing voice and I thought her act was just cute and well-practiced.”

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Lauren Creech playing the ukulele and singing “Thinking Out Loud.” Photo Credit: Serena Bettis

James Zheng performed a classical piece on piano, while Lars Worland went for a more modern song from “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Before his performance, Worland jokingly claimed he wanted to represent the Boys Swimming and Diving team for Mr. Morehouse because he “could really use an ‘A’ in chemistry.” Worland also finished his rendition of the popular movie theme by sitting on the piano, an act that caused the crowd to cheer with amusement.

Riley Thompson and Ryan Pehkonen both played guitar while singing an original song. Other singers include Mikayla Douglas, Maria Cuddemi, and Chloe Greer. Isaiah Bunya wore glow in the dark clothes as he danced, and Nikki McCartney and Gabby Actor performed a routine they learned at dance camp in support of Fossil’s Dance team. In an exciting mix of Contemporary Fusion Dance and Indian Classical, Shreya Pandit and Eden Senay danced to “Fortune Days” for the media center.

Lars Worland ending his performance of the “Pirates of the Caribbean Theme.” Photo Credit: Serena Bettis

In between acts, the technical crew showed videos of the performers explaining a bit about what they were doing, why they love singing, dancing, or whatever else, and what club they wanted to give to and why. Evan Thomas said that he chose Fossil Friends because, “I wanted to make a difference and I really like some of the special needs students in the school they make me happy.”

When reflecting on her performance Alyssa Ankney said, “It was fantastic. It was the first time I played music on a stage in front of people. I was nervous before we went on, but then I got on stage, and it was just really cool and I felt okay doing it.” Ankney also said she was confident with her quality of performance, and she had a lot of fun with her friend Cale.

Zane Donnan and Evan Thomas took first place with their rendition of “Trees” by twenty one pilots. With Donnan singing and Thomas on drums, they were a crowd favorite. Even though he was happy and excited about their win, Thomas also said, “I didn’t think we deserved to win because I wanted everyone else to win.” Most people in the crowd agreed everyone did spectacularly, too.

Maria Cuddemi came in second place singing Adele’s “Skyfall” for Key Club. When commenting on Cuddemi, Ankney said, “She’s amazing. Her voice is, like, goose bumps all over, crying.” Daniel Kim won third place for his beatboxing skills, saying that Mu Alpha Theta could make cool Star Wars t-shirts with the money.

Evan Thomas and Zane Donnan, the talent show winners. Photo Credit: Serena Bettis

Each student put in a different amount of time on their own performance, but no matter how much or little practice they got, everyone did very well. Thomas said, “Well Zane and I met up like a week before the talent show and decided to combine our acts, so we practiced together for about six hours.” Ankney, on the other hand said, “We practiced for a good week… last month. I kind of forgot it was a thing, so I called Cale up, and we practiced during lunch and at the first rehearsal. We switched songs after the week we practiced, too.” Despite their seeming lack of preparation, they were very comfortable with the song they performed and knew it well enough already they did not need extra time.

Mr. Hanauer performed some of his original songs on guitar while student council members counted votes and the judges looked over their scores. He made some jokes too, telling everyone that it had been six months since he last played a show and he can only remember three songs. At the end of the night when all performers stood on stage, awaiting their placements, there were no disappointed faces, only smiles and no one in the audience complained that it was a waste of their time, either. Students proved to themselves and others that Fossil most definitely has talent.

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About the Contributor

Serena Bettis, Editor-in-Chief

Serena Bettis, senior, is entering into her third year on the Etched in Stone staff as this year’s Editor-in-Chief. A four year journalism student, she has high hopes for Etched in Stone this school year, and wants to be able to guide the staff in achieving their goals as much as possible. While Bettis has become a much more outspoken person than she was when she started at Fossil Ridge High School, she still finds discomfort speaking in front of large groups of people (“large” being defined anywhere from 6 to 30), but is more than ready to grow in that aspect of leadership over the course of the year. Most of her journalistic goals for the year are not personal, but rather involve the entire program. She aims to further improve upon the look of the Etched in Stone website, which she spent countless hours on her junior year, enough for it to win awards before she graduates.

Aside from Etched in Stone, Bettis takes part in the school marching, jazz, and concert bands as a flute player, volunteers with Key Club, and is the Historian for the National Honor Society. She has also held a part-time job at TCBY for over a year, and now knows more than she needs to about the sugar content in frozen yogurt. In her spare time, which is often hard to come by, Bettis can be found reading for fun, lamenting about how none of the new Young Adult romance novels she used to love so much are good anymore, working on making the perfect French macaron, or binge watching her recent addiction, Game of Thrones. Music is a large part of her life, and her favorite genre is difficult to describe because she listens to many different bands. Some of her favorites include twenty one pilots, All Time Low, and Halsey, more alternative bands such as Issues and SWMRS, pop artists including Carly Rae Jepsen (“she’s so much more than “Call Me Maybe””), and Little Mix, and various songs by Spanish singers.

She is more than ready for graduation, and aspires to be attending college in Chicago by this time next year. Bettis knows that she wants to double major in journalism and foreign languages, with a potential minor in music, though she is undecided on what specific occupation she wants after college. Her best advice to someone who does not know what they are interested in is to simply join different activities and see what happens from there. “Eventually, sometime during sophomore year, journalism became the only class I wanted to go to, and even now I love it more than I used to love band, so that’s when it hit me that this was what I wanted to be involved in for most of my life,” she said. Another somewhat undecided goal of hers is to join the Peace Corps either during or after college, and she hopes that an experience in a different country with complete strangers might help her figure out what exactly she wants to do with her life.