The Student Events and Activities Board will host the seventh annual NSU’s Got Talent on March 21 at 7 p.m. at Shark Circle.
Individuals and groups of up to eight students can apply to perform at the talent show by March 14 at 5 p.m. The first-place winner will be awarded $500, while second and third place winners will receive $300 and $200, respectively. If a group wins, the money will go toward their student organization. If an individual wins, he or she will receive a gift certificate to the NSU Bookstore.
The show will be set up like the NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” with a red neon “X” placed on the stage. If the judges don’t like a performance, they hit a button to make the “X” light up and the performers have to stop immediately. Past shows have averaged between 20 and 25 performances, ranging from singing to demonstrating sign language.
Lindsey Goldstein, senior education major and S.E.A Board’s vice president of traditions, said that S.E.A. Board is hoping for a larger attendance this year; around 300 chairs will be set up. A disc jockey from Solo Entertainment will play music, and attendees will be offered popcorn, snow cones, cotton candy and other treats.
Previously, students enrolled in a leadership class taught by Vice President of Student Affairs Brad Williams were required to produce a three-minute act for the show. Due to Williams’s new, additional role as dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies, his leadership class was not offered this semester.
Williams said that because student leaders won’t be required to take part in the show this year, “It’ll be really interesting to see [if] students will step up and lead.”
Williams plans on teaching the class again in the future.
Goldstein said, “I think we’ll have more serious contenders [this year] because students will enter the show to really compete, rather than get a grade.”
Last year’s winners, the Riff Tides, NSU’s first a capella group, will compete again, along with the Maasti and Bhangra dance teams.
Shona Joseph, freshman biology major and Maasti member, has high hopes for success.
“This year, there’s a lot more diversity [on the team], so that will make us more successful,” Joseph said.
Williams encourages competitors to look at NSU’s Got Talent as a way to become more involved with the university while having fun and educating audience members on their organization.
“If you win, it’s a bonus,” he said.
For more information, contact Goldstein at lg785@nova.edu or visit the S.E.A. Board office next to the RecPlex in the Don Taft University Center.
