On March 6, students, family members, and friends from schools across the district gathered together in Mills High School’s theater to attend the district wide talent show, an annual tradition hosted by the United Associated Student Body (UASB) of the San Mateo Union High School District.
Brieanna Basegio, president of UASB, explains the idea behind creating a district-wide talent show, saying, “As a student council, we aspire to promote interest in students pursuing leadership roles in their own communities. We saw a talent show as an opportunity to fundraise for scholarships for students who want to attend leadership camps over the summer. But our other responsibility as a council who represents the district is to devise ways to bring together our many schools. A talent show does both—with acts from Aragon, Burlingame, Capuchino, Hillsdale, Mills, and San Mateo, it united us as a district while also allowing us to raise money.”
While organizing the event, each school representative took on a different job. Junior Isa Ng, Aragon Student Body secretary and member of UASB, says, “Aragon’s task was to provide volunteers that would work at the ticket booths while Hillsdale’s was to buy flowers for performers. With each school working together with our own little tasks, the preparation for the talent show did not cause us any stress.”
The show opened with a performance from Mills High School’s drill team. Mills Junior Bonny Lee says, “I noticed that, even though we all are part of the same district, each school has its own ‘culture.’ Our school does not have a dance team. Instead, a main part of our school is our drill team, and I enjoyed watching other schools see something different.”
San Mateo Senior Kimberly Tom, a dancer herself, commends the originality of the Mills drill team’s performance, saying, “Our dance team usually incorporates a combination of hip-hop and freestyle into our dances. My favorite part was seeing how unified Mills Drill team was, and then getting to meet them backstage as they introduced me to a different interpretation of dance.”
Senior Joshua Lee from Mills High School, along with a group of friends, says, “We call ourselves ‘The Makers,” and we danced to our own remix. To us, this talent show was a big deal because it is the first time we performed in front of other schools.”
Aragon senior Katie Kilcullen performed “Bright” by Echosmith. She says, “I chose this song because I had just learned how to play it on my guitar when I heard about the talent show auditions. On stage, I felt really comfortable, mainly because the crowd was super supportive of not just performers from their own school, but of every act.”
“September,” Aragon’s male a cappella team sang “The Longest Time” by Billy Joel. Senior Wesley Lee says, “This song was difficult to learn and accomplish. We thought the talent show would be an opportunity to showcase our hard work, and by executing the song, we hoped to gain more recognition.”
Capuchino High School senior Miki Solorzano decided to sign up for the talent show with her friends Molly Butler and Natalie Koenig, saying, “I played the guitar while my friends sang a medley of hit songs. This is our senior year, so we wanted to have a fun memory together before we part after graduation.”
When the show ended, Basegio was pleased and surprised to discover performers from the different school meeting and congratulating each other with flowers and hugs. She says, “I was worried that members of different schools would occupy separate sections in the theater. It was definitely a rewarding realization for me to see how undivided and unified we were.”
