Daniel Caccavale
On Wednesday, October 19th, the Association for Campus Programming (ACP) hosted the Homecoming Talent Show in the Tilles Center Atrium. It was a fun-filled evening, where eight different student acts competed for a winning spot. An open audition was held for all Post students the week earlier, and a different judging panel was in attendance to choose which acts would move on. After all the performances, the judging panel, made up of Jared Ciborowski, the current SGA President, Deirdre Moore, the head coach of the C.W. Post Women’s Basketball Team, and Jennifer Fuoco, the associate director of residence life, decided on first, second, and third place winners. The first place winner received a $150 gift card, the second place winner a $75 gift card, and the third a $50 gift card. However, what everyone was really competing for was a spot to perform at the Pep Rally that Friday. The Atrium was packed with many different people, ranging from Post students to on-campus officials and even a few proud parents anxiously awaiting their children’s performances.
After a brief introduction by hosts Eric Zirlinger, the senior assistant director of the Office of Student Life and Leadership Development, and Sarah Taylor, a Post student, the performances were off and running, all concluding with a wonderful performance by X-Factor, the C.W. Post step team. Although all of the performances were great, the judges picked Nicole Ferdinand for her amazing freestyle rap as the first place winner, Dae Michelle as the second place winner for her rendition of Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield, and Jacqueline Favaloro and Dontae Hawkins, who used his stage name iNTeLL for their performance, as the third place winners for their spectacular performance of Coming Home that they remixed themselves.
After the show, judge Jared Ciborowski said, “I thought the show was a great success. There were many different talents this year, and each of them was original. I enjoyed judging and hope to do it again in the future.” Sophomore education major Laura Fitzgibbons said that she “loved the X-Factor routine; they were amazing.” Freshman clinical psychology major Gabrielle Maldoando said, “Overall, it was a good experience, and I’m glad I went. I would definitely go again.” Freshman forensic science major Kaity Lopez also enjoyed the show, raving, “Overall, the show was great.”
Third place winners Jacqueline Favaloro, a senior journalism major, and Dontae Hawkins, a junior film major, were ecstatic after their win. “The talent show was amazing! Our performance was great; Dontae and I make a good team. I was hoping we would place because I have wanted to sing at pep rally since I was a freshman. When they called our names I almost died, figuratively of course,” said Favaloro, after her name was called into the winners’ circle. Hawkins was equally as excited. “I think our performance was great. We definitely killed it. Third is cool because now we get to go first at Pep Rally,” she said.
It is safe to say the talent show was full of great performances and a happy crowd. It helped bring in the first fun vibe of homecoming weekend.
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