Talent is a skill that is not easy to come by, but this past Monday at West Anchorage High School, 12 students showed that isn’t the case for them. These skilled students wowed an audience of their peers and parents with singing, dancing, and yo-yoing at the West Talent Show.

A panel of “respectful nominated teachers,” judges, students, said the senior class president and host of the evening’s talent show, Karl Hickel. There are five judges, one judge, Temperance Tinker, has been chosen for the board three years in a row. Tinker said that every year the show gets more enjoyable to watch with “New contestants and previous performers show off their capabilities.” Even though the talent changes, Tinker said one thing that will always be the same is her “Terrible poker face”. Many acts are very different and, “It was hard to keep my face from reacting when watching them all” Tinker said. If a student messes up in their performance looking at the judges, especially Tinker, you could tell. Tinker said, “Many people thought the best part was watching my face.”

One contestant that Tinker and other judges were torn between for first place was Christian Mendoza. Mendoza, a first time contestant for the West talent show, performed a song called ”Someday.” Mendoza has been performing since seventh grade when he joined choir and fell in love with singing. After finding new artists to listen to Mendoza found the band called “The Strokes” and chose one of their new songs to perform. Mendoza performed this song to  “share a message” that he felt in his heart, and it won over most judges, by scoring two tens and a nine from a scale of one to ten. Mendoza believes the talent show will “Open opportunities for West kids to be noticed and show off what they got.”

A first time audience member, Alexis Roderick, agrees with Mendoza. Roderick believes that the show is, “An eye opener for most students and gets people attention for their abilities.” West is one of the most diverse schools in the anchorage School District. All of West’s students come from different parts of Alaska, and the world. Roderick believes West should show off more of their talents. Roderick says that, “That West students should be more open to showing off their talents and add variety to the show, not just singing and dancing, maybe some magic or cultural talents.”