{"id":68194,"date":"2020-09-23T08:45:53","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T12:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=68194"},"modified":"2020-09-23T12:08:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T16:08:59","slug":"diversity-centre-stage-in-brocks-latest-virtual-talent-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/09\/diversity-centre-stage-in-brocks-latest-virtual-talent-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity centre-stage in Brock\u2019s latest virtual talent competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The iconic guitar riffs of Lynyrd Skynyrd, timeless words by Elvis Presley and unmistakable sounds of Bollywood highlighted last week\u2019s Brock\u2019s Got Talent virtual talent contest.<\/span><\/p>\n

The diversity could be felt in not only the variety of musical genres, but also through the students participating in the contest, with entries received from around the world.\u00a0<\/span>The event took place on the <\/span>Brock International Instagram account<\/a><\/span>, which asked students to share their talent. The top entries were put to popular vote from Sept. 14. to 17, with nearly 750 nominations cast over the four days.<\/span><\/p>\n

In third place for her heartfelt rendition of Can\u2019t Help Falling in Love, originally sung by Elvis Presley, was Sharifa Ahmed, a third-year Accounting student from Dhaka, Bangladesh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt reminds me of home,” said Ahmed of the song. “My parents and I would sing this song every time my younger brother randomly played the tune on his ukulele. It’s also my mother’s favourite.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahmed used to sing jingles for advertisements as a child back home in Bangladesh but doesn\u2019t sing professionally anymore. Now, she treats it as a hobby, singing in front of friends and family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the situation that we are all in right now, I just wanted to put some light out there,\u201d she said. \u201cSomething we can all have fun watching and bond over virtually.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In second place for her Bollywood style dance in front of Schmon Tower was Rani Hansalia, a second-year Media and Communications student from India.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hansalia, who has more than 15 years\u2019 experience in dance forms such as Indian classical, contemporary and Bollywood, performed a routine from the song Kabira Encore featured in the movie Ye Jawani Hai Deewani.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDance has always been close to me,” she said. “The stage is where I express myself. People use diaries about how they feel just to put down their thoughts, but my dance floor has been my diary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hansalia, who is studying online this year from her home in India, decided to enter the contest to be more connected to the University community. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was my best chance at feeling like I was right there, even though I wasn\u2019t,\u201d said Hansalia.<\/span><\/p>\n

In first place for his rendition of Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd was Alex Brooks-Potts, a fifth-year Business Administration co-op student from Burlington.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been playing guitar for around 10 years now,\u201d said Brooks-Potts. \u201cIt’s really more of a hobby, but my brother and I have recorded songs throughout our time playing together.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It was the first time Brooks-Potts participated in a virtual talent competition, and he encourages other students to participate in future ones if they get the opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to see such a diverse group of contestants with many different talents,\u201d said Brooks-Potts. \u201cI think online contests like this are a great way to interact with students given the situation we’re all facing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The top three finalists were rewarded with $75, $50 and $25 gift cards to Skip the Dishes, but their experience from participating was invaluable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe sportsmanship among all the participants was amazing,\u201d said Ahmed. \u201cWe were all voting for and congratulating each other, reaching out to each other privately just to show appreciation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brock International Services has intentions to bring back the virtual competition later this semester, with details to be announced on their <\/span>Instagram account<\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The iconic guitar riffs of Lynyrd Skynyrd, timeless words by Elvis Presley and unmistakable sounds of Bollywood highlighted last week\u2019s Brock\u2019s Got Talent virtual talent contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":68195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,1,4,38],"tags":[9501,159,7409,9500,9502,9503],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68196,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68194\/revisions\/68196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}