Vocalist Julie Poupon and violinist Adriana Rizk first planned to perform “I See the Light” at the University Residence Hall Association talent show as a duet. However, Poupon, who primarily sang in choirs growing up, found herself unable to sing alone. That’s when Gabi Patt, who already planned on performing a song by themself, offered to sing the song with the pair. At the end of the performance, the crowd applauded the spontaneous trio.  

On Wednesday, students from dorms across UT gathered in the WCP Ballroom to watch eight performances of original songs, existing music and diabolo juggling at the Kinsolving-Duren-Whitis-Court Residence Hall Council Talent Show. 

“I was nervous before starting everything,” said Kishan Patel, a freshman member of the DWC RHC, and the talent show’s host. “Then I saw that so many people came in to support all of (the) performers.” 

The talent show represented the culmination of months of work and preparation for Patel and others at the URHA. 

“A lot of things needed to be done at once, but everyone worked together,” Patel said. “Everyone was just so supportive.”

During preparations, Patel said the organizers faced many challenges but also learned a lot about creating events at UT. Challenges included funding the event, finding a venue and performers, preparing the technology and equipment for the performances and organizing the catering. 

“The biggest challenge was managing the bureaucratic process at UT,” Patel said. “But now that I know exactly what we need to do for a successful show and how we can involve more people, I would definitely start earlier.”

In the end, the event proved successful despite the challenges that arose, according to Patel and the URHA. 

“I’ve never done anything like this before, not even in high school. But it was a really cool experience and I’m just glad everyone had a really fun time at the talent show,” Patel said.

Gillian Knowles, the URHA vice president of marketing and outreach, said the URHA felt excited about funding the talent show. 

“We were very excited to have such a high-level event put on, especially by somebody who was so new to RHC and residence hall programming,” said Knowles. “We’re blown away by it. We loved every single minute of it.”

For students, the talent show allowed them to meet new people and show off their passions. Patt, a psychology freshman who lives in Duren, performed twice at the Talent show, first by themself and later in the trio with Poupon and Rizk.

“It’s difficult, especially in private dorms on campus, to see the people you want to spend time with,” Patt said. “This is one of the ways we learned how to connect with the community through the RHC. It’s a really great opportunity to meet people and do spontaneous things.” 

Knowles said events like the talent show help foster a sense of belonging for new students and bring the community together. 

“It’s really important to URHA and the RHCs that every student feels like they belong here on campus and at UT,” Knowles said. “By creating events that everybody feels some sort of attachment to, we hope to cut down on the imposter syndrome and make students feel like they belong here at UT.”

Editor’s Note: This story previously failed to include the involvement of Kinsolving Residence Hall in the production of the talent show. The Texan regrets this error.