Singing, dancing, a one-man band and an electric guitar rendition of the War Hymn were among some of the acts seen Saturday night at the third annual Aggies Got Talent event.
The winners of Aggies Got Talent 2017 were electrical engineering senior Samantha Garcia in third place for singing “Que Creias” by Selena, geophysics junior Adrian Rangel in second place for playing the Aggie War Hymn on his guitar and the Indian Cultural Dance Team Akh Mastani in first place with a choreographed dance.
Put on by the Student Government Association, the night included a silent auction as well as the main events.
Adrian Rangel, who played the guitar for the show began playing in middle school, put on a  show that caused fans to sway in their aisles as he played the War Hymn on his electric guitar.
“There’s a lot of talent here without a doubt,” Rangel said before going on stage. “I’m eagerly awaiting my consolation prize and yeah just [waiting] to saw Varsity’s horns off.”
Courtney Kiolbassa, English junior who read a spoken word poem she wrote, has been writing spoken word poetry for a year and drew her inspiration from her own life.
“The inspiration is that I want to do everything and I realize that there is a huge desire in my heart to be involved with everything and meet all of the people that I could meet,” Kiolbassa said. “There’s recognition that this is impossible but that shows the tension between what is possible and impossible and finding the balance between them.”
Economics senior Carlos Machuca, who started singing and playing piano at the age of 10, sang “Come Fly With Me” by Frank Sinatra and said his inspiration in his singing comes from his grandfather.
“He was the one who got me into this kind of Jazz style music and then eventually heard Frank Sinatra and fell in love with [his music],”  Machuca said.
Machuca said the audition process that got him to Aggies Got Talent was casual.
“It was really laid back, they had it in Rudder tower in one of the smaller rooms and you brought your instrument if you had an instrument and then you did your act and they notified us sometime in November,”  Machuca said.
Emily Orr, a communication sophomore who sang Adele’s “When We Were Young,” said that she plans on continuing her singing and writing after college.
“I’m getting ready to get my courage up to record an EP and maybe try to do that and get it released and do that as much as I can in college and definitely continue after,” Orr said.
Orr and Machuca both said that events like Aggies Got Talent are good opportunities for artists to find their creative outlet and meet others like themselves.
“It’s a good outlet, it’s a good opportunity to play and I think it’s cool that A&M opened up Rudder Auditorium and supported the arts,” Orr said.
Rangel said that he believes there is importance in events like Aggies Got Talent at A&M.
“It’s to really remind A&M that it is more than just a STEM magnet and more than just somewhere to learn,” Rangel said. “It’s somewhere to live. And you can see by all the passion that is here and all of the work that has gone into things like this.”