Thursday, July 22nd, was the Summer Night of the Arts. As it is almost always the case, the audience wasn’t very big, but it was a very lively evening. The host was our SGAP President, Nemo Agurcia.

     The opening act was Dr. Murphy’s comedy act, which has become a tradition in the Night of the Arts. This time he did a solo act about a pirate. He was very into his character, and he even asked the audience to follow him during the chorus of his song.

     After that, Dora Ortega, from the ELP, sang “Killing me softly” by the Fugees. She has a very pretty voice and it was a very nice act.

     Then there was a Tae-Kwon-Do act by Allan Sanchez and Eduardo Parisi, both FSU-Panama students at the moment, and their Tae-Kwon-Do group. They demonstrated their techniques in warm-ups, different combat types and at the end Allan actually broke a piece of wood like in the movies.


     Following this, Breyda Ortega, also an FSU-Panama student, and her partner performed a Salsa dance presentation. Breyda wore a red dress, very typical of salsa dancers, with high heels. It was pretty awesome that she could dance wearing those shoes!

     In between acts, Nemo was giving out prizes to those that were in the Summer Cookout, and to the audience. A lot of us won, including our dear Rector, Dr. Langoni, and others.

     The next appearance was that of the music group, Tocando Madera, lead by Yigo Sugasti and Gonzalo Horna. They delighted us with their most famous songs, including the very well-known Vampiro Abstemio.

     The FSU-Panama Student Organizations came next to give out a series of awards. The Environmental Club gave the “Member of the Semester” Award to Angélica Wong and Verónica Paddy. Next, the Student Government (SGAP) gave three awards to those members who were leaving to the States this semester, which were Melissa Lam, Angélica Wong and Xiao Wei. They also gave out a very special award, the “Seminole of the Year” to one of the best professors this university has ever had, Dr. Silvio Sirias. This award was not only for his excellent work as a Faculty Member, but also as a thank you for all the encouragement and support he gave to all his students, and even those who weren’t. Nemo and SGAP Vice-president Thomas Booth presented very moving speeches when they presented the award. Unfortunately, Dr. Sirias couldn’t be there to receive it, so Eloy Benedetti accepted the award on his behalf.

     The night ended with two musical acts. First Stephanie Pragnell and Francisco Garcia played some songs accompanied by their acoustic guitars. They sang mostly old Jewel songs, like for example “Hands,” and “Have a little faith in me.” Later on, Francisco sang solo, now playing both guitar and harmonica.


     We had a blast in this Night of the Arts and hopefully the Fall Night of the Arts will have a little more audience, and will be just as good, if not better.


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