Robina Nguyen | The Monarch Ranger
High school students coming together to celebrate their first TEDx conference at North Toronto Collegiate Institute. Image Credit: TEDxYouth @NTCI executives
CANADA – On April 28, 2023, hundreds of students filled the school’s dimly-lit auditorium. Rubber soles scraped against the newly-mopped floors, hushed whispers bounced off the vaulted ceiling. A huge screen projects the TED slogan, red and white lights flickered across a rapt sea of familiar faces.
This April, North Toronto Collegiate Institute hosted its first TEDx conference in over 5 years.
Anyone on the outside looking in might expect a red collar worker in a tailored Saint Laurent suit to walk in – maybe the pantsuit-clad founder of a global non-profit or the bedraggled survivor of a shipwreck.
But the speakers who take the stage one by one look just like you and me — another nervous, seemingly unremarkable high school student wearing a headset and carrying a PowerPoint remote. You’ve seen their faces before — in the hallways or plastered on campaign posters, at the back of your physics class or in a framed choir photo.
But you don’t quite realize just how vivid and complex each passerby’s life is until you’ve heard their stories.
Grade 11 students Arissa Roy and Sara Kaboudvand co-organized the conference in the hopes of “authentically sharing [NT students’] stories and voices.” The event was held on April 28, where students gathered to share live TED-like talks and performances with the North Toronto community.
Arissa Roy is a Canadian youth activist advocating for equitable access to quality education. She founded Project Power Global, a Canadian non-profit that launches community events, fundraisers and rallies in support of accessible education. “Throughout my time at NT, I've met some incredible people with inspiring messages. I wanted to create a place for them to share it — kind of like [our school newspaper] but with public speaking and on a big stage.”
The TEDxYouth club was launched in 2022. Sara says that it took them over a month to get their TEDx license.
Sara Kaboudvand is a Grade 11 NT student. She loves learning new languages because it makes her feel like she’s “connected to something bigger.”
“I love when people try things they’re scared of because I have so many fears too,” she said. “I love learning and teaching and just hearing about people’s lives. I know that there are people in our school with incredible minds and I just wanted to listen to them talk.” It was what made the club’s close-knit community so meaningful to her.
Launching the club had nothing to do with making the event official or being featured on TED’s youtube channel. “I was perfectly happy with it being a school club for NT students to come share ideas and learn about public speaking,” said Sara.
One Grade 12 student’s scathing speech criticized Eating Disorder care and the lack of individualized treatment plans. Another student taught us the uncomfortable truth behind performative environmental activism.
“I chose to speak at TEDx because I loved to watch TED talks for advice,” says Hadasse Kernerman, a TEDx speaker at North Toronto. “Now that I’ve had a bit of experience, I can help people with the same things I’ve been struggling with. For me, that was balancing the things in my life. The process of learning has helped me a lot with figuring things out, and I think it might help other people too.”
Grade 11 student Julian Lewis discussed the future of AI in the digital age. “I chose to speak because I was already friends with Arissa,” he said. “When she brought up her new club to me, I thought it was a cool idea and it gave me a chance to practice my public speaking. I chose my topic because AI chatbots got a bad reputation from the start and I wanted to provide a different perspective.”
While some of the speeches may have seemed simple or spontaneous, they were written, memorized and practiced well in advance of the conference.
The speakers met once a week in room 223. They would crowd around the projector to watch TED talks or practice public speaking games.
Backstage production called for the efforts of equally energetic and passionate stage crew members. “[We used] lav mics on the speakers, which meant we had to make really quick changes,” said Lola Urosevich, the Production Executive of the TEDxYouth club. “We also had to add a monitor on stage for speakers to see their powerpoint slides. Right before the assembly, the computer crashed — it was very sudden and stressful because the audience was already filing in.
“But it was really fun,” Lola amended. “I enjoyed running the backstage portion because it was important to me that the speakers were comfortable before they went on stage. I gave a lot of hugs out that day!”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND LEARN MORE
This article won third place in one of our News Article Writing Competitions! Learn more about Robina Nguyen and our other staff writers here.
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