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EDx Club hosted its first conference in two years last Friday. The on-campus club shows TED talks, discusses current events and encourages many students to share their perspectives on certain events or ideas.  

Friday’s event welcomed six student and three adult speakers, all presenting on personal experiences that audience members could relate to or learn from.

“We are holding this event to echo TED’s message: ideas worth spreading,” said Junior Arleen Liu, an organizer of the event.

Organizers explained how they chose people who discussed different topics so there would be a variety throughout the presentations.

“Part of the thing with TED Talks is that they are personal, so in order to engage the audience you have to be personal,” said Junior Ashna Reddy. “We look for a message but also how the speaker got there, so it’s kind of like a personal talk but also with a message that can relate to the audience.”

There was one TEDx conference last year, but this was TEDx Club’s first official conference, which they had to get licensed by the official TED talk company, said senior Sahaj Putcha, who is also a TEDx officer.

Senior Brandon Young gave a speech titled “One Voice, One Action. It makes all the difference.” In his speech, he reflected volunteering he had done to train a little boy with autism in soccer. He also spoke openly about his own life struggles such as living with ADHD and the lessons he has learned from his experiences.

Young advocated for making a change in the community by reaching out to those in need and making a positive impact on their lives.

Junior Kathy Rodriguez who attended thought that it was an eye-opening experience.

“I thought it was inspiring to hear stories of people who have experienced life changing moments. The speeches made me look at many things from a new perspective too,” said Rodriguez.

“Our school is so diverse and there are all these different thoughts and ideas that everyone has, so we just try to bring that together in this club,” said Putcha.

According to the officers, the desired outcome for the first official TEDx conference was to inspire audience members to share their stories and advocate for diversity in thought. Rodriguez confirmed that the conference did exactly that.

“I hope the audience will kind of have a deeper understanding of the world and themselves when they leave,” said Reddy.