Madeira Hosts 2nd TEDxYouth Event

November 3rd 2022

Written by Catie O. '25

Madeira hosted its second annual TEDxYouth event, “Life Lessons,” where students spoke on topics ranging from personal growth to climate change, on Saturday, October 1.

This year, thirteen students took the stage to give TED Talks.

In keeping with the theme, “Life Lessons,” each student used their personal experiences to impart a meaningful message. Sarisa K. ’23 spoke about the topic, Stop carrying the expectations of others: If it’s too heavy, put it down. “The Buddhist concept of Tathata,” she said, “changed my perspective and allowed me to overcome the pressure of expectations and insults.” By sharing her own experience, Sarisa hoped to give her audience “a new perspective on how to live and deal with the world around [them].”

In her talk, Olivia T. ’25 discussed how the near-fatal experience of her father, who was a healthcare worker during the COVID-19 pandemic, taught her the “importance of community.” Her talk centered around “finding anchors in daily life, and how to be an anchor for others.” Amelia C. ’25 explained that her talk was about her health condition, her recovery from it, and “how it has shaped who I am as a person.” Antonia R. ’25 not only talked about climate change in general, but also shared her own experience with “taking real action.”

Not only were the speakers Madeira students, but the event was organized by students as well. Leslie L. ’23 discovered TED Talks as a middle schooler, recommended by her English teacher as a source to help her learn the language. It was only last year that she learned that TEDx events could be held at high schools, and she jumped at the opportunity to help make it happen. “All these stories are really powerful and thought-provoking. Some even reshape the way I think about the world around us,” Leslie said of TED Talks. She was an organizer for this year’s event as well as last year’s. “This experience made me passionate about hearing people's voices, and I believe that we should empower our voices as a young generation.”

Abby C. ’24 was the co-organizer for the event and participated in last year’s as a speaker. She also heard about TED Talks in middle school, where her teacher played a TED video daily. “Over time, TED has become more of a source for me to learn and expand my mind,” Abby explained. She was excited about the opportunity to participate as a speaker last year. “I not only trained my public speaking ability, but also learned a lot from other people's speeches,” she said of the experience. That was why, last spring, she and Leslie worked together to start organizing a second event.

Student presenters included Sarisa K. ’23, Helen B. ’24, Elshadai B. ’23, Amelia C. ’25, Nissi S. ’24, Ayana A. ’23, Sahana A. ’24, Olivia T. ’25, Antonia R. ’25, Layomi O. ’24, Josie W. ’24, Athena C. ’23 and Shapari O. ’23.

Several other students also helped with the event. Cece T. ’24 helped manage submissions, Sophia S. ’24 worked on speech editing, and Charlie H. ’25 was there to film. Ms. Zahradnik was the event’s adult sponsor, and Ms. Tonneyck helped with the production and ran tech for the program. Thank you to everyone who helped make this event such a success!