March 19, 2014

By Tara Cavanaugh 

If you’re a fan of the Internet, you’ve probably seen a TED Talk: the videos of short, inspiring speeches feature famous and ordinary people with extraordinary stories. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Started as a four-day conference in California almost 30 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives.

This Saturday, March 22, Skyline High School will host its own TED Talks called TEDx Youth Ann Arbor. The event will feature 20 speakers from Ann Arbor high schools, and it takes place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you can’t attend, don’t worry: all speeches will be available via a live stream.

The event is entirely youth-driven, said Sara Duvall, a media specialist at Skyline who is an adult advisor for the event along with Huron’s Ivory Wright. The adults helped secure a license from TED. The student organizers held auditions, advertised the event and constructed a set for the recordings. Students will also record the live stream and will produce videos of the speeches that will be available on the TEDx YouTube channel.

The students wanted to create a city-wide event that would promote Ann Arbor’s youth voices. The speakers are students at Skyline, Huron, Pioneer, and Community as well as Rudolph Steiner, Father Gabriel Richard and Greenhills.

The theme of TEDx Youth Ann Arbor is [Decode] [Decrypt] [Decipher]: Our World, Our Future. Students will give talks in four sessions focusing on innovation, philosophy, introspection and interaction, and society.

Students who are working to organize the event are: Emilie Weisberg (Skyline), Joshua Na (Skyline), Cymone Croft (Huron), Isabella Demetral (Huron), Nash Vivekanandan (Pioneer), Lucy Passmore (Steiner), Chloe Weiss (Steiner), Katherine Taub (Community), Chelsea Racelis (Pioneer) Stephen Mitchell (Fr. Gabriel Richard), Samuel Weise (Steiner), Conrad Stoll (Skyline) and William Bishop (Pioneer).

The event had many sponsors: the Ann Arbor District Library, Skyline High School, the Skyline Communications, Media and Public Policy Magnet, the Skyline PTSO, Community Television Network, Neutral Zone, Fingerle Lumber, Anderson Paint, The Floor Trader, Office Max, Elmo’s T-shirts, Underground Printing, GFS Marketplace, Busch’s, Costco, Biggby Coffee and Barry Bagels.

The cost to attend the daylong event is $35 for adults and $10 for students. Students can also have a half-day pass for $5.

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