By Nicole Chen, DECA director of public relations
Approximately 175 students attended TEDxHarkerSchool 2017, an event that featured innovative speakers, interactive booths and industry mentors in the Nichols Hall auditorium.
This year’s event, themed “Creating Conversations,” featured four speakers: Constellation Research CEO Ray Wang; Inboard CEO Ryan Evans; CEO of Stop, Breath & Think, Julie Campistron; and founder and president of Mutineer Magazine, Alan Kropf. Aside from the four professional speakers, Andy Semenza, grade 12, spoke on the complexity of specialization.
TEDx talks ran throughout the day and showcased a wide variety of topics. Evans, who spoke at the event and hosted a booth, illustrated the shift in personal transportation vehicles.
“My younger sister was in a wheelchair and getting around the city – it’s terrible, it’s a horrible experience,” Evans said in an interview with Harker Aquila. “We started to realize with battery technology, reducing costs, motors improving with controllers and electronics, there’s opportunities to take things like electric wheelchairs that cost $25,000 and now you can [sell] it for $2,000. Our big thing was answering the question of how to give mobility to everyone, and I think that was the big inspiration why.”
Students also had the opportunity to visit seven booths that featured Bay Area technology companies, including Giacomo ONO 3D printer, Serafim Keybo, Inboard, Sesame, Nomiku, Conduit Sports and Netgear.
Additionally, the event included a mentor luncheon in the auxiliary gym, where students interacted with industry professionals in various industries around the Silicon Valley. Mentors talked about their own experiences in their respective industries and answered questions that students had.
“We would like to remind you that in life, your best resource is yourself, and your second best resource is the people around you,” co-curator Anooshree Sengupta, grade 12, said in an interview with Harker Aquila. “Engage the world, innovate, challenge social norms and make a difference.”
For more information about future events, visit TEDxHarkerSchool’s official website here.
About TEDxHarkerSchool
TEDxHarkerSchool aims to spread cutting-edge ideas throughout its community and reach out to embrace the culture of Silicon Valley, a place where breakthrough concepts are supported and realized. We provide guidance for some of the brightest minds of the new generation – the future of what TED stands for: technology, entertainment and design. With the help of our corporate booths, speakers and mentors, TEDxHarkerSchool supplies the unique toolkit that enables our audience to imagine, innovate and inspire.
We are a completely student led initiative, having students curate the event, find speakers, run activities and bring awesome innovations to our students. Our goal is to bring students to greater intellectual heights. We hope to lead students to wisdom, revolution, innovation and passion. TEDxHarkerSchool fully believes that young people will make positive change in the world.