Academy Holds 6th Annual TEDx Event

By ALEX LIM and MARVIN SHIM

On Feb. 2, TEDxPhillipsExeterAcademy held its 6th annual TEDx speaker event in the Bowld. This year, speeches centered on the theme “Genesis” and students spoke on topics that ranged from biometric data to identity. The event featured six speakers: upper Elaine Qiao, lower Akshara Sandilya, lower Leonardo Lombardi, upper Tania Luchack, lower Sloane Cooper, and lower Robin Dao. The organizational team consisted of twelve different members, with Assistant Director of Student Activities Kelly McGahie serving as co-organizer.

The TEDx organizational team was in charge of managing the event, but the members also served as judges for the application process and coaches for the nominated speakers. Upper, executive board director, and 2022 speaker Jaansi Patel said, “We pick the organizational team. They are the people helping with organizing content, coaching, graphics design, technology, and social media. Together, we picked the speakers, went through helping them to write their speech from start to finish, and coaching them during rehearsals. It’s a big time commitment, but it’s very fun as well.” The team managed to create great chemistry that eventually catalyzed a successful event. 

Luchak described the process as an applicant: “I remember nervously walking into the library, giving my little promo part of the speech, and then just hearing great feedback from the selection team. It was just quite an exciting decision because I remember it was the last day of the fall term when they announced who’s going to speak, and I got the e-mail. It was a nice end to my first term at Exeter.” 

On the other hand, Patel explained, “It’s definitely very challenging when there are so many talented people applying, but it’s also a great experience just to be able to see all the unique experiences and ideas that people bring. And people have done talks on topics that I never would have thought of before. So it’s really nice to be able to give other students a voice to share ideas that they have or work that they’ve done.”

Taking on the ethos of discovering “ideas worth spreading,” TEDx presented several TED Talk-like speeches led by six selected Exeter students. Each speaker presented subjects that stretch from vastly different genres and notions, demonstrating their passion for their topic of interest, enlightening others of comprehensive ideas, and explaining the importance of genesis in society. The topics range from genopolitics to feminism to knitting, traversing a diverse world of concepts into six presentations. 

“[February 2] was like a whirlwind of various events. I remember being very nervous the whole day and running from the dance company to prepare in my dorm. But I think the fact that we had rehearsals twice a week helps me to come already prepared,” Luchak recalled. “It’s kind of a stimulus to learn the speech and divide it into chunks in order to be prepared. It was challenging at times but at the end of the day, we were all ready because we put a lot of work in.”

Dao reflected on his experience as a speaker presenting in front of a near full auditorium, saying, “I found the experience rejuvenating. I think it’s a great opportunity to share such an experience with so many other people. Honestly I felt comfortable onstage,” he remarked. 

Prep Jade Yoo, an assistant graphic design director, continued, “We spent a lot of time preparing and a lot of effort went into organizing the event, so it was thrilling to see it all come together. I think the whole community was generally excited to watch their friends and peers speak.”

“It’s really amazing in that it gives students a platform to speak about things that otherwise they might not have a chance to share with the community,” Patel said. “When I spoke in my prep year, it was a very formative experience for me even though I had experience with public speaking. Before that, I had never really spoken to this large of an audience to people of my age or my peers.”

  Dao also described, as per his own experience with TEDx, that the Bowld was “70-80 percent full” during his speech.

“I think the amount of conversations that my speech was able to start and the people who came up to me and found they were inspired by my speech was so interesting to see,” Patel explained. “As I was helping to plan the event now, I still got to see first-hand how people stayed after the event to continue talking with the speakers.” 

Lower Avery Im, who attended the TEDx event, stated, “I found it really interesting. The speeches were able to incorporate so many different topics and sciences into our everyday lives using the theme of Genesis, and I learned so much about the differences that make us unique in a way. I saw how through the hard work, communication, and community the team was able to generate a long lasting impact on everyone.”

“It just sparked conversations that otherwise never would have started if the speakers hadn’t shared their experiences. At least to me, I think it’s really important to be able to highlight those voices, encourage speakers to find their own voice, break out of their comfort zone, and be able to share something on such a big platform,” Patel observed.

Many of those who contributed to the event created a deeper connection with their fellow team members, and some found themselves also falling in love with the idea of TEDx itself. Patel has been a part of TEDx for three years of her Exeter career and described her growing admiration and appreciation for the event. “It was a full circle moment for me to be able to look at other organizational team members applications and speakers applications, given the fact that I applied as a speaker in my prep year and then as an organizational team member as a lower,” she said. 

Luchak said, “I think we bonded very well over the time since we met. We’ve seen each other on such a consistent basis, and all of our talks were really diverging into different directions, but at the same time they all grounded the message of humanity. And I think that’s something beautiful about the TEDx event, having that connection with the audience, regardless of what you’re talking about.”