Saline High School To Host Ted Talk

Saline High School will be hosting its own version of a Ted Talk, TedX Youth@Saline High School, in its auditorium late in the afternoon of Wednesday, April 13. This students-led program is open to anyone who wants to speak, whether they are students or not. Neil Sachdeva, another student who is organizing the event, said that he fell in love with the whole Ted Talk format all the way back in fifth grade.

“In fifth grade, my teacher took me to my first Ted Talk. Because of this, I was really inspired by how people were able to share their stories with the world. This led me to watch multiple Ted Talks that night and made me love Ted Talks,” Sachdeva said. “And when I saw the opportunity to hold a TedX event in Saline, I immediately jumped at the chance.”

Ted Talks are a series of lectures that allows leaders and innovators in every field to give lectures on a variety of topics to further educate the general public on topics ranging from astrophysics to fashion and from sociology to climate change.

Anyone interested in speaking has until February 12 to submit an application. The theme of the talk is to talk about things from your own point of view.

“The application process is pretty easy. We have a Google form, which we have posted on our Instagram. You just go on the form, fill out your email, name, what your topic idea is and how it relates to our POV theme. Then you just write down what you’re thinking and just send it,” Saline High School student Lizzy Sandru, who is also organizing the event, said. “After the deadline we’ll decide who will be our speakers and they’ll be contacted.”

Applicants will be required to have an idea already when they apply to speak. Once all applications are in, speakers will have about a month to work on their talk.

The exact time of the talk has not been finalized, but it will be late in the afternoon to avoid conflicting with the school district’s regular daily schedule.

“The official times will be forthcoming. The smaller TedX events only allow 100 viewers at a time,” Madelyn Clark, a Saline High School English teacher who is assisting in the organizing of the talk, said. “We’ve thought about doing perhaps three different sessions, where speakers would present, and you could sign up for a batch of speakers for an hour. That way we can have more people in the audience, but that is still to be determined.”

Image Credit: Saline High School Facebook Page.