Students from public and private schools across Oahu will stage an event meant to spark weighty conversations with their peers and the public at Punahou School on Saturday.
The session will offer youthful, local versions of the powerful TED talks that educate and inspire global audiences. It is known as a TEDx event because it is independently run.
TED talks, with the theme "ideas worth spreading," began in 1984 as a conference where technology, entertainment and design intersect.
A nonprofit, TED shares compelling ideas and insights through short talks made available online at TED.com. The talks cover topics from science to business to global issues in more than 100 languages.
The public is invited to hear 15 students make presentations on how they sustain themselves and their communities. The talks will be interspersed with activities, music and light refreshments.
The event’s theme is "The Sustainability of Us," taking the popular environmental buzzword and focusing it on people and how they sustain one another.
"Our event has three parts to it: sustaining the mind, body and community," said Elizabeth Winnicki, a junior at Punahou and the event’s curator. "We’ll have five speakers in each of these categories, and in between we will have activity breaks.
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LET’S GET SUSTAINABLE
>> What: TEDxYouth@Punahou “The Sustainability of Us”
>> Who: Public and private high school speakers
>> When: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday
>> Where: Punahou School, Thurston Memorial Chapel
>> Tickets: $25, online at punahou.link/1EyuBuG
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"It’s just a good time for the whole community to come together and to listen to ideas from a student’s perspective."
The speakers hail from Castle, Farrington, ‘Iolani, Island Pacific Academy, Kaiser, Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama, Mid-Pacific Institute, Moanalua, Roosevelt, Waipahu and Punahou. Each talk is expected to last about 10 minutes.
Student groups from across the island will demonstrate and share some of the work they are doing in the community, from the 808 Urban cultural collective to kalo clubs.
The event runs from 2 to 6 p.m. and costs $25, which includes a T-shirt, refreshments and activities. As an official TEDx event, its budget is supposed to balance and end with no profit or loss, Winnicki said.
Casey Agena, adviser to the TED Education Club at Punahou, said the students are driving the entire project.
"A lot of times when you do partnerships or collaboratives, it’s very adult-driven in terms of bringing people together," he said. "This event is student-run and student-organized — I haven’t signed or touched a thing. It’s been really cool for them. It’s theirs. They have to make the decisions."
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On the Net:
» TEDxYouth@Punahou
» www.ted.com/tedx/events/13205
