TEDx Youth

“Ideas Worth Spreading”

TED is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It has over 2500 talks and has created a platform to spread one's knowledge to a wider society and reach millions. We’ve all seen a TED speech at some point of our life; throughout the past few years it has been integrated into professional environments and is slowly being introduced to students, like us, who are under the age of 18. This speaks volumes about what TED is and what it wants to achieve, beyond the boundaries of age and background. Not only is it a driving force in expanding your knowledge in other fields of study, it has also created a name for itself, a distinct characteristic that we now know as a TED experience (TEDx). It is known for its attention-grabbing speeches that range from looking “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator” to learning about “The worldwide web of belief and ritual”. Speaking of just a few examples, the most important thing about TED is that you never forget about that one speech that touches you.

TEDx is an event that is fully-planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis; thus, we are proud to announce that our school will be coordinating a TEDxYouth@BISAbuDhabi event on 26th March 2019. With an ambitious goal as part of the IB Diploma program, we are organising this event with the help of Ms. Brazier and the school community to bring forth an experience worth remembering.

In my own life, I was intrigued by the term “Third Culture” and what it meant to be a third culture kid. Living in a multicultural community, I have met so many students who are bought up as international children and how this upbringing has encouraged them to consider different perspectives. This fueled the idea of creating a space to start a conversation on the topic of “Looking through a kaleidoscope” - a concept that was derived from how we fail to see different perspectives on any matter, be it the perception of beauty, or even how the education system is built with flaws.

We hope to bring an array of speakers from our school community as well as those from the wider Abu Dhabi community. We wish to share this platform to inspire those that wish to be inspired and those that have a natural thrive for curiosity. Most of all, we want to spark a discussion on how we can view the world through the same lens and yet see a different outlook in the end, just like looking through a kaleidoscope.

As Dr. Maya Angelou famously quoted, “When you learn, teach; when you get, give”.

Please check out our page on the TEDx website and the school weblog for weekly updates on the event.

Ayesha and Raihanah
Year 13 Students