TEDxNorthwood Youth hosted an event Wednesday from 5-6 p.m. in the Media Center, featuring eight student speakers.
After weeks of rehearsing, freshmen Josh Obando, Purva Kulkarni, Ankita Seshadri and Lia Lee, juniors Anika Kurup and Lia Nariman, and seniors Samya Murtaza and Sophie Wang presented their speeches to parents and friends. The goal of the event was to help students build confidence and strengthen their public speaking skills.
“Not only does the club give us space to talk about something we’re passionate about, but it’s a great way to spread a message to people your age,” Nariman said.
From overcoming the fear of failure to speaking up for oneself, the speakers covered a wide array of topics and personal experiences connected to the theme of “New Horizons.”
“Improving my public speaking skills is really important because even everyday events like talking to a cashier or raising your hand in school require confidence,” Obando said. “I chose self love as my topic because it’s something a lot of teens deal with.”
Founded by senior Chloe Kim in the 2024 spring semester, the TEDx-affiliated club provides students a flexible, non-competitive platform to express their ideas freely.
“TEDx is different from other public speaking clubs because our events face the community,” Kim said. “[In other clubs] you’d perform in front of judges, but at TEDx, we’ve really been trying to get people to come out so that they can share their ideas with friends.”
After participating in auditions that ran from Nov. 5-16, the selected speakers engaged in two weeks of guided practice and speech editing.
In the future, the club plans to provide more public speaking and feedback opportunities during its even-Monday lunch meetings. In addition, TEDxNorthwood Youth aims to host at least one speaking event per semester using TEDx guidelines.
“Something I was really worried about when I first started the club was definitely if there were going to be people who were interested,” Kim said. “But over each meeting, I’ve started to recognize a bunch of faces. The community that we have is definitely one of my favorite things about the club.”
