A Recipe for Change
This past Friday, March 3, 6 different stories were shared at TEDx in the Black Box.
For the past few years, the TEDx club on campus has brought innovation, creativity and pursuit of interests. Nelson Kim, who helped found the club, actively finds guest and student speakers to inspire the community through Ted Talk style speeches.
“The purpose of TEDx is to spread ideas worth sharing and we believe that each of our speakers have something interesting to contribute to our community addressing the event’s theme of ‘Defy Society,’” said senior Kim.
The student-run Service Learning club hoped to teach the community the importance of pursuing one’s passions and to defy societal norms.
“[Speakers] will elaborate on their own definition of ‘Defying Society’ using [personal] experiences to support their claims, and [I] believe it is an event worth watching,” claimed Kim.
Even, senior Justin Sung participated in the event, explaining his passion for hip-hop dance and his journey to start a dance club at Sage.
“I wanted to talk about my experience with dance, the hardships I had to face along the way, trying to find room in my schedule with my many priorities, and the rewarding results that came with following through with something I loved,” noted Sung on his TEDx speech.
Similar to the arguments many of the other speakers made, Sung highlighted the costs and benefits of pursuing his passion in his speech. His goal was to give people the courage to make the same self-satisfying decision he made.
“I think that people should feel that no matter what field they [choose to] pursue, they can still defy society in their own ways [and be successful doing so],” Sung said.
Not only did the speakers “defy society” in their stories, but the organization behind the even took months of planning and organizing.
“I have grown to love the complexity of the planning, fundraising, and execution of our event and it has helped me and my teammates grow as individuals and as a team” Kim commented.
There are always infinite ways to “defy society,” and it is up to everyone individually to take the matter into their own hands. In summary, it is pretty simple. Pursue your interests. If it does not challenge you, it will not change you.
Different speakers inspired the audience in different
And as William Arthur Ward once said, “the pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”
Speaker list:
Debra Miller, Co-founder of Cure Duchenne
Shaheen Sadeghi, President and Founder of LAB Holding, creating the first “anti-mall”
Justin Sung ’18, Hip hop enthusiast
Alex Dickinson, Senior Vice President at Illumina, a DNA sequencing company
Ted Chervin, Partner at ICM, a publishing and branded entertainment firm in Los Angeles
Kelly King, Actor/Model, Human and Animal Rights Activist
