By Teddy Sirotin & Ugne Gilyte
On the 22nd of November 2023, a project spanning the length of 2 school years came to fruition. The TEDx American School of Warsaw celebrated 70 years of developing our international community and breaking barriers.
According to the TEDx committee, this event was entirely student-led and student-staffed and the biggest student-organized event in the history of ASW.
According to ted.com, the TEDx program’s goal is to find and spread “ideas worth sharing.” Anyone can host a TEDx talk and they are spread by people who are passionate about their ideas to “uncover new ideas” and to share their findings, according to the website.
We got to speak with two TEDx committee members, Pola T. and Oliver W.. Without a doubt this event was challenging, Pola, the curator of the event said “It took me a long time to research into who would be interested in joining our event and then contact them…”
Meanwhile, Oliver the event manager added “Different ideas, conflicting ideas, and you have to meet certain demands…” he also mentioned that the most fun part for him was “Working in a large group.”Despite the challenges both agree upon on thing that the most fun/exciting part of the event is the speakers and getting to hear their speeches as Pola expressed “As I was reading through their TED talks I realized just how various their topics are, and I was really excited to see all of them live.”
Philip Vu shared that he donated his vans to his friends so that they could transport supplies over the Ukrainian border. He is also planning on taking his Philippino friend to Asia since he has never been. When he was asked about his current future goals he answered: “Next year what we’re trying to aim to do is basically we’re trying to work with a non-profit to move to India, and for 3 months we’re gonna basically fundraise to build a school there and build it with our hands.”
If you want to learn more about what Philip is up to, you can check out his TikTok @philipqvu.
Oliver Kastell said he enjoyed the experience and thought it was fun. Oliver also talked about how he had started working in the 9th grade and was always taking on different jobs while managing his school work. He later took a sales job but quit when TikTok became popular so that he could pursue content creation. Oliver shared his intention to make his channel generally a very positive one that can provide them with “tips and tricks” that can “provide value”.
If you want to learn more about what Philip is doing now, his TikTok is @oliverkastell.
Kseniya Homel, who discussed linguistic stereotypes, enjoyed the event and liked the atmosphere. She said that strong stereotypes have continued to affect her life since she moved to Poland but has come to understand why people use stereotypes. She said that “we tend to use stereotypes when we feel that we are not safe” and that we can change their views by discussing the issue with them. She plans on finishing her Ph.D. and then conducting more field research so that she can come to understand linguistic stereotypes better.
Zosia L. (one of our 11th-grade students) introduced us to a topic that is very close to her heart called “How to Literally Fight for Your Mental Health.” She said she had known Marshall Arts for as long as she could remember. “I’ve been doing Marshall Arts before evening knowing. My dad kind of implemented those little things, that I liked, and I didn’t even know that I will become passionate.”
Zosia said the most difficult part of preparing her talk was that, because she included a video as part of her TED talk, “It was challenging because in that 5 minutes I needed to say everything that I considered important.”
Warrior News 