TEDx is an organization made up of local, self-organized events that bring people together to discuss many different topics in a different way than people would in an everyday setting. These events include live speakers to spark discussions in a small group setting. This year at CHS, three students created a new, TED-certified club dedicated to this style of discussion, and committed to setting up a TEDx event at the end of the year, which is open to everyone. This event is set to occur on June 7, 2019.

“It’s something that we’ve really wanted to do, and something that we love to do. We believe in spreading these ideas and getting people involved,” says Rachel Blair, a senior at CHS and one of the co-creators of the club. Rachel Blair, Monica Chang, and Abigail Jiang created this club to give students at CHS the chance to take on leadership roles, apply what they love to do, and overall learn something new. Chang, a senior at CHS, and one of the co-creators of this club, comments, “I feel like there is something really pure about a whole community of people coming together to learn and to learn about something new.” Chang, Blair, and Jiang also aim to leave behind something at the school that will continue to live on throughout the years. They want the first TEDx event to make enough of a mark that it will continue on into next year and on, even after they no longer attend CHS.

This club has been up and running for about three weeks now. The club got approved in early February of 2019 and they have gotten licensed with TED so that can be an official event. At their informational meeting earlier this year, they had about eighty to ninety people show up, which showed Chang, Blair, and Jiang that many people are interested and excited for the event at the end of the year. For the executive organizing body, they only have 18 people, as of right now. This is to make organizing the event a little more manageable. Though, according to Chang, they are hoping to get even more people to help out closer to the event.    

 As of right now, this club is in the planning stages of what they are hoping to include in the event at the end of the year. This includes figuring out a theme, who they would like to collaborate with, and who they would like to speak at the end of the year. So far they have a theme that they are starting to work with. Chang comments, “One theme that we’re considering doing is seeing the invisible. So, obviously, that’s an abstract theme…So, what we really mean by that is seeing the invisible. There are a lot of different speakers that could follow that theme.” Chang went on to give some examples of what people could talk about relating to that theme. Some of these examples include a professor of molecular biology who studies genetics or a social worker who works with the homeless and other marginalized groups who are seen as invisible by society.

If anybody knows someone who they think would be a great TED speaker, contact this club at [email protected]. They are looking for people with interesting and new ideas, including student speakers, organizations in the area, and anybody in the Camas community. They would be very grateful to receive suggestions that would help to make this event awesome and filled with “ideas worth spreading.”