Ideas Were Shared at the TEDxYouth@OakForestHighSchool

Ideas worth sharing is the goal and the philosophy behind the TED corporation. TED is a lecture series that is a global phenomenon. With the TED and TEDx YouTube channel, ideas have been shared around the globe with a over a billion shares of ideas, information and concepts for everyone to be a part of.

This weekend, Bremen District 228 became part of this amazing community. The speakers had an eclectic view point of our community and out world. The speakers were amazing, thought provoking and inspirational.

First up was Nathan Ryan who is senior at Tinley Park High School. He spoke about his amazing research performed at Argon National Laboratories. I have to say, I was so impressed with this young man. The eloquence spoken of his research and the passion that he displayed was obvious and impressive. He is researching the connection between heavy metals collected in teeth, to disorders such as Alzheimer disease.

Next was Selime Baftiri-Ballazhi who is a teacher at Tinley Park High School. She was such a passionate speaker of diversity expressing her experiences of growing up, sometimes, as an outsider because of a cultural biased community. She expressed so eloquently of the growing diversity and how her work at Tinley Park High School not only connects students with cultural contrasts but emotional and cognitive differences.

We then heard from Mary Rose Bernas, who is a teacher at Bremen High School. She shared the passion and dedication that teachers must have to go forward with technology. In her talk, entitled "Fail Forward", she explained the enduring philosophy of learning technology and applying it to real classrooms. I loved her passion and enduring faith expressed that technology and dedication of educators will bridge any gap in educational fulfillment of students.

Then there was Melodie Slaughter who is a senior at Hillcrest High School. She was absolutely amazing as not only a speaker, but a person. Melodie spoke of her experience with her disability with an eloquence and compassion. She connected her desire for compassion for herself to others and her growth as a person. I was so inspired by her talk which was so skillfully performed, I walked away with a different perspective of disabilities. She was absolutely amazing in her talk.

Finally Dan Chambers, the Art Teacher at Oak Forest High School, took the stage. His talk centered around the connection between art and physics. He spoke of the influence that artists had on scientists in the age of enlightenment and how it is all connected into a cognitive theory today. It was a fascinating voyage through time, art and science.

The organizer of this event was Annais Gangolf and she is a junior at Oak Forest High School. This is her second TEDx event and her dedication to education and spreading ideas is seen through her work. Her internship work at the Chicago Teachers Union has inspired her to focus on pursuits of education in her community. She has begun a TEDed club at Oak Forest High School with the next TEDx event scheduled for April 2019.

The ultimate goal of any TEDx event is to spread ideas and Bremen District 228 and Oak Forest High School had this goal in mind. This event was an amazing show of not only being in the fore front of ideas in our community but being a leading edge in what will enhance the community of the district as whole.