Samantha Li / Staff Reporter
On June 3, the fourth TEDx Gleneagle Secondary event themed “Planting Your Future” happened in the MPR, organized by the Con-X leadership committee.
The event was conducted at full capacity, and lasted for 3 hours from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with seats almost all filled with participants composed of students, parents, and teachers.
A total of five special speakers with distinct backgrounds were featured, including Ariana Irfan grade 11 from Terry Fox Secondary, Elaine Xiao, first-year science student from McGill University, Sophia Guan and Jay Hamidova, Gleneagle alumni from 2020 and both in their second year in UBC, and Samuel Rosam, an adjunct professor at the NYIT Vancouver campus.
Concentrated around the theme “Plant Your Future”, the committee wished to help students who were graduating or any teenagers that were struggling in life or study, especially towards the end of the school year. All speeches were unfolded by giving youth suggestions, visions, and insights for their future planning. Irfan shared the importance of a refreshed mindset and her own ‘three-step methods’; Xiao touched on the concept of honouring life over romanticizing it; Guan suggested ways to sustain happiness after things change in life based on a psychological concept; Hamidova spoke about how the practice of integrity can make us feel whole; Rostam introduced opportunities that digital transformations brought and how to take them.
“I think the biggest thing now is a lot of teenagers don’t think about planning their own futures, and a lot of times we have a lot of negative self-talk. I wish to help them through my talk and help them to build up their ‘personal shield’,” said Irfan.
To both the school and students, the event was a huge success, inspirations and ideas were shared and a majority of participants were giving positive feedback.
Irene Hu, grade 11, one of the student audiences, said “as a student entering grade 12 next year, I really enjoyed how each speaker approached the theme from their own angle and gave really constructive ideas about how I can possibly plant my future. It was definitely worth watching and I can say that I now start to have something in mind for my next year.”
“I am so proud for this year’s team for the really successful event that they pulled off. As a speaker, I felt very welcomed, the team was so prepared and they helped me make sure that I have a fun time doing it,” said Guan.
The committee was also very happy with the result, all of the members were thankful for the effort that each member put in since the start of the year.
Alexis Nguyen, a student organizer of the event in grade 11, commented “I thought the event ran as smoothly as possible, and it was great to see everyone had a good time. It was awesome to be a part of such an amazing team of people to plan and execute such a large event that will leave a legacy at Gleneagle.”