Theme: A life of purpose

The first of its kind, TEDxYouth@TCS brought the TCS community together in a day of storytelling, inspiring conversations and meaningful connections. Under the theme, A life of purpose, our speakers shared their passions and vision for change, and took us on a journey of possibilities. Having students, teachers, parents and alumni congregating in one space provided opportunities for discussion of novel ideas and perspectives. The conference encouraged participants to embody the values of TCS and come together to initiate change in their local and global communities.

55 Deblaquire St N
Port Hope, Ontario, L1A4K7
Canada

Anastasia Scott

Anastasia Scott is an eighteen-year-old student at Trinity College School in Port Hope. After being inspired by her teachers, she developed a love of poetry and words. Her struggle with focusing influenced her to create this expressive spoken word poem. Outside of school she enjoys creative writing, dancing, art, music, playing with animals and travelling to her cottage in Georgian Bay. After graduation, she is planning to continue exploring creative writing.

Andrew Boughner

Andrew Boughner is a Grade 11 student at Trinity College School. Before attending TCS, you could always find Andrew either running or on the ski hills. Since a young age, Andrew has always advocated for himself through any means he could find. His perseverance to strive and put forth his best effort in whatever he is taking part in is always present.

Angie Collins

On Angie’s kindergarten report card, it was suggested that she had difficulty accepting defeat. Her first teacher likely brought forth this observation in an attempt to bring attention to something that needed to be tamed or eliminated – not a chance! Thankfully, this innate and deeply cherished character flaw, coupled with the strong belief that social norms are to be challenged, not followed, has provided Angie with a strong foundation upon which to navigate a life with narcolepsy. Through this diagnosis, Angie has learned that by "doing it her way" she can have superhero abilities allowing her to teach Health and Physical Education at TCS as well as compete internationally in two different sports. She is committed to self-care and models it for her son – her favourite person in the whole wide world. Angie strives to redefine success in our society through who she is and her belief that it is our contributions, in spite of adversity, that make us who we are.

Angus Hall

Angus Hall is a Grade 8 student at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario. Like many thirteen-year-old boys, he enjoys sports and hanging out with friends. Angus first developed his passion for service leadership on a trip to Ghana, in West Africa, when he was in Grade 3. He traveled there with his parents, brother, and three high school students from his former school. Although he found the experience of building a classroom block and organizing the school library meaningful, Angus was most profoundly struck by the sense of community and compassion he felt among the people there. Since then, he has gravitated towards service work and community initiatives. Angus was inspired by Craig Kielburger’s story and has taken part in three “We Day” events and a “MetoWe” trip to Arizona. Realizing that he is still young, Angus is full of dreams and aspirations. He is working on putting his vision into action.

Ben Traugott

Ben Traugott i has a passion for equality and helping others that has led him to share his thoughts on social labels. He loves everything about learning and enjoys all of his classes as well as public speaking. Ben is also an innovative thinker who is always challenging himself both academically and physically. With an interest in science and math, he hopes to one day study medicine and become a surgeon. Ben plays hockey, soccer, and plays the trumpet as part of his school’s jazz band. To him, music is more than just a hobby, it is a mode of expression that he has cherished and practiced for many years. One of Ben’s favourite things to do in the summer is go on long white-water canoe trips with his camp and has participated in trips in both Quebec and Ontario.

Brynne Thomas

A social science enthusiast, Brynne has always asked "why". She is becoming quite the feminist with a strong passion for equity and women's rights. Years ago, she started questioning rape culture in her life and other teenagers around her. Taking advantage of a school project in her grade 12 social justice class, she was able to dive into the subject. She is eager to continue to share her story and educate people, with hopes of speaking at rape crisis centers in university. A driven person, she aspires to help make some of the changes she wants to see in the world with human rights law. Until then, however, she will continue to spend her days as a camp counsellor up north, a prefect, and service steward at school. A completely equal society may seem far away, but she constantly reminds herself that all that's needed is a little bit of change.

Deniz Ural

Deniz is a young woman from Turkey who has a profound passion for women’s rights and equality. She strives to help women by bringing awareness to gender equality issues and, although she wants to advocate for women’s rights globally, she is especially concerned with women’s rights in Turkey. She also enjoys dancing, singing, acting and art, and she has great respect for wisdom and learning through experience. She is planning on studying at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto in order to learn more about design and communication as she is keen to make a difference in the world through her creativity.

Emilio Garcia Aguirre

Emilio has had a long journey from Mexico City to Port Hope, Ontario. However, the story does not start here, as he has overcome insecurities instilled in him at a young age. He is a proud member of the school's swim team where he overcame both emotional and physical barriers. He has proven that everything is possible with a lot of perseverance and a little bit of luck.

Emily Johnson

Emily Johnson is a teacher and musician working at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario. She holds a Bachelor of Music with Honours and Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto, and has received four gold medals from the Royal Conservatory of Music for her studies in both flute and guitar performance. Her passions for both instruments individually inspired her to explore music composed for flute and guitar duos. Music has the ability to be extraordinarily powerful, and it is essential to take time to appreciate the beauty of music as an art that stands alone from movies, work, or social gatherings. When she is not teaching, practicing, or performing, Emily enjoys spending her time horseback riding.

Ethan Davenport

Ethan is an ardent fan of his mother’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. He enjoys coffee and pastries in the morning, running anytime of the day and reading in the evening. Ethan loves to run and spends much of his free time training and racing competitively throughout the calendar year with limited success. He graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto and will be continuing his studies spring 2016 with a Bachelor of Education at Queen’s University. His dream to educate is fuelled by a strong thirst for knowledge and a healthy appetite for understanding new concepts and ideas. Off the track and outside the classroom, Ethan enjoys the preservation of harmless traditions among friends, and takes great pleasure in meeting new people and appreciating their unique interests and values.

Frederique Pomerleau

Fred Pomerleau is from Montreal, Quebec, and she is currently a Grade 11 student at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario. Ever since she was little, Fred’s always wanted to push limits. Anything ranging from fifty-day canoe trips to travelling to Ecuador to help build a school for a local community, she does it all. She just can’t keep indoors: she plays rugby, tennis, golf, flag football, swimming, running, and has represented the Laurentiens, Quebec, and Canada in alpine skiing. However, Fred is conscious of the fact that not all women have access to the same opportunities that she does, and this is the foundation for her passion for women’s rights. A prefect, an AP Capstone student, and a TCS scholar, Fred is well on her way to accomplishing many of her hopes and dreams. Her final hope is that one day there will be true gender equality and that she has made a contribution to this.

Jeff Biggar

Jeff Biggar is a guitarist and vocalist from Cobourg, Ontario. A graduate with distinction in guitar performance from McGill’s prestigious Schulich School of Music, Jeff trained under some of Canada’s foremost classical musicians. Since graduating, he has taken a position as a guitar and band instructor at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, where he also leads a drum line and chamber singers’ ensemble. In addition to his numerous solo and ensemble performances at McGill, Jeff has toured the Caribbean as a cruise line guitarist and played various live rock and pop shows in Montreal and Toronto's vibrant music scene.

Madeline Abbott

Madeline Abbott has been an avid sailor since she was 12. At 16, she is here to share some of her experiences, specifically how sailing has helped her become who she is now. Madeline sails on tall ships, large sailing vessels. Madeline has used what she has learned on tall ships to deal with problems in every day life. Madeline now studies at Trinity College School, a boarding school in Canada.

Maxime Tetu

Maxime aspires to live a purposeful life and realize her dreams along the way. Her challenging journey, filled with changes, stress and anxiety, has shaped her into who she is today. Her most significant achievement was her discovery of self-love and self-forgiveness. With her motivation she wishes to inspire others in confidence, just as she had been inspired herself. In her free time, Maxime enjoys taking time to reflect, cooking, and spending time with her friends. After high school, she is looking to study child psychiatry in university because she desires to have a direct impact on someone and the people who surround them by making a difference in their lives.

Maya Saunders

Maya was born in Belleville, Ontario, and grew up in The Turks and Caicos Islands - home to herself, her parents, and her two brothers and a sister. Maya enjoys taking part in athletics in her spare time, with a particular passion for hockey. When not otherwise occupied, she often finds herself questioning everything. Because of her ethnic and religious background she is keen to learn about different cultures, religions and ways of life. She knows that growing up, in itself, is hard enough, let alone adding two races, two cultures, two religions, everybody’s comments, and society’s entailment that you can only be one thing. Maya Saunders is here to share the difficulties of growing up in a life such as this.

Samantha Pena

Samantha Pena is a twenty three year old graduate from the University of Toronto where she concurrently completed a major in mathematics, two minors in philosophy and history and her Bachelors of Education. Her passion for teaching brought her to Trinity College School in Port Hope Ontario, where she is currently a faculty intern and a part time math teacher. Samantha believes in leading an active and healthy lifestyle, in her spare time she enjoys finding the balance between work and relaxation and regularly practices yoga. Samantha is also a disciplined aerial silks artist who is captivated by the circus and how it seamlessly combines both strength and beauty.

Seth Mahabir

Seth aspires to always make everyone around him happy. He does this by always having a smile on his face and being very approachable. He lives a very busy life. He is very active at his high school and also makes time to play on a competitive soccer team outside of school. He has many passions - his biggest, that comes above everything else, is the beautiful sport of soccer. Seth has been playing soccer since he has been able to walk. He has pushed himself since then to become the best possible player that he can be. He has a strong sense of determination and perseverance for soccer that is hard to break. As a soccer player he has been very successful. He is playing in the OYSL (Ontario Youth Soccer League), which is the highest league in Ontario. He is getting ready to go to university soon and hopes to pursue his love of soccer at university.

Victor Omiwole

Victor is an advocate of the belief that we are limited by the limits we set on ourselves. He is the leader of the "Trinity Environmental Action Club”, which involves creating a more sustainable environment for the student body. Outside school, Victor spends most of his time at the Taunton Mills Retirement Home and the Lakeridge Health Bowmanville Hospital. While working at the hospital he learned the importance of showing empathy to each person you meet. This not only brightens their mood, but it also gives you a chance to understand and relate to what they are going through. During his days at the retirement home, he embraced the ideals of selflessness- putting others before your self. In order to lead a group you must be willing to sacrifice what you want for the good of others. Besides that, Victor also has a keen interest in soccer, track and squash, with over three years of competitive play in each respective sport.