TEDxYouth@Brabantlaan on november the 23rd in the Netherlands. Our theme: let's create magic! A place where young people inspire eachother, share ideas and built connections.

Brabantlaan 1
's-Hertogenbosch, 5216TV
Netherlands

Jilt van Schayik

Last 23rd of October, Jilt van Schayik (22), from Langenboom, was chosen to be a UN youth representative. In the spring of 2014, he will travel to New York for a preliminary visit. Further on in the year, he will travel to New York again, this time to perform a speech during the UN General Meeting. Besides this, he is currently enrolled in a pre-master at the Fontys Hogeschool, so that he can partake in the master ‘Globalisation and Development’ in Maastricht next year. In 2012, Jilt was an intern at the Volkswagen headquarters in India. During the day he designed campaigns that cost millions of Euro’s, while on his way home begging children on the streets scratched at his knees for money to buy food. This enormous divide between rich and poor made him think. At the beginning of 2013, Jilt completed his thesis in Kenya. “Together with the Kenyan Ministery of Agriculture, I instated a cooperation between five hundred farmers. Upon returning to the Netherlands I wanted to do something with this experience and so I applied for the UN-Youth Representative.” His motto: “Together we are strong, together we can change the world”

Froukje Kooter

Upon meeting Froukje, her enthusiasm is palpable. She is currently taking the agricultural world by storm with the first edition of her very own magazine: “Young Heroes in Green”. The twenty-year-old student, currently in her last year of Animal and Livestock at the HAS in Den Bosch, could not have imagined that her magazine would ignite such reactions and emotions. Froukje believes that youngsters that are consciously engaged with food are the gems of the future: “they deserve a platform to tell their story and to inspire others. This is necessary as many youngsters hardly think about the origin of their food.” In addition, Froukje believes that it is essential for young people to play a crucial role when it comes to the environment and climate, a healthy society and wholesome, sound nutrition, sustainable agriculture and livestock: after all, it is their future. We believe that Froukje is a young hero and that is why she deserves to be on our stage, telling her story.

Birsen Basar

The twenty-six year old, Birsen Başar is a writer, speaker and upon graduating from high school, studied Management, Law and Economics. She works part-time for the municipality of Breda. She found out she was autistic in 2007. Originally, Birsen wrote her life story in Turkish, and later translated it to Dutch. Now, her book; “I no longer want to be invisible” has been published in both Dutch and Turkish. Aside from her work for the municipality, she aims to make autism a better-known subject in both the Netherlands and in Turkey. In the Netherlands, she does this by giving presentations about autism in foreign cultures at different colleges, institutions, media and through her book. She also travels through Turkey to provide lectures.

Sofie and Emma Achterstevoren

These awe-inspiring girls, Sofie (11) and Emma (9), are two sisters that have their heart in the right place. After watching the movie “Eighth graders don’t cry”, a film adaptation of the Jacques Vriens novel, the girls were inspired to make the wishes of children with serious illnesses come true. After having initiated their first actions themselves, more and more people, businesses and institutions were touched by their initiative. Thus the charity Reverse was founded, the leading forces behind which are Emma and Sofie.Emma and Sofie perform almost all wishes themselves, which is what usually makes the moment even more special for the children in need. Recently, they have been nominated for Brabander of the Year 2013

Jeanine van Berkel

The eighteen-year-old Jeanine is a young, creative talent from Brabant. Ever since primary school, drawing has been her passion. A few years ago, she started designing clothes, but not only the standard kind; she also designed clothes that incorporated audio wires and clown noses. Jeaning has participated in many different competitions over the past few years, including the Kunstbende Noord-Brabant and the ‘Design Your Own Piece’, which she won. In 2012, she was assigned a spot at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, she received the Youth Culture Prize and 7days nominated her to be Youngster of the Year! On top of all that, she travelled to New York last summer, alone, to follow a summer course in the field of Art and Design. She has completed a pre-course at the Art Academy whilst still attending school. This year, she hopes to graduate from high school. Jeanine has a dream. And she’s talented. But dreaming and talent doesn’t get you there, or so she thinks. You have to work on your talent, discover what you can and want to do and grasp any chances that are handed to you to work on your dream.

Ron Visser

Nineteen-year-old Ron Visser studies Mechatronic engineering at the Fontys Hogeschool Engineering in Eindhoven. In August he won the Education Award for Students for the work he performed as ambassador for the technology programs entitled ‘Youth Inspiring Youth’. Ron believes that too few children are being inspired to pursue technology at a young age. According to him, children and youngsters themselves are the best ‘motivators’. You can read more about this and Ron’s TEDtalk at TEDxBrainport can be found on: http://factortachtig.nl/blog/tedxbrainport. Last year, Ron founded his own team of Fontys and Summa College students that participated in the First Robotics Competition. In the regional finals in North Carolina, they won the Rookie All-star Award for Newcomers. Ron now uses experiences like this to motivate high school students for a future in technology, a sector that needs young and technical heroes. Ron has created a special approach, in which he joins the world of children and youngsters.

Mark Kwikkers

As a recently graduated Master of Industrial Design from the TU/e (Technical University of Eindhoven), Mark Kwikkers is amazed by the real world. Mark is characterized by his versatility, his commitment to society, doing what he likes and where his heart lies. As an entrepreneur, he combines these aspects in a very smart way. He uses this talent to make the world a more beautiful place. For his thesis, he looked at the way in which the image and attitude of the homeless in Eindhoven could be improved. The initiative is to create a furniture brand that is created solely by recovering addicts currently in rehab. This raises money for certificates and allows them to return to society. Besides school, he has been teaching hip-hop dance classes at the Bruce Dance Factory in Eindhoven for eight years. Here, he teaches two groups of boys, from eight to twelve year olds and from twelve to sixteen year olds. Not only does he teach them to dance, he also feeds their creative minds and tries to contribute to their upbringing. He does so by teaching them to fulfill their commitments and by making them report it if they are unable to come to practice. The past five years has seen Mark teaching wind surfing classes during summer vacation to students aged eight to eighteen. During these weeks his aim has been to teach the children to surf and to give them the best summer ever. Furthermore, he sent the shy children home with an extra batch of confidence. There is nothing better than sending the children home at the end of the week with a certificate and confidence.

Sina Kazemi

Sina was born in Iran in 1987 and moved to the Netherlands when he was sixteen. Now he lives and studies in Eindhoven as a student of Industrial Design at the Technical University of Eindhoven. As a designer he is constantly involved with complex and socially relevant issues. He is fascinated by the 'web' and the way in which Internet affects the way we live, work and design, drastically. He illustrates this in his thesis "Grandma the Hacker". Within this, he builds a community where he works on the independence and healthy evolvement of the elderly, together with them. Sina wants to contribute to a world where you do not wait for someone to determine what is good for you, as an individual, but where each individual has access to other people's network, so that you are capable of making your own ideas come true but where you can also contribute to others initiatives.

Jordy van Vugt

At the age of nineteen and employed as an intern, Jordy van Vugt, finds out that his employment contract has been cancelled due to imminent bankruptcy. However, this does not stop him. He thinks of a plan with a group of like-minded peers, to still be able to get to work. He even has plans to take over the company. In his leisure time, Jordy is a DJ committed to teaching children in institutions to become DJs.

James Smith

32 years old James Smith from Amsterdam discovered The Give Shop by coincidence on Facebook in November 2012. This was after The Give Shop got 55.000 people at Lowlands festival to remember unconditional giving. It became a huge success and the creator Jeroen Timmers was looking for someone who could expand the concept to other cool events and festivals. That is where James took over and got it rock 'n rolling on! In the Give Shop he has found a true purpose for his talent in communication, event- and projectmanagement. The Give Shop fulfills James' ultimate dream to create a world of abundance instead of scarcity. James believes that by giving unconditionally you can experience real joy. His motto is "Giving makes you happy". And he is always impressed by the creativity of the gifts: so much talent, so much generosity. This motivates him even more in creating A Heart based Society. The big challenge he sees is getting the receiver to start receive unconditionally.