TEDxYouth@Houston is an independently organized TEDx event that coincides with TEDxYouthDay and TEDYouth -- TED's day-long event for middle- and high-school students -- November 15-16.

We aim to empower students through insightful talks from live speakers, hands-on activities and great conversations among peers. Scientists, designers, technologists, explorers, artists, performers (and more!) share their expertise and experiences, serving as a source of both knowledge and inspiration for youth around the globe.

This fall, we'll join TEDYouth in exploring the theme, "Worlds Imagined," sharing mind-expanding stories and big ideas on a broad array of topics that impact the world today...and may change it tomorrow. We'll envision new scenarios for our future and consider how we can contribute to shaping it for the better.

Asia Society Texas Center
1370 Southmore Boulevard
Houston, Texas, 77004
United States

HSPVA Theatre

Donald Val

Youth Poet currently attending Sharpstown High School.

Juan Dunn

Juan Dunn, an 11th grader at Westbury High School, lives in Houston's neighborhood of Gulfton. A sprawling concrete metropolis filled with large apartment complexes, he and his friends find happiness in skateboarding. Juan and his friends have been lobbying the City of Houston to build a $500,000 skatepark in their neighborhood. Alongside a coalition of community leaders, the Gulfton skatepark is now being realized.

Kayleigh Latimer

9th grade freshman girl, currently attending Lamar High School.

Laura Isensee

Laura Isensee is an educational journalist for KUHF, including K-12 and higher education. She grew up in Houston and got her start in journalism when she reported for a Spanish-language paper and the Houston Chronicle. Her work has appeared in The Dallas Morning News, Reuters and Clarín, one of Argentina’s major newspapers. Laura studied Spanish and liberal arts at the University of Texas at Austin and earned her masters from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Mahnoor Samana

Mahnoor is a 19-year old poet. She is a student at the University of Houston pursuing a career in Business and Journalism. Mahnoor has been featured on a local Fox channel as well as on Amy Poehler’s YouTube channel, Smart Girls At The Party. She is a two time performer at Wortham Theatre in Downtown Houston. If you asked her what she wants to be in 10 years, she has her answer perfectly memorized. Mahnoor wants to own her own business, write a book and travel the world touring as a spoken-word artist. Some may call her ambitious, a dreamer or maybe even too passionate. But she has found her home in narratives. Mahnoor is on a journey to change the world, she has this idea that crafted words have the ability to move mountains. She will get there eventually, on her own time, until then, keep writing, one day someone might find it worth reading…

Shilpa Sadajopan

Shilpa Sadagopan is 17 years old, and currently a Senior year at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She has been singing since the age of 3 in genres such as South Indian Classical Music, Opera, Pop and Jazz. She was named as a Young Master by the Texas Commission of the Arts and recently performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony and in a jazz festival at Stavanger, Norway as a cultural ambassador for Houston; in her free time she enjoys composing music. She hopes to promote music as a globalizing art form that transcends societal barriers.

Timur Daudpota

Timur Daudpota is a young entrepreneur from the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston.

Yash Semlani

Yash is an 8 year old 3rd grader, honor roll student and cub scout. He won the 2014 Ernst & Young Youth Entrepreneurship award and Lemonade Day Entrepreneurial Excellence Award. Starting with a simple lemonade stand, Yash set a new national record of $5,056 in sales and $4,535 in profit at a lemonade stand. He donated over $6,000 to Texas Children’s Hospital by bringing in a matching donor and helped raise an additional $59,000 by launching a fundraising campaign.