Theme: Passion, Purpose and Perspective

Over 200 International Baccalaureate students (grades 11 and 12) from as far afield as Shanghai, Florida, and Nova Scotia gathered with over 100 adults at The York School in Toronto, Canada to experience 23 amazing speakers, including 11 students, 3 poets, as well as 6 musical acts, and 11 TEDTalks. The audience was blown away by student poet, Amal Albaz, who spoke with passion and conviction, and Mike Jutan, who flew in from San Francisco to share his life of enthusiasm as a visual effects animator with George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic. Equally compelling were biomedical engineer Stephanie Moraes, whose work with individuals with severe disabilities has given her a new perspective on the importance of community, and lawyer James Lockyer, whose work to free wrongfully convicted individuals raises grave questions about the continuing existence of the death penalty in many jurisdictions. The topics addressed in the talks ranged from the need to defend the Canadian Arctic to the need to start a revolution to save the earth. Students and adults alike were inspired by the combination of 'passion, purpose, and perspective', and motivated one student to take the stage during the dying moments of the event to announce that over the course of the day he had discovered his life's purpose and future career. TEDxIB@York proved once again, to be an important day in the lives of IB students and an event worth repeating.

The York School
1320 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario, M4T 1X2
Canada