Theme: Explore . Discover . Grow . Engage

On August 11, 2018, join students from Nebraska's high schools, middle schools, and colleges to explore this year's theme: EDGE: Explore | Discover | Grow | Engage. Our speakers' ideas will challenge you, our performers will inspire you, and carefully prepared demonstrations and activities will delight you.

Our speakers' ideas will challenge, our performers will inspire, and carefully prepared demonstrations and activities will engage. Don't miss this event!

2018 TEDxYouth@Lincoln Speakers:

Alix Cui of Lincoln East High School
Pranav Rajan of Lincoln East High School
Emma Harner of Lincoln High School
Nicole Fintel of Lincoln East School
Crystal Xu of Lincoln East High School
Frida Aguilera of Lincoln Southeast High School
Isabel Bousson of Lincoln East High School
Ariel Zach, UNL student
Jack Rodenburg, UNL grad
Wyn Wiley, UNL grad

Talent selections are:

Emma Ogea of Pius X: Voice
Sam Rice of Pius X: Piano
Brook Baller, UNL student: Photography

Event Emcees will be Sadie Prenda of Lincoln Southeast High School and Carter Yost of Lincoln High School.

Lincoln High School
2229 J Street
Lincoln, Nebraska, 68510
United States

Alix Cui

Alix is a student.

Ariel Zach

When Ariel was young, she lost her dad, and this significantly changed her life. He left a legacy of being kind, and she is determined to carry on this legacy to make the world a better place.

Brook Baller

Brook is a traveling photographer.

Crystal Xu

Crystal has always loved science and after joining UNL’s iGEM (international genetically engineered machine) team, she was introduced to synthetic biology. She loves learning and decided to dedicate her time to helping solve the problem of reducing methane emissions, a problem that affects many Nebraskans. Outside of learning, Crystal enjoys making origami, hanging out with her hamster, Cashew, and learning from Black Jack, a surgeon from an anime, who inspired her to become a doctor with as much skill and care for patients as him.

Emma Harner

Emma is a high school student.

Emma Ogea

Emma loves music and dreams of working in the music business. She attends Pius X High School in Lincoln, NE., She is often told that making it in the music business is really difficult and unlikely, but she’s taking the challenge head on. Her song addresses the dreams people have and the barriers that make people give up on them. Through inspiration from her mom, Emma has learned that she can do anything she puts her mind to.

Frida Aguilera de la Torre

As an immigrant in the U.S., Frida was faced with the many misconceptions that people hold about her culture.

Isabel Bousson

Isabel has always been passionate about being involved in my community. She loves seeing young people create positive change, no matter how small. A few months before she gave this talk, Isabel organized the March For Our Lives in Lincoln, NE, where she met various politicians and community leaders.

Jack Buchanan

Jack Buchanan is a 2018 Lincoln High graduate. There he was a veteran member of the LHS slam poetry team where they were state champions at the “Louder Than a Bomb” competition. Jack will be attending UNL in the fall where he will study journalism. He hopes to continue slam at the collegiate level.

Jack Rodenburg

Jack’s experience comes from staying with indigenous Amazonians and Ethiopians who live completely and sustainably off of the land. Through this experience, Jack realized that the best way to live sustainably is to eat what grows in abundance—why not weeds! He believes that weeds could feed a tribe and people should be more intentional about gardening these backyard goodies.

Karina Hinkley

Karina Hinkley is a 2018 graduate of Lincoln High School and was part of the International Baccalaureate program. She was a member of the state champion LHS Slam poetry team. After taking a gap year, she plans to study History, German, and Theatre. She is an avid writer and loves comic books.

Khaleefa Muhammad

Khaleefa H. Muhammad is 23 years old and a father of 2. He’s been rapping since middle school and continued to rap throughout high school. As a senior, he moved to North Carolina, where he found himself taking a break from music. A year later, his best friend and fellow performer passed away. Through this tragedy came inspiration for Hakim, who decided to return home to Nebraska and take music more seriously. Professionally, he attended college to get his degree as a barber, which is his job by day. Aside from being a full-time artist and barber, Hakim is also the CEO of Our Society, LLC, a record label, and Corn Coast Co., a clothing line.

Nicole Fintel

Nicole has interned for various political organizations and spent this past summer as a Legislative Intern at the US House of Representatives. Nicole became interested in this topic during her time serving as a delegate to the United States Senate Youth Program

Noelle Bohaty

Noelle is a dancer and professor who holds a Master of Fine Arts from The Ohio State University with an emphasis in choreography and performance. Her research interests include dance, theatre, text, and site-specific performance. Prior to graduate school, Noelle was a Lecturer of Dance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Pranav Rajan

Parnav is a student who believes computer programming is important for everyone to understand.

Sam Rice

Sam is a student at Pius X High School.

Wyn Wiley

Meet TEDxYouth@Lincoln speaker Wyn Wiley! Wyn Wiley has joined us for multiple events over the years.