Theme: Roots: Getting to the Roots of Societal Issues

TEDxAlNoorAcademy is a TEDx event independently organized by youth within the greater Mansfield and Boston area. This event will feature selected speakers who will share their innovative ideas across a wide scope of subject areas relating to getting to the roots of societal issues. Interactive performances will also be featured to encourage the exchange of ideas and perspectives amongst attendees and presenters.
The theme of this event is Roots: Getting to the Roots of Societal Issues. We want to explore societal issues and get to the roots of why these issues exist. Our conference supports the rising generation with ideas and propositions that are meant to change the community and ultimately the world. This event is meant to shape driven and empowered leaders for our future.
TEDxAlNoorAcademy is an independently organized event licensed by TED, with an entire team run by local high-school students and mentors

Mansfield High Auditorium
250 East St
Mansfield, Massachusetts, 2048
United States

Amina Naidjate

High School Student

Amina Naidjate is an Algerian-American sophomore at Al-Noor Academy. She is passionate about combating climate change and hopes to one day work at the crossroads of international relations, environmental sciences, and medicine. If Amina is not cooped up in her room studying, you can probably find her reading (Harry Potter, of course), eating, or going down a rabbit hole of interesting YouTube videos.

Anas Abou Allaban

Co-founder of Tarteel

Anas Abou Allaban graduated from Al-Noor Academy in 2015, completing a B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Northeastern University. There he pursued his passion in robotics research, earning the NSF GRFP Honorable Mention and multiple awards from Northeastern such as the Huntington 100, College of Engineering Honors in Research, and Presidential Scholarship. He's worked at iRobot, Arcelik, AWS RoboMaker, and is the co-founder of Tarteel, a platform that corrects Muslim's reading and recitation of their holy book, the Quran

Brian Johnson

High School Student

Brian is an accomplished student hoping to make a difference. A practiced orator, he has spoken before peers and politicians alike on matters ranging from nuclear policy to education reform. He has written a book, Civil Discourse: Analyzing the Evolution of Political Divide in the United States tackling the changing nature of politics throughout history in America. In the fall, Brian will begin attending American University in Washington, D.C. for a double major in International Studies and Arabic.

Dr. Mohamed Lazzouni

Dr. Mohamed Lazzouni was the Chairman of the Office of Interfaith and Outreach at the Islamic Association of Collin County in Plano, TX. He is a scholar of Islamic Sciences. As a national interfaith leader, he built interfaith programs in the Boston area, he appeared at the National Press Club, presented testimony in Congress, and spoke at Chatham House in the UK. Dr. Lazzouni was a Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies with the Jesuit Institute at Boston College (in MA). The focus of his training was on Comparative Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Islamic Jurisprudence, Islamic Philosophy, and the History of Spiritual Islam. Dr. Lazzouni is the President and Chief Executive Officer at Epochal Technologies, a leading provider of data science and marketing automation platforms used to assist enterprises around the world in implementing digital marketing transformation. In addition to his training in the Islamic Sciences, Dr. Lazzouni holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Oxford University, a Masters in Physics from London University, and a certificate in finance from Harvard’s Executive Education Program, and certificates in numerous other fields from Case Western, Duke, Johns Hopkins and Rice.

Frank Pobutkiewicz

Youth Mentor

Frank Pobutkiewicz is an educator, youth mentor, serial entrepreneur, and solo founder. In 2011, Frank founded his first education company, All-American Model United Nations. This company combined Frank’s love of teaching, Model UN, and international travel. Frank has taught Model United Nations, speech and debate, and entrepreneurship in over 25 countries to hundreds of students. Frank is writing his first book, Happy Wednesday, which is set to be published in Fall 2019.

Minh Phan

High School Student

Minh is a high school junior from Al Noor Academy, Mansfield, MA. Her main focuses are science, youth education, and she enjoys talking to peers and professors about quite literally anything! Additionally, she finds her voice through many outreach programs that she is involved in, including the Science Club for Girls (an organization based in Cambridge), where she teaches science to K-1 girls, and the MIT Museum Teen Council which hosts quarterly science cafes for high school students. Her life philosophy is inspired by a quote from Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Salma Ossman

High School Student

Salma Ossman is a Syrian freshman at Al-Noor. She has lived in 3 different countries. She is most of the time very optimistic and loves to be outdoors with nature. She loves to cook but is often banned from doing so because she hates doing the dishes. She loves to hang out with people especially the little humans. She is often a procrastinator but somehow manages to get her work done on time. She is always known as a “good student” but is she really. That's the question.