Theme: What if?

We are told that our society is progressing at an accelerating rate, shooting through the roof like never before. It’s exciting. It’s new. But is it true? What happens when we seriously question everything? When we take nothing for face value; learn about present crises through past failures; turn words into works? What happens when we question whether the world has to be this; whether we have to be this way? What happens when a whole generation has a barrier of only a few hand gestures between each other? TedXJamesLoganHS aims to bring you speakers who took their curiosity to the next level and never settled for the status quo. Who never stopped asking “What If”, and realized that was makes us human.

James Logan High School
1800 H Street
Union City, California, 94587
United States

Athena Thai

High school student, aspiring psychologist

Athena Thai is currently a junior at Livingston High School in Livingston, New Jersey. She has an interest in psychology, which she hopes to pursue in the future. She is the president of her school's Psychology Club, in which she teaches members about applications of psychological topics, invites guest speakers, initiates discussions, and facilitates experiments. Some of her favorite topics to study include conformity, body image, and mental disorders. This summer, Athena will be conducting research in clinical psychology with the Pioneer Research Program, and she hopes to apply her knowledge to help more people struggling with mental health. In her free time, Athena enjoys playing the piano and participating in her school debate team.

Ayushi Srivastava

Writer, Inventor, and Regent's Scholar at UC Berkeley

Ayushi is an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, pursuing a dual degree in Biology (Biotech-focused) and Business Administration. Meanwhile, she is also attaining a minor in Journalism with an emphasis on data-based writing. Pursuing ideas and innovation is incredibly important to her. She believes change is necessary despite how uncomfortable it may be. Her focus is to continue learning about any and all things knowledge-related. Apart from her intellect-related aspirations, she pushes to spend more and more time outside with her thoughts, loved ones and small pup, Tofu.

Diba Dindoust

Synthetic biology researcher

A curious 16-year-old synthetic biology researcher, Diba Dindoust is constantly searching to learn more. From researching the applications of gene editing for HIV and B cell therapy to co-authoring a scientific paper on technology for epilepsy and to building an iGEM project that improves nitrogen fixation in plants , Diba is on a mission to expand her knowledge bit by bit everyday. She is an advocate for education and curiosity and one of her goals is to empower students to take an active role in creating their education. She also really likes long walks, bike rides, classical art and apocalyptic literature and films.

Eric Sheen

High School Student, Software Developer, Researcher

Attending Resurrection Catholic Secondary School, Eric Sheen is a 17-year-old who continuously strives to create simple solutions to complex problems with his love for programming and technology. In class, Eric can be seen teaching and helping students in his school's Computer Science Club where he helps grow a passion for technology and explores various software topics. Outside the classroom, Eric works on numerous projects including the development of an abstractive text summarization algorithm, hackathons, and COVID-19 research. He enjoys classical guitar, poetry, and basketball.

Ethan Richard

Student

Ethan is an aspiring youth who loves taking up challenges and surpassing his limits. Being able to discover new things and connect with other people is what gives him joy. If you have a goal but are too afraid to achieve it, just do it with a smile because at the end of it, you would be glad you did it.

Kawtar Karmouni

Artist

Kawtar Karmouni is a 16 year old poet, artist, and biology nerd. She currently resides in Toronto. She is the creator of the Just My 2 Cents podcast, where poets from around the globe come to perform poetry. She uses her different mediums of art to evoke social justice in the MENA (Middle Eastern North African community) and basic human rights. Her articles about seeking justice have been published in ENV Media, YRE Schools, and Snipette Magazine. Her lifelong mission is to amplify the voices of girls through various forms of art.

Kimberly Liang

Food Innovator, Tissue Engineer Researcher, Sustainability Activist

Kimberly Liang is a young innovator who is radically transforming the agriculture industry with her unconventional ideas. She has built projects related to improving the taste and texture of cultured meat, and is currently performing scaffolding research that has the potential of reducing the need for livestock farming. Kimberly is an aspiring entrepreneur, who is interested in bringing her ideas into fruition through business ventures. She has developed strategies for UN Women to increase digital literacy in India, won national case competitions, and had her recommendations implemented by multiple multi-million dollar companies. She has spoken at multiple global stages about environmental sustainability and pleads the younger generation to take action on global issues. She is obsessed with leaving a positive impact on humanity and is solving the world’s hardest problems - one cell at a time.

Preisha Agarwal

High school student

Preisha Agarwal is a 16-year-old attending American High School in Fremont, California. She aspires to study Business//Entrepreneurship, sparked by her participation in Future Business Leaders of America. By giving this speech, she hopes to inspire the middle school students she teaches public speaking to. She often spends her free time writing or creating artwork to express her civic, social, and political interests, which have been awarded by Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and published in national anthologies. The issue of women’s rights is close to her heart, and she has founded a nonprofit by the name “Greenories” to help raise funds for women’s education in India. In her free time, she loves adding to her list of fluent languages and exploring the cultures of the world through literature, food, art, and music. She also enjoys reading novels, listening to R&B music, and making new friends.

Sualeha Irshad

Cognitive Neuroscientist

A 16-year-old innovator at The Knowledge Society with the desire to make an impact on billions around the world by leveraging emerging technologies and scientific innovation. At the core of my passions lie my love for improving the lives of others and a desire to gain a deeper understanding of human nature from the viewpoint of the mind. Along with delving into the world of connectomics, I also co-host The Boss Ladies Podcast, and am extremely passionate about gender inequity and building a supportive community for the next generation of female founders. Additionally, I'm also a first-place winner of the Moody's Foundation Peace & Justice Challenge hosted by NFTE World Series of Innovation for a project that uses AI algorithms to detect implicit bias in text-based communication online.

Zara Pehlivani

Neurotech enthusiast, writer, speaker, student

Zara is an incoming high school freshman with big aspirations, loads of ideas, and a thirst for knowledge. She loves to learn anything about everything and enjoys writing and speaking about her findings. Zara has been involved in numerous projects including sleep studies, company consulting challenges, and even a hackathon-winning idea for stopping epileptic seizures in real time, non-invasively. Zara is a competitive fencer and a casual cellist. She is deeply interested in the peripheral and central nervous systems, genetics, and computer science, and is always eager to learn about each of these fields and many more.