Theme: Hindsight is 2020: A Year in Review

TEDxYouth@UniversitySchool is a local event organized by US students with the goal of giving high schoolers the opportunity to share their ideas and passions with a receptive audience. The event will host a variety of high school student speakers who will engage audience members in a discussion of wide-ranging topics relevant to the years 2020-21.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

University School
2785 Som Center Rd
Moreland Hills, Ohio, 44022
United States

Anna Liu

Personal Finance: The Difference Between Failure and Success

Anna Liu is a current junior at Hathaway Brown School. She is an entrepreneur, self-published author, and stock market investor who is very passionate about business and finance. In her free time, she enjoys managing her nonprofit, running, painting, and spending time with her dog.

Bryce Hodge

15 Minutes

Bryce Hodge is a seventeen-year-old senior at University School who will attend Case Western Reserve University next fall. He is an active member of the community at US, serving as the head of the Pembroke Society, playing football, and running track. Bryce became passionate about education inequality as an eighth-grader after seeing the disparities in resources between University School and his previous school. Today, his goal is to push for legislation that addresses the ongoing problem of education inequality in America.

Chase Sloan

Become Who You Need Then Be Who You Needed

Chase Sloan is a junior in high school hailing from Cleveland, Ohio. He lives with the intention to give his best to everything he does, both in the way of effort and ambition as well as in the way of kindness to others. He aspires to attend an Ivy League college and become a surgical oncologist so he can achieve something for himself while helping and giving back to others. When he is not pushing himself to be his best in the classroom, he is doing just that in the gym with bodybuilding and powerlifting style training. Chase also documents his progress, the thoughts that motivate him, how he eats to perform, and even his struggles with anxiety and depression on his instagram account. Chase also happens to be transgender (assigned female at birth but identifies as male), and though he doesn’t focus on it as he sees it as just a part and not all of who he is and what he wants to be, he has recently become open about it on Instagram to provide representation he has seen a need for.

Elizabeth Liu

Finding One's Way During a Time of Gray

Elizabeth Liu is a Freshman at Beachwood High School. Currently, her favorite class is math, enjoying the orderly practices. She furthermore enjoys attending speech and debate club at her school, finding the discussion of topics very riveting. She loves to read, specifically books of the nonfiction variety. She enjoys learning the stories of history and learning the humanity behind actions and moments. She also plays the violin in the Contemporary Youth Orchestra and likes to listen and play her favorite music genre, classical.

Ella Marasco

Who are you if not the person you've always been?

A senior at Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ella is a passionate leader of her community. Throughout her time in high school, she has narrowed her focus to architecture, and the way that it can bridge gaps. Inspired by her grandmother's and her family's legacy she strives to bring together communities and create pathways for communication across borders. Currently working with a mentor at Bialosky Cleveland, she has been researching and developing a report on how safety and wellness intersect in design, specifically for schools. The report focuses on designing architecture that keeps students healthy and safe in our tumultuous world. Ella is a co-chair of the Laurel school service team and has been an active member for all of her four years at Laurel. She is also a member of the Cleveland Foundry Juniors crew team and the Laurel Powerlifting club. Next year she will be headed to the Syracuse School of Architecture for her five-year BArch professional's degree.

Frances Connors

The Ocean is Our Oyster

Franny Connors is a seventeen-year-old senior at Hawken. From a young age, she has been interested in the environment, and more recently the climate crisis. In high school, she started an environmental club and did research on international climate policy, and in college, she plans to major in Environmental Science and Public Policy. At Hawken, she plays varsity soccer and lacrosse and is also a member of the speech and debate team. She is interested in journalism as well, so she runs her school newspaper as Editor in Chief. In her free time, she likes to spend time with friends and go outside.

Olivia Boyer

The Relationship Between Afghanistan & the Media, Explained

Hi! My name is Olivia Boyer, and I am a Senior at Hathaway Brown School. Personally, I am invested in social justice and civic engagement. Along with those intertwining interests, I plan to pursue journalism in college and thereafter. Being an international correspondent for broadcast news has been my dream since I was very young, combining intrigue in both international relations and public speaking. My speech primarily addresses the conflict in Afghanistan and the specific peak in August of 2021 onwards, along with the media coverage surrounding it, and following lack thereof. News media has a silly little habit of covering things in high density surrounding a situation but dropping coverage after it no longer affects the source.

Rezah Quereshy

Unleashing my inner-artist

Rezah is a junior at University School, and he is planning on pursuing business and/or dentistry. He is quite attentive to his religion of Islam as well as spreading it in the school community with the assistance to the introduction of certain clubs: Iqra Society. In free time he enjoys playing various sports, crafts, and hanging out with family and friends. His speech “unleashing my inner-artist” displays how his discovery of certain artistic capabilities furthered his personality and allowed him to get through Covid positively.

Shamari Brazile

How to Help Students Survive School

A senior in high school and cancer survivor, Shamari wants to help teach people about the realities of mental illness.

Sofia Baris

Confidence in COVID

Sofia is a 12th grader at Shaker Heights High School, and she is planning on studying religion in college. She is extremely involved with the Jewish community of Cleveland, and she is passionate about protesting and using her voice for change. In her free time, she loves to read, play guitar, write, and spend time with her family and friends. Her speech "Confidence in COVID" focuses on her journey with self-image, brought on by isolation, and how our separation from one another tapped into our deepest layers of confidence.