Theme: What's Your Legacy?

18 Presenters from 9 different High Schools across Colorado.

Legacy High School
2701 W 136th Ave
Broomfield, Colorado, 80023
United States

Aidan Gover

Student

Aidan Gover is currently a student at Legacy Highschool, he would like to raise awareness to certain race and income issues within the United States after living in Broomfield and seeing the difference between both of these areas, especially after seeing the outcome of people he knew growing up. Seeing how his father and other members of his family have affected the lives of many people through raising awareness of all sorts of problems throughout the world and spreading their culture in their community, Aidan would like to do the same. He currently is in 10th grade and a member of the environmental club and track team at Legacy High School. When he grows up, he would like to pursue a degree in the material science field as he likes learning about topics in science and mathematics and to set an example for other individuals within the Native American and indigenous peoples community throughout the world.

Anna Brekken

Student + Creative Writer

"Anna is a creative writer and entrepreneur. She believes everyone has an incredibly important story to share, and creative writing is the tool to uncover your voice and stand out (like authentic Tiramisu in the middle of Kansas). When Anna started high school, she was disappointed in the way English was taught. So this talk is about how to improve it. Before that, Anna launched a blog, built her greeting card shop, and organized Soaring Together 2022, an online event for teen business owners with 16 speakers and over 200 attendees. If she’s not connecting with other teen business owners, you might find Anna chasing Pickles (her cat) or making every stuffy school assignment aggressively creative. Anna is an aspiring speaker, writer, and creative – new ideas flood her notes app daily. "

Ava Conley

Student

"Ava Conley is a freshman at Legacy High School in Broomfield Colorado. She’s part of Legacy 2000, a STEM program that has allowed her to explore areas of personal interest. Most of Ava’s research has centered around psychology. Motivation has been a topic of particular interest for her, as it plays a role in everyone’s daily lives and can be a driving force in reaching goals. In her free time, Ava enjoys running cross country and track for her school. She is also a member of Future Business Leaders of America and is on the Youth Advisory Board for A Precious Child, a nonprofit organization in Broomfield. She loves to ski, hike, travel and spend time with family and friends."

Cadence Fong

High School Student

My name is Cadence Fong and I’m a 17 year-old junior attending Legacy High School. Ever since I was a child, I remember having countless hobbies and interests, some of the most influential ones include reading, video editing, computer science, math, and painting.Aside from my pastimes, in the future I plan to pursue a career in technology and possibly focus on the field of cyber security specifically. I’m not completely sure what I want to do in life; however, I’ve always preferred more logic-based topics, so I naturally gravitate towards subjects that fulfill this instinctive need. I’m like a glass jar with millions of random questions swirling around in my head and I’m constantly trying to abate the neverending curiosity I have about the world. There are plenty of strange feelings and unique thoughts piling within me everyday and I’m incredibly excited to share a small, important snippet of my complicated self to everyone.

Ella Winthers

Wheat Ridge High School Student

Ella Winthers is a sophomore at Wheat Ridge High School in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Often compared to Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, she has had a love of public speaking for as long as she can remember. Ella is a member of the WRHS marching band, Speech and Debate Team, Gifted and Talented Center, and is a team lead for the school’s STEM program where they build hydrogen-powered cars to race at the annual Shell Eco-Marathon. Ella has a passion for environmentalism, and mental health issues among Generation Z. Ella is a bundle of energy and is always doing something! She is so excited to share her ideas and have the chance to help others.

Emeline Smith

Youth Advocate

" Emeline has been taught her entire life to always show kindness and stand up for others. Though she seems quiet, she's always showing these values through her voice. Emeline is a proud advocate and has testified to pass several bills, helped make better education curricula around social issues, and alsos a intern for the advocacy organization, Colorado Youth Congress. With this however comes the issue of being a teenager– and the prejudice people have towards that. When you’re young, people often assume that you know nothing. Emeline’s learned this through her years of advocacy, and hopes to one day help erase the power dynamics between adults and youth, while also inspiring youth to have the courage to share their voices. Nothing's as important as working together to make the world a kinder place, and Emeline wants to help bring that to life. She will be heading off to St. Olaf College to study Psychology, and to continue sharing her kindness, hope, and optimism in the fall.

Fahad Tamton

Student

"Fahad Tamton hopes to continue to push the youth voice, especially in regards to artificial intelligence, ethics and cybersecurity. Fahad has been involved in projects to help educate about the importance of ethics in the field of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. He is passionate about development of ethical AI systems for the future. Fahad co-organized the Youth AI Ethics Conversations Conference along with the University of Colorado Boulder to inform and inspire people to become more aware about the integration of human morality and values with technology. He has also participated in the production of educational material to be introduced at the elementary school level to educate children about this topic. As we move towards a future where our dependence on technology is increasing exponentially, defining rules for coexistence is a necessity. Fahad hopes to introduce more students to these topics through schools, lesson plans, and learning tools."

Kalina Kulig

Support Team Assisted Response Advisory Board Member

Kalina Kulig serves on the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Community Advisory Board and the Denver Mayor’s Youth Commission. She lives in Colorado with her family, where she is a senior in high school. Kalina knows that alternative policing solutions have the potential to empower people across the nation by raising communities from their roots. She hopes that people in power will be open to innovative solutions and take into account the voices of all stakeholders. Kalina’s writing has been published in the Denver Post and ColoradoBiz Magazine, and she has been featured in several TV segments on PBS12. As an advocate for her community, Kalina Kulig is passionate about giving back while empowering young people.

Legacy High School Orchestras

Symphonic Orchestra at Legacy High School

The Nationally Recognized Legacy Symphonic Orchestra is comprised of thirty students who range in age from 14—18. These students meet daily to work together with their Director, Mr. Trey Tafoya, to prepare string orchestra repertoire. Their musical selection aim to represent a vast array of composers, musical genres, and musical time periods. The Legacy Symphonic Orchestra has consistently received Superior Ratings at festivals, they have performed at the Colorado Music Educators Convention and they have performed at the American String Teachers Association National Orchestra Festival.

Madeline Moon

Student

Madeline is currently 17 years old, and will attend Utah State University in Fall 2022 to continue her education with the goal of eventually becoming an optometrist. Madeline has always had a strong passion for service. She hopes to one day have her own nonprofit organization where she can travel the world and help people in need. She is also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and has had many opportunities to participate in service projects through her church. Such projects include assembling Thanksgiving meals every year for struggling families in Denver, playing music and games in senior living homes, and sorting donations for local organizations. She has also completed service through the National Honors Society and Generous Leadership Challenge & Big Idea Project, in which she received The Big Idea Project's 2021 Generous Leadership Award. In Summer 2022, Madeline will take part in an 18-day humanitarian trip to Belize where she will help build a school.

Maya Dawson

Student Journalist

"Maya Dawson is a junior at Conifer High School. She fell in love with storytelling from stories around the dinner table growing up, and now shares her own stories and those of her peers through her school’s student paper. She has worked as a Global Youth Reporter with the Team Harmony Foundation and has been published in several papers. Her work focuses on social justice and the challenges faced by today’s youth. She hopes to pursue political science or journalism in college- whatever will best let her share the stories of those who are not being heard. When not writing, she runs, plays basketball, and cares for her pet Axolotl (Look up photos... they are fantastic creatures). "

Meera Bipin

Student - Dancer

Meera Bipin is currently a Freshman at Legacy High School and enjoys being a part of many clubs and activities including Track and Field, Freshman Class Leadership, and Model United Nations. In her community, she participates in many activities including being a Girl Scout Senior, Vice President of the Northglenn Youth Commission, and learning Indian Classical Music and Indian Classical Dance. She has been a Bharatanatyam Dancer for about 7 years under the guidance of Guru Srimati Sulakshana Jayaram, the founder of Shivoham School of Dance. Through this art form, she has been able to learn so much about her culture and has gotten the opportunity to perform at various events around her community and teach younger students this art form. She enjoys volunteering at many different events which have allowed her to give back to the communities that she is a part of. In her free time, she enjoys reading, drawing, painting, crocheting, spending time outdoors, and spending time with her family!

Riya Bhat

Student at Mountain Vista High School

Riya is a current senior at Mountain Vista High School and looks forward to pursuing an exciting career in medicine. She has a passion for cognitive science and loves to explore how the human mind works. Beginning her freshman year, Riya was elected to the Technology Student Association State Officer Team, and later served as Colorado’s State President, where she visited schools all over Colorado to relay the importance of the STEM fields and led a delegation of 2,000+ members. Not only that, she, along with her HOSA (Future Health Professionals) officer team, organized a community walk to raise money for Pediatric Cancer Research and Awareness and have spearheaded several fundraisers to support Be The Match, a nonprofit. Over the summers, she enjoys working in a biochemistry lab to assist with epigenetics research at CU Denver and has found research to be a true interest of hers. Riya also loves to sew and bake in her free time.

Ruby George

High School Student

Ruby is a youth activist and a high school student. In middle school they became really passionate about social justice. The topic of trans identies and pronouns is one that they hold close to their heart.

Samantha Manuszak

Hero Crafter Intern

Samantha Manuszak is a Willam J. Palmer student in the 2023 graduating class. She has received community service awards from Girl Scouts and school. One such award was the Colorado Youth Citizenship Award, which she was given in the 8th grade. In 2019 she worked with two other girls to create an AR app for the Colorado Springs Business Journals Women of Influence event. She has been helping to create projects for the Space Foundation. Though if it weren’t for the numerous students also working on the projects it would never have reached the point it has. For her Girl Scout silver award, she spent the summer building a Little Free LibraryTM to put in front of her middle school. For fun Samantha loves to do small research projects, sing, and paint tabletop miniatures. She has always had a passion for math, medicine, and biology which has led her to work towards getting a PhD in biomedical engineering.

Samuel Law

Student

Hi! I am a Junior at Legacy High School. I'm an American Born Chinese and I moved to Colorado when I was two. Since then, I've gone through school and picked up various skills, such as Piano, Tennis, Flute, a knack for losing things, and the inability to find anything around my house except food. I'm also gifted and talented, but my mother says that I'm only gifted and talented in being a dork. Nowadays, I spend most of my time focusing on school, trying to improve in tennis, volunteering at my church, and doing other side projects such as writing books, making short films, and other general shenanigans. I work with children and they seem to like me (or at least, like to insult me). As of now, I am working towards a future in Aerospace Engineering, because I am a dork and love planes, rockets, and space in general. And to make things clear, I do not want a career in law, or anything related to the legal field even though I know my name would make the coolest law firm title ever.

Veronica Keff

Student

Veronica Keff is a senior at Smoky Hill High School in Aurora, CO with a deep passion for Astronomy. As the founder of the Smoky Hill Astronomy Club and president of Art Club, she has a wide range of interests across both STEM and artistic fields. From a young age, she loved learning about outer space and creating art. Years later, she still does both– sometimes combining them to create space illustrations–and insists that nobody needs to ‘choose’ between their passions. Her hard work and perseverance have granted her many opportunities, such as displaying her art in a solo exhibition at Children’s Hospital Colorado and receiving academic achievement awards for her work in math and science. She looks forward to continuing her education as part of CU Boulder's Astronomy/Astrophysics program. Veronica hopes that, as a Latina pursuing a career in Astrophysics, she can bring more empowerment and diversity to the field, as well as spreading awareness around why Astronomy matters.

Xander Varos

Foster Youth

I have been in the foster care system going on three years and through what I have seen and experienced I realize how important it is to have a voice for our youth going forward to be successful adults.