Theme: Rejuvenation

Vivifica - to revive. To be born anew. To reinvent, build and grow.

TEDxIroquoisRidgeHS is proud to present our theme for 2022: RejuvenaTED! At its root, RejuvenaTED seeks to explore how we can revitalize and grow with the world around us; in blossoming new technologies, in renewable ways to power our expanding world, and in reinvigorating ourselves to exceed our personal limits.

Rejuvenation is an act of renewal; to regain something that was lost but with even greater potential, or to improve something that was already good, and take it to even greater heights. The power to rejuvenate is all around us, but it is up to us to open our mind and seize the opportunity to grow.

RejuvenaTED is an opportunity to explore and discuss these ideas in the signature TEDx 18 minute format.

Iroquois Ridge High School
1123 Glenashton Drive
Theater
Oakville, Ontario, L6H 5M1
Canada

Aasha Khan

Speaker

Aasha Khan is a grade 9 student, currently enrolled in the International Baccalaureate Program at Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute. Her motivation for public speaking took root and continued to flourish through her elementary school, which prided itself on public speaking. From these annual competitions, Aasha was given the confidence to present herself in front of others, as she went on to become a finalist and second place winner in the 2020 Lions Club Speaking Competition. The topic that Aasha will be presenting in her TED talk is “how to have a constructive conversation”. Today, more than ever, we live in a polarized world, in which people refuse to work together to resolve significant issues like climate change and global health. We must be willing to let go of our fears, understand each others’ perspectives, and engage in difficult conversations, so that we may rejuvenate our social discourse to help build the foundation for a brighter tomorrow.

Blake Fly

Speaker

Blake is husband, dad, entrepreneur and 8-time TEDx Speaker. Blake's memorable relationship-building methods have gotten him hired to deliver keynote speeches on over 1000 in-person stages and invited to work with companies such as Lululemon, LinkedIn and Microsoft. Blake is also the producer of the 55-year event series for entrepreneurs, called “Thank U Live.” It is the annual gratitude experience for entrepreneurs to look back on their year, celebrate their progress and appreciate their people by delivering hundreds of gratitude messages in real-time. Blake loses every staring contest he engages in with his baby boy Koah (Pronounced like Noah with a ‘K’), and baby girl Summer and has a huge crush on his beautiful bride, Emily.

Caleb Lo

Speaker

Caleb Lo is a grade 12 emerging technology enthusiast and social entrepreneur at Milliken Mills High School. He hopes to share his paradigm of experiences regarding the importance of mindset and its ability to drive innovation in a world with so many problems at TEDx. Being a Horatio Alger Canadian Scholar and recipient of the Jean Lumb Leader of Tomorrow Award, his experiences have landed him the opportunity to work as an innovation intern at Walmart Blue Labs the past summer. Caleb’s speech questions the lack of innovation in the world, stemming from our mindset model. He shares his view about unconventionality, global problems, and how the framework we live by is detrimental to societal growth. Ultimately, he believes that rejuvenation of the world is in direct causation with how we can fight global problems, which can be iterated by the way we think.

Emily Elliot

Speaker

Emily is the founder of Magnetic Mindset Coaching, a former Naturopathic Doctor and a forever student of life. After severe burnout from schooling and the corporate world, Emily became certified in Neurolinguistic Programming, EFT, Coaching and Hypnosis. She has coached over 500 women on finding more vibrancy, leaving them feeling far more rejuvenated in their life and work. Emily’s calling is to help women create a life that they can’t wait to wake up to every morning, without sacrificing everything. Emily is Mama to Koah and Summer and has a fond love of coffee, weiner dogs and things that sparkle.

Janna Jorgensen

Speaker

Janna is a human impact specialist who has helped thousands of individuals, teams and organizations to formulate and activate their own purpose and strategy with greater impact. Her work focuses on amplifying impact over time by increasing clarity, focus and mindfulness of human impact at critical points in time. She is the creator of the Human Impact Framework, the Founder of ION Leadership Consulting, spouse to Paul, and proud fur-mamma of 4 cats. A firm believer in the rejuvenating power of an impact-activated purpose, Janna donates hundreds of hours a year to not-for-profit and charitable organizations to activate own purpose of “making work better and making better work.” In her spare time she can be found on the water, in the forest or at the dining room table doing jig saw puzzles.

Lorraine Jordan

Speaker

Lorraine Jordan is a powerhouse real estate professional with over 30 years’ experience. She is an entrepreneur, author, keynote speaker, coach and mentor. More importantly, Lorraine is a dream-maker. In 2002 Lorraine founded Team Jordan with one assistant, and expanded to become the #1 Keller Williams team in Canada with over $5. billion in Real Estate Volume – and has helped almost 10,000 families in her career. A noted philanthropist and supporter of her community, Lorraine understands and appreciates the many unique benefits of life in the Georgian Bay area with its unmatched beauty, culture and amazing outdoor living. Lorraine’s passions include her ’67 Skylark convertible, travel and spending time with her family including her four amazing children. Pierre, Alec, Adam and Jenie.

Monica Laurence

Speaker

Monica Laurence is a business and brand strategist, serial entrepreneur and conscious explorer with a passion for life. She collaborates with purpose-driven innovators to craft their brand identities, go-to-market strategy and digital presence. She draws on her experience in Hollywood entertainment, Silicon Valley technology startups, and her love of international design, fashion and travel. In addition to her marketing consulting practice, Monica is the creator of Tavola Fiji, her luxe private villa and inspiring venue for her transformational Stillness retreats. Monica is also the founder of Quantum Surfing, a growth mindset creation method that teaches visionary creators to combine neuroscience, applied enlightenment and quantum mechanics to predictably create lucky outcomes, accelerate their impact and experience true rejuvenation.

Neu-Anne Burke

Speaker

Neu-Anne Burke is a 12th grader at St. Jude’s Academy in Mississauga. As a determined and curious discoverer, she has numerous passions in life. Some examples of this are music, poetry, the environment, school clubs, giving back to her community and so much more. However, as she made her way through her high school journey, she started to realize how unprepared her generation is for adult life, but she also questioned why some of the most important things aren’t being taught to us. Topics ranging from sexual education, anatomy and healthy relationships are rarely ever talked about in school successfully. Neu-Anne’s TEDx Talk is about bringing light to these topics; together we can rejuvenate the things we’ve never truly learnt. Welcome to Adulting 101.

Rainaa Kanabar

Speaker

Rainaa Kanabar is a grade 12 healthcare enthusiast at Iroquois Ridge High school. She has a passion for healthcare, well-being, and people, and hopes to one day become a psychiatrist. She spends her free time working out, swimming, writing, reading, and spending time with friends and family. She really enjoys connecting with others through outside-of-school initiatives (Canadian Cancer Societies Youth Troop, The Art of Leadership, Elevate festival, STEM fellowship) and inside of school clubs (President of Biology Club). Her TED talk “Surrendering to our discomfort” hopes to teach the youth of today how achieving success comes from leaving our comfort zones and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Breaking free from the conditioning that positive emotion is the key to well-being is the first step to a true journey of success.

Raymond Zhu

Speaker

Raymond is a content creator and writer currently attending grade 12 in Markham. In his free time, he reads philosophy, skateboards, plays basketball, and does photography. He decided to get into public speaking because he wanted to spread ideas and become more articulate in daily conversation. His motivation behind attending TEDx was to share his experience of unlearning some previous toxic patterns in his talk regarding masculinity, in hopes of aiding others. His talk “Self Improvement, Rejection, and Masculinity” centers on the issues men face when dealing with the suffocating standards of masculinity they must live up to. In his talk, he divulges his inner struggles with masculinity, Internet culture, and self-improvement, and his subsequent journey towards reaching a healthy new ideal.

Yandan Ma

Speaker

Yandan Ma is an avid thinker, activist, and grade 10 student who currently attends Iroquois Ridge High School. He has been passionate about public speaking and debate from a young age, and thought that TEDxIroquois Ridge would be an excellent opportunity to share some of his thoughts. In his free time, Yandan enjoys debate, playing video games and photography. He currently serves as the grade 10 representative for the Iroquois Ridge debate club. Yandan’s TEDx speech is titled “How to save the world: a step-by-step guide”. In it, he will be discussing the effects and causes of climate change, fossil fuels, and industrialization, as well as providing a simple step-by-step guide on how we can make a difference.