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).

TEDxBIS Istanbul Youth
Kilyos Cad. No:227 Zekeriyaköy, Sarıyer İstanbul - Türkiye
Istanbul, İstanbul, 34450
Turkey

Amaya Valery

Student

Cultural identity is a term everyone is acquainted with but, surprisingly, may be elusive to some. As a multinational civilian living her life in countries scattered all around the world, Amaya Valery has been exposed to a number of different cultures. This diverse exposure has sparked her curiosity on the concept of belonging, as she navigates the challenge of finding her place within each cultural sphere.

Amina Khojazoda

Student

Amina is an aspiring 12-year-old student currently studying at BISI. In her upcoming talk, Amina aims to demystify artificial intelligence (AI) for her audience by displaying both the technology's transformational potential and the ethical implications of its rapid growth. Equipped with her limitless curiosity and constant optimism, her goal is to inspire others to embrace technology as a tool for good in the world.

Daniyal Alavi

Student

Daniyal is an avid swimmer, having represented the Pakistan team in international competitions. He also loves watching sports like football and cricket, fascinated by the history of their development. Daniyal Alavi moved to Istanbul from his hometown of Karachi shortly before his 15th birthday. He noticed the differences in sports culture here compared to back home, caused by geopolitical differences. He decided to explore this link between politics and sports and shares his findings in this talk. In his free time, Daniyal likes playing video games and reading about history.

Dongwoo Kim

Student

Dongwoo has been interested in ways to produce energy since he was young. Specifically, he has been interested in future technology such as renewable energy. Dongwoo was born in South Korea and has lived in South Korea for 14 years. He once entered a science writing contest about renewable energy in Korea and won a prize. Dongwoo is still interested in scientific topics after his move to Istanbul. Dongwoo always writes about scientific topics in the school magazine. Now he has adapted to the new environment at school and he is challenging himself every day.

Kareem Kamal

Student

Kareem has a very curious and creative mind that he puts to work a lot of the time. He is 11 years old, turning 12 on April 27th and he has experienced stress and anxiety which made him talk all about it. He has lived in Toronto, Canada from when he was born to 6 years old, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for 4 years till 10 and he is now in Istanbul, Turkey. He is fluent in English and Arabic and partly fluent in French, Turkish and Korean. He loves learning new languages and discovering new cultures. His mother was born in Canada and is Canadian and Palestinian. His dad was born in Kuwait and is from Palestine and Kareem is from Canada and Palestine. Kareem loves travelling and exploring the world with his family. His goal with his Ted talk is to show people that they aren’t alone when they experience stress or anxiety and that there are many ways to fix it so that people don’t need to suffer.

Lara Barbulescu

Student

Lara is a Romanian 12 year old. She moved from Romania to Istanbul when she was only 4 years old. Even though she cannot speak Turkish fluently, she can speak English and Romanian. She had attended international schools from the age of 3. In her years, she had suffered from extreme anxiety from the age of 8 and she continues to find different ways to help overcome it. In this talk, she will be talking about anxiety and how to cope with it as she knows how many people suffer from it and hopes to help others in need.

Mara Samardzic

Student

Mara Samardzic has been intrigued by the eighties. Ever since she was very young, her mum always told her about the thrill and excitement she lived in during her time in the eighties ; whether it was fashion, the way of life or the not so advanced technology. Mara’s dual nationality of Croatian and Australian allows her to provide the eighties from two changed experiences. Her dad’s experience as a punk and her mum’s experience as a fashion designer growing up in the eighties gave Mara a look into the two very different experiences of the eighties.

Martyna Kulikowska

Student

Martyna is a 12 year old girl with a keen mind, who often finds herself lost in the labyrinth of her own thoughts. Overthinking became her constant companion, leaving patterns of worry and doubt in her mind. She has observed that most people have the same issue, and would like to help them overcome their worries. Despite her young age, Martyna has a deep understanding of mental health, and likes to spread awareness of them, as she understands that it’s a very serious problem. She also noticed that some mental health conditions come from a small problem most of us miss, overthinking. So in this talk, Martyna will be explaining to us that even though overthinking itself isn’t an issue, it can lead to a very big one.

Sara Ghasemi

Student

Sara is really interested about education, pedagogy and sociology in general, which is possibly due to the experiences she had in Iran. Other than that, she loves singing and piano. She has been in Istanbul for the last 4 years, and before that, she was in Tehran, Iran. She is fluent in English and Farsi, and she is also familiar with French, Turkish and Azeri!

Wylie Roosevelt

Student

Wylie is 16 and loves cubing. He likes thinking about different combinations and algorithms. And now with AI set to take over our lives, he is exploring this new technology. He is learning about video applications, storytelling and image generation. He is also focused on sciences and geography. The combination of all these things snowballed into the development of his TED-Talk about autonomous cars, AI and ethics. His talk begins with autonomous cars on roadways but delves deeper into the extraction and different foodprints of such technologies. Outside of school, Wylie enjoys hosting friends and relaxing. He is an expat American living in Istanbul. He has been coming to Türkiye since he was a baby — his parents are archeologists. Wylie savours Turkish food and loves hiking in the mountains. In the summer he also spends time in the US (Maine and New York) with family.

Zhounuo Guo

Student

Zhounuo is 15 years old and has been attracted by the modern study of Physics. He started to enjoy the experience of being ’confused’ and amazed by some of the various unbelievable theories and conjectures since he first came to touch with the study of physics. He is also keen on sharing ideas related to physics to his friends. Zhounuo was born in Shenzhen China and began to take education internationally at the age of 10. Commonly, he likes to play table tennis for recreation as well as solving Rubik’s cube. In this talk he will be introducing one of his favourite topics from the cutting edge of the physics studies