On April 15, TEDx Bonita Vista HS held their fourth annual conference in Bonita Vista High’s Bolles theater. The conference opened with the event’s Master of Ceremonies, TEDx president and senior Stephanie Ling welcoming guests and introducing the conference’s theme—‘Building a Sustainable Future.’

“We get to organize our own TEDx conference in a way that conforms to what our community needs,” Ling said. “This year our theme was building a sustainable future. This means it focuses on the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals and all the different types of habits we need to do to build a sustainable future.”

The conference featured speakers from a wide range of backgrounds giving speeches about different aspects of building a sustainable future. Both BVH students and adults spoke at the event. Ling explains how the club was able to acquire their adult speakers for the conference.

“We were able to find our adult speakers through connections we had in programs outside of school. For the student speakers, we sent out a Google form and then met with [the applicants] to make sure that their talks and experience would be appropriate for this year’s theme,” Ling said.

One student speaker was BVH sophomore Kai Winkle who talked about the way his family participates in living sustainably through composting. Through this, Winkle’s speech aimed to show the audience that they are capable of contributing to a sustainable future just like his family.

“My speech was about how we can take smaller steps in our own homes and especially by doing what me and my family do in our home to live life sustainably—which is composting,” Winkle said. “I hope that through hearing my family’s experience the audience realizes that even if you do not think you can make a difference in your own home, you most definitely can through small habits like that.” 

A notable difference to this year’s conference from past years is the inclusion of spoken word poetry. The decision to include poetry in this year’s conference came from Ling’s desire to evoke emotion in the audience through the speeches, an aspect she feels is very important to the conference.

“I was really excited that half of our speakers included spoken word poetry in their speeches. Spoken word poetry gives people that emotional connection,” Ling said. “We give our audience a way to relate to what we are talking about. It provides that emotional response that is necessary for people to feel like they need to make a change.”

One speaker who included spoken word poetry in her speech was BVH alum Madison Geering. Geering was invited as a speaker because of her experience competing with spoken word poetry. Similar to Ling, Geering feels that in addition to the emotional connection with the audience, the writing process for poetry is also extremely emotional.

“One of the TEDx members invited me to come back and speak because of my experience with spoken word poetry,,” Geering said. “I feel like the best writing comes from channeling and getting in touch with your emotions and the emotions surrounding whatever topic you’re discussing. That is really what I try to do whenever I am writing spoken poetry.”

Geering’s poetic speech discussed gender equality in relation to sustainability. Geering shares that while there are many aspects to creating a sustainable future, her personal experience with the subject was her inspiration for speaking about this specific facet of sustainability. 

“There are a lot of UN sustainability goals and ways to be sustainable. So I thought to myself, ‘What can I speak on from my personal experience and from what I’ve witnessed in other people’s lives?’ I thought about the topic of gender inequality,” Geering said. “It’s something I’ve always been affected by, something I know other people have always been affected by. I decided that would be the sustainability goal that I focused on in my speech.”

Ling shares the value TEDx holds on campus in giving members of the community an opportunity to inspire change based on current issues in the world. She feels the club was able to accomplish this through this year’s conference.

“The whole point of TEDx is not only to inspire classmates, but to provide a platform for members of our community to share their experiences and insight into what the problems are in today’s world,” Ling said. “It is an event that’s very good for our community because it allows people to come here and keep an open mind so they can try to do the little things that they can do to help improve our community.”

Winkle explains that it is especially important for students to have a platform to speak on social issues because of their ability to fix them. He believes that students can work towards developing the sustainable future spoken about at this year’s conference.

“For students, especially, we’re the next generation and as damaged as our world is, in a lot of different ways we can actually put a stop to everything that’s been going on,” Winkle said. “Whether that be climate change or gender inequality, we’re the ones who can help shape our future and create one that is sustainable.”