Theme: Fish in the pond

TEDxYouth@SJI is a promise to empower Josephians through inspirational anecdotes of individuals from different walks of life. At the event, TEDTalks and live speakers orchestrate to provide an intellectually stimulating environment wherein we learn from diversity of thoughts.
TEDxYouth@SJI exists because it believes. It believes that powerful ideas will change minds and impact lives. They will transform viewers into doers.
Organised by St Joseph's Institution, Singapore.

St Joseph's Institution
38 Malcolm Road
Singapore, Central Singapore, 308274
Singapore

Dhanabalan Senthil Kumar

JC1 student, St Joseph's Institution

Dhanabalan is an outspoken individual who mingles well with friends. However, few know that before becoming who he is today, Dhanabalan underwent a tough time with depression and internal struggles. During this period, he went to interact with people from all walks of life and seek counselling from those most trusted. There exists no hope without despair, and Dhanabalan would not have found happiness had he not gone through the darkest of his times. From an ordinary face in the crowd, Dhanabalan will come forward to share about the importance of gratitude in nurturing happiness. His talk is expected to be a personal one, one that connects the abstract ideas of desolation, optimism and self-fulfilment in the eye of a student, one that is relatable to everyone else. One that moves.

Karl Mak

Co-founder of Hepmil Media Group - operating SGAG and MGAG

Mr Karl Mak is the co-founder of Hepmil Media Group, a new media business that owns and operates renowned content distribution platforms such as MGAG and SGAG. Hepmil's content network reaches over 10 million people every single week across the region. As one of the most successful emerging entrepreneurs in Singapore, Karl was recently listed as Forbes Asia's 30 under 30. However, the road to success is always bumpy, so was Karl's. How does Karl emerge victorious while facing such a stiff business competition in Singapore? To answer your doubts, he will be recounting the challenges he had encountered along the way and how he managed to conquer these obstacles.

Lai Yong Tan

Lecturer/Director for Outreach and Community Engagement, NUS

Dr Tan Lai Yong holds steering leadership in the field of medical education at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Driven by compassion for the needy, he offered free medical service in Yunan, China for 15 years. Though facing adversities such as lack of funding and medical facilities, Dr Tan managed to set up a clinic and thereby significantly improved the local residents' health conditions. After returning to Singapore in 2010, he has lived the same spartan life of service. Featured by The Straits Times as the “Wandering Saint" in Singapore, "rich in ideas, strong of heart and boundless in energy”, Dr Tan is still offering free medical service to fulfil his missionary work. In this TEDx event, Dr Tan will share about his experience in Yunan and how his altruistic work benefited the local community.

Lyn Lee

Founder of Awfully Chocolate

Awfully chocolate is a culmination of Ms Lee's love and passion. Chocolate is available in most confectioneries in Singapore, but when one thinks of premium chocolate cakes, the name Awfully Chocolate very often springs to mind. Starting off merely as a chocolate lover without any professional knowledge of chocolate production, Ms Lee experimented a variety of ingredients to produce an impeccable piece of chocolate which she had always been yearning for. Now, Awfully Chocolate has ventured abroad and affirmed their position in big markets such as China and Indonesia. In this TEDx talk, Ms Lyn Lee will engage in an intimate conversation with the audience about her start-up story.

May Seow

Story Director, Facebook

Ms Seow is a creative strategist experienced in visual story-telling and design thinking. After exploring the world in her years of education, Ms Seow brings back an international mindset and leads as Story Director of APAC for Facebook Creative Shop. Ms Seow leads and scales projects from strategy through prototyping to execution. A forward-looking yet humble professional, she holds responsibility for creative initiatives on Facebook and Instagram, delivering pragmatic and revolutionary Mobile-First solutions. In this TEDx talk, as promised, she will "shift perspectives, bring new thinking and balance clarity with emotion".

Mohamed Czarmir Ikraam Mohamed Ariff

JC1 student, St Joseph's Institution

Ever since Czarmir was introduced to the stage in his first year in SJI, he has grown a passion for the performing arts. Intrigued by the impact of exaggerated actions and voices, Czarmir digs deep into a form of performance called Spoken Word Poetry - an oral art focusing on the aesthetics of word play and intonation and voice inflection. Czarmir has since amazed the school community every time he takes the stage for a spoken-word poetry performance. He dreams big and intends to sell his talent to a wider community through TED. In this TEDx talk, Czarmir invites everyone to sit back and get blown away by how mere words are made powerful.

Yen-lu Chow

Founder of Over the Rainbow

Mr Chow Yen-lu is the founder of Over the Rainbow, an organisation which aims to promote youth mental wellness and raise awareness about social anxiety. The founding of Over the Rainbow was due to a personal grief Mr Chow experienced - his son's death. Mr Chow's Son had committed suicide after bouts of severe mental breakdown. It was from this painful personal experience that together with his spouse, Mr Chow started and devoted himself to Over the Rainbow. How did Mr Chow manage to recover from trauma and embark on a journey to shed light on the lives of many? In the coming TEDx event, he is going to stir our emotions, challenge us to love and treasure humanity.