Theme: Rise

Los Gatos, CA. – TEDxLosGatosHighSchool will take place on March 24th at the Prentiss Brown Auditorium in Los Gatos High School from 1-5PM. The independently organized event, licensed by TED, will focus around the theme "Rise". Launched in 2009, TEDx is a program of locally organized events that bring individual communities together to share the TED experience. Some of the best talks from TEDx events have gone on to be featured on TED.com and garner millions of views from audiences across the globe. TEDxLosGatosHighSchool is an entirely student-run event, coordinated by students who are part of the school's peer to peer education program Unconditionally Positive, commonly known as UP. This is the fourth year these students will bring the event to the Los Gatos community, and they are very excited to host an event that will be even more impactful than the last one.

20 High School Court
Los Gatos, California, 95030
United States

Alicia Brodsky

Alicia Brodsky is a current Senior at Los Gatos High School. She fell in love with spoken word poetry and evoking emotion in their audience while taking a class in Creative Writing. Outside of school Sara participates in various community service organizations relating to theater and loves to exercise.

Andres Ruiz

Andres Ruiz is a Motivational Speaker, Life Coach, & Stand Up Comedian. As a life coach he helps his clients with their mind and body, so they can live a healthy and happy life. He speaks to middle schools and high schools to help empower the youth to believe in themselves so they can pursue their goals and dreams. He is also a speaker for the non-profit organization National Alliance on Mental Illness aka NAMI. He has been a member of Toastmasters for 2 years, and his SouthWest Toastmasters club gave him the courage to pursue his dream of being a motivational speaker. His hobbies are playing sports and batman lego with his 3 and 5 year old boys.

Anna David

Anna David is the a New York Times-bestselling author of two novels and four non-fiction books about addiction, recovery and relationships. She’s been published in numerous famous magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and Buzzfeed amongst many others. Through her company, “Light Hustler”, she helps people share their dark to find their light through coaching, writing, workshops, retreats, online courses, podcasts, storytelling shows, and more.

Dan Pastushkov

Dan is a High School Junior. His hobby is pushing himself beyond his own limits. He spends a lot of his time solving twisty puzzles such as Rubik's cubes, traveling to competitions around the U.S. to not only compete, but to help organize such events. He is originally from Kansas, but currently resides in Los Gatos, California. His interests also include building/flying racing drones, freestyle scootering, and playing music.

Higit Koren

Hagit Koren who is from Israel and has lived in Los Gatos for the past seven years. She is the proud owner of a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering as well as an MBA. Even though she has worked as an engineer for many years, she now seeks a way of contributing to society through her software skills. Life is one big adventure and her belief is that each one of us should make his/her own contribution to others to make this adventure a better one for many of us.

Kurt Kroesche

Up next is Kurt Kroesche who has taught, coached, and mentored students at Los Gatos High School for 25 years. He enjoys anything to do with music, words, movies, and water.

Lilli Valencia

Lilli Valencia is the founder of Lillistones, an organization dedicated to the mindful enactment and promotion of goodwill and good deeds. Lilli is working to expand her efforts to include both grassroots community efforts and global outreach to inspire others to take action where they can, find what inspires them, and “Do Something” to make the world we live in a kinder place. Lilli holds the bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of California, Davis and a teaching credential from National University. She spent several years teaching at the elementary grade level, of which 9 of those years were spent in Japan teaching at a Japanese language elementary school and as Head Teacher of the American Embassy Preschool of Japan. Lilli is married, she has two children and lives in Los Gatos, California. She is actively engaged in her community, dedicating time to the Los Gatos Art Docents, Boys Team Charity, Project Cornerstone, and the local schools.

Monica Cozzella

Monica grew up in Brazil and moved to California with her family 11 years ago. She graduated from Los Gatos High School in 2014 and is currently studying Communications and Psychology at the University of California San Diego. She is passionate about animal rights and committed to devoting her career to helping animals. She believes that we should all strive to be conscious of our impact in the world as well as each other, and one of her main goals is to give back to the Earth in appreciation for all she’s received.

Sara Tahirovic

Sara Tahirovic is a Senior at Los Gatos High School. Alicia enjoys exploring new places with her camera and playing volleyball with her friends in her free time. Both girls plan to go to a four year college after they graduate high school in June of 2018 and continue pursuing their love of creative writing. They really hope you enjoy their performance and take a minute to reflect on the message they are trying to convey.