Theme: Evolve

Our event will feature student speakers who have been trained to address local and global audiences about issues they feel passionate to resolve, and which impact the evolution of individuals, our societies, and our planet.

Teatro Justo Rufino Garay
Address: 19a Avenida S.O
Managua, Managua, 10010
Nicaragua

Alexandra Gomez

Sophomore Student: Social Media as a Tool or a Weapon

Alexa has always been interested in TEDx since volunteering at the first "Engage" event in 2015. There was always a sense of admiration she felt towards speakers, but she never imagined herself ever being brave enough to jump on a stage with such confidence. Even though it was also a dream of hers to do it at least once: perhaps during senior year. However, this year I joined the TEDx elective, hoping to become more involved by working alongside event Organizers to assemble the event. For an in-class assignment she needed to create a script for a possible TED talk and present to the class, which helped her feel incredibly empowered. Classmates (and also, her beloved teacher Mrs. Wilke) encouraged that she audition to be a speaker, and even though she was absolutely scared, she auditioned because she felt extremely passionate about the topic, and sees opportunity to truly make a change, if not in the Whole Wide World, within our little world at the American Nicaraguan School.

Argie Byrne

Senior Student: Inclusion, ASD awareness

Argie became involved with TedxYouth@ANS at the beginning of her Senior year when she decided that she wanted to help make a change. She wanted to make peers see that being different is actually a great thing, something that we should embrace. Her biggest motivation was because she wants to prevent her brother from being excluded in the future, she wants to make this world a better and more accepting place for him, for her sister and for every kid that is seen as "weird or different" because in the end not one person is exactly the same as the next, and that's OK. We should learn to embrace diversity.

Carlos Marín

Junior Student: Personal Sacrifice

Carlos is a Junior at ANS and learned about the TEDxYouth program at his school after attending the event last year. He found it incredible how his peers were able to speak so eloquently and powerfully to a listening community, about something they were passionate about. So he thought that I should try. He has enjoyed learning and experiencing the whole process so far and hopes that many people will attend this years event because it gives a voice to the community to open up a conversation and express concerns or solutions about problems plaguing our society.

Carlota Navarrete

Freshman Student: The Dangers of Groupthink

Carlota is currently a freshman at ANS. She first heard about the ANS TedX program when she was in seventh grade, it was the first year the event took place, sadly she couldn't attend. This year, she mustered the courage to audition to be a speaker and she felt it was nothing short of a miracle when she found out she would speak at the third annual TEDx youth event. She was in shock; it made her excited to share her thoughts with others to make a change in her community. So far with the process she's grown more confident about herself, the fact that she doesn't feel that I have to watch every single thing I say. She knows that this year's event will impact our community in a positive way, with people talking about suicide, racism, inequalities, courage, to name a few. Her biggest goal for the outcome of this event would be that people listen to and act on what we will be sharing, in accordance with the mission and vision of TED.

Frank Matus

Sophomore Student: STEM Builds a Better World

Frank is a sophomore in the American Nicaraguan School. From a young age, he has been interested to become an engineer. His interest was sparked when he built his first model using blocks, where he not only discovered a new way to play but found a way to creatively express himself. This can be translated to thinking up modern innovations and looking at problems from different angles and through distinct lenses. In the 4th grade, he built his first programmable robot and has been engaging in engineering projects with a local Nicaraguan team since the 9th grade. He has also attended various STEM-based camps including CampInvention and i2 Camp. He has been spearheading a rotating solar panel project with the hope of one day bringing affordable energy to rural areas for the last year as the President of the Nicaraguan Robotics Initiative. He is interested to deliver a TEDx Talk to encourage peers to think "outside the box".

Jasmine Odongo

Junior Student: Xenophobia and "The Other"

When Jasmine first heard about TEDxYouth@ANS she thought of it as opportunity for our younger generation to be heard. She took this as a chance for opening and healing, to expose the pain and suffering she has endured due to xenophobia and discrimination; to come to terms with and accept it. The program helped her confidence boost, and realise that she's an activist that should be using all possible platforms to influence positive change. TED has also helped her realize she is not the only one going through emotional processing, everyone suffers and everyone has a battle they are fighting, and TED offers hope to work positively to end this inner turmoil and conflict. The TEDxYouth@ANS team has become a family, where she is unconditionally accepted and will never be judged.

Paulina Cuadra

Freshman Student: Overcoming Failure

Paulina Cuadra will be speaking at TEDxYouth@ANS this April about the importance of facing our fear of failure and putting ourselves in difficult positions. Overcoming failure is vital to achieving our aspirations. She hopes her talk will help her community face their fears and succeed thanks to the difficulty faced, not because they avoided it altogether.