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).

854 Galway Lane
Columbia, South Carolina, 29209
United States

Ashli Neal

Ashli Neal was born on March 9, 2001 in Columbia, SC and raised by parents James and Rolanda Neal. She is the youngest of four children, Mark, Shyla and Tre'. Although Ashli began school at the age of two years old, her first memories of community service did not begin until she enrolled in elementary school at Center for Inquiry. She participated in the yearly food drive where they collected and donated food items for Harvest Hope Food Bank. While in elementary school, Ashli participated in ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, cheerleading and competitive gymnastics. She performed in three professional ballets with Columbia City Ballet which included, The Nutcracker, Beauty and the Beast, and Dracula. Ashli also had an interest in modeling and acting. She was featured on the cover of Palmetto Parents magazine and in a hair magazine. Her short-lived acting career includes a commercial and two movies. After elementary school, she attended Longleaf Middle School where she participated in band, volleyball, basketball, and soccer. As a middle schooler, she was an Honor Roll student and received a band leadership award, highest GPA in basketball, highest grade in all core courses and a gymnast of the year award. She was also inducted into the Junior Beta Club. In 2015, her parents enrolled her in Hammond for high school where she continued to thrive in both her academics and extra-curricular activities. She is a member of the National Honor Society, the Headmaster's Leadership Council and the Public Policy and Social Change Program. She also participated in Youth in Government, volleyball, basketball, and track and field. She was also selected to attend Palmetto Girls State and the HOBY Leadership Conference. As an active member of her church, she participates in the youth department, the youth choir, and the Junior Usher Board. Ashli will graduate from Hammond School in May and continue her education in the fall at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. She plans to study Experimental Psychology and hopes to continue to volunteer within the community.

Benjamin Beaver

Benjamin Beaver is currently a Spanish teacher at Hammond School. Born and raised in South Carolina, he attended Clemson University, graduating in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. During his time at Clemson, he spent a semester studying abroad at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica in Santiago, Chile. He started teaching in 2007, having since taught Spanish, English, and Linguistics at high schools and colleges around the state. In 2010, he received his Master of Arts in Spanish Language and Culture from the University of Salamanca in Spain. He earned his Certificate of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of South Carolina in 2013. While at USC, he also took many other classes in Linguistics, focusing on Historical Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, presenting some of his research at the national and international conferences. He now lives in Columbia with his wife Tiffany, daughter, Teagan, and cat Elphaba. Their second daughter, Sage, will be born around the end of May. When he's not geeking out about language, he enjoys cooking, reading, and sipping his morning coffee.

Jada Rodgers

Jada Carlynn Rodgers was born on April 21, 2001 in Hinesville, Georgia, where she lived until the end of her 8th grade year. She was raised by Joseph and Jeraline Rodgers and is the youngest of two children. She is currently 17 years old and is a Senior at Hammond School, which she has been attending since the 9th grade. She is involved in many different extracurricular activities, but her favorite ones being the ones that involve community service. She volunteers usually twice a month on Saturdays where she is either serving breakfast to the homeless at a local church, sorting through donations at God's Storehouse, or playing bingo with residents at C.M. Tucker Nursing Care Center. She has also participated in multiple international volunteer opportunities, such as restoring a previously flooded area and helping remodel a church in Costa Rica in the years 2012 and 2018, volunteering at an orphanage in Honduras in 2014, and going on a mission trip to World Hope Academy and Church in Nairobi, Kenya in 2018. She is also very involved in church, Saint John Baptist Church, where she sings on the Youth Choir, serves in the Junior Deaconess group, and frequently participates on the church program. She is not sure yet where she wants to attend next fall but knows that she would like to major in Psychology, with hopes of pursuing a career in the Occupational Therapy field.

Lottie Folline

Lottie Folline has attended Hammond School since Kindergarten. She has been an active Hammond student in both the athletics and extracurriculars. Her main involvements have primarily been serving on the Honor Council, Headmaster's Leadership Council, Dance Marathon, and Public Policy and Social Change Program as well as playing tennis and soccer. Lottie has participated in Hammond's Dance Marathon each year which raises money for Columbia's local children's hospital, Palmetto Health. After leading and coordinating the event this past year, Lottie became aware of the lack of federal funding for pediatric cancer research and hopes to raise awareness surrounding this issue as cancer affects the lives of so many ones we love.

Mindy Jamison

Mindy Jamison has more than 20 years experience working with churches, agencies and communities, focused on generational poverty. Her expertise is found in assisting churches and organizations in re-visioning how they connect, in healthy ways, with their poverty impacted community. Currently, Mindy is on staff at Shandon Baptist Church, leading their benevolence and poverty focused ministries Mindy graduated from Carson-Newman College and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. She is married with one child.

Piper Meeker

Piper Meeker has been a Hammond student for the last fourteen years. In addition to school, she volunteers at Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens as a Zooteen where she provides public education on animal conservation and environmental issues. Piper is currently conducting research on the effect of consumer demand of products containing conflict minerals. This research is a part of Hammond's Public Policy and Social Change Program (PPSC). Piper will be attending Anderson University next fall, at which she plans on studying biology.

Rosemary Angel

Rosemary Angel is a Senior in the Public Policy and Social Change organization at Hammond School. She has attended Hammond since pre-kindergarten, and throughout her time she has participated in competition & spirit cheerleading, soccer, and track. She also is very involved in the arts as she is a member of Select Ensemble, Bel Canto, most theatre productions, and Editor of the Hammond yearbook. Rosemary became aware of issues surrounding human trafficking when her family decided to sponsor a young girl in India who was taken off the streets by the Taralok Foundation. For the past two years she has put in lots of energy grasping an understanding of human-trafficking and the effects it has on the community, here, in Columbia, SC. She hopes to begin to raise awareness and start discussions on the topic, and hopefully continue as she goes to college next year.

Santiago Azpurua-Borras

Santiago Azpurua-Borras was born in Caraca, Venenzuela. At age 6 he moved to the United States where he spent his childhood and adolescence traveling between the two countries. He attended Middlebury College where he studied Spanish, Psychology and Education. He later completed his Master's Degree in Madrid, Spain where he received his degree in Spanish with a focus on Pedagogical Methods. After Madrid, he moved on down to Columbia, SC to Hammond School where when he's not teaching his native language he partakes in many hobbies such as costuming, weightlifting, scuba diving and playing many kinds of games.