Theme: Evolve

TEDxYouth@CECFC is a student-run event designed to connect and inform the Northern Colorado community. Our 12 speakers are united under one idea that we all found important in modern culture: Evolve. Specifically, we seek to examine how we as individuals and as a society can grow and change for the better. The event will be held on November 12th from 3:30 to 8:15 PM in the King Auditorium at Colorado Early Colleges Fort Collins High School. To further influence the community, we will be asking for one non-perishable food item, or $2 per session for entry into our event. All food collected will go to food banks in Northern Colorado, and all proceeds will be put towards producing next years TEDx event. To ensure entry, please RSVP by clicking the blue 'Attend this Event' button in the top right corner of the page, and follow the instructions on the next page. We want to change the community, and with your contribution, we can. Come support our cause in this community-wide event! Together, with the spreading of knowledge, ideas, and important questions, we can evolve for the better.

Our event will be broken into five sessions:
Session 1- "Grit" featuring Michael Brown, Gwen Rewoldt & Branson Camp
Session 2- "Perspective" featuring Tobin Houchin & Jess Sklba
Session 3- "Your Story" featuring Eli Faye & Cary Klataske
Session 4- "Creativity" featuring Ella Bruno & Chris Blocker
Session 5- "Growth" featuring Adrienne Newlin, Audrey Anderson & Zac Huss

Find out a little about each of our speakers below!

Colorado Early Colleges Fort Collins
4424 Innovation Drive
Fort Collins, Colorado, 80525
United States

Adrienne Newlin

Student

Adrienne Newlin is a junior at Loveland High School. She runs track and field and enjoys being outdoors and being with her friends. She often staps into various leadership roles in school and personal life. After high school, her goal are to go to college and study law or architecture. Adrienne reaches high and works hard t accomplish what she wants, which was a skill that took a long time to learn. Through her struggles with the Gifted and Talented education program, she wants to inspire and teach students, parents, and teachers how to be successful and find their motivation to do whatever they set their mind to.

Audrey Anderson

Student

Audrey Anderson is a junior in high school who is enthusiastic towards the arts, passionate about storytelling, and curious about every other aspect that life has to offer. Drawing, reading, writing, and exploring new and unfamiliar topics such as mathematics, science, and music are all hobbies she has found herself drawn to. Audrey is majoring in criminal justice and intends to explore different types of degrees in the arts and sciences when she graduates high school. Visual design, writing, and debate are her strong suits. When she’s not drawing, reading, writing, or gathering physical evidence to persuade her friends to agree with her on trivial matters, she’s exploring the outdoors and discovering new aspects of her city. At the age of sixteen, Audrey has decided that she will either grow up to be a freelance artist, a journalist, a lawyer, an architect, a marine biologist, an astronomer, a park ranger, or a florist, but she hasn’t decided which one it will be yet.

Branson Camp

Student, Entrepreneur and Artist

Branson Camp is a 17 -year-old coder and piano composer who attends Colorado Early College High School in Fort Collins. Branson is a national honors student and a Phi Theta Kappa member who is on pace to receive his Associates of Science degree in December. He is also an android and apple app developer, math and coding tutor. He developed and sold his second app called Tally this year to a major telecommunications corporation. Branson dreams of being an aerospace/electrical engineer working for Elon Musk, as well as continuing creating beautiful music and building his business. When he’s not on the piano keyboard, he’s using a computer keyboard as an Android and Apple app developer. This is his fourth year writing music for Immersion Dance Center. In the past few years he’s written over 20 original pieces including seven for IDC. He recently released his first album “Awakening” which includes 10 original pieces.

Cary Klataske

Actor and Educator

Cary is talking about the Gifts of Improvisation. Through games and exercises, we will explore the way Improvisation affects our brain and behavior. Improvisational techniques to improve spontaneity and creativity, and games that look to be fun and playful give us many underlying gifts. These gifts change the chemistry in our brain, the way we behave with others in our community, and the manner in which we move through the world. Improvisation is all about celebrating others' success, and giving the gift of your best self towards creating something beautiful alongside others. Cary's brief survey of these ideas will be followed with some games; in the words of Aristotle, "For the things we must learn before we do them, we learn by doing them

Chris Blocker

Business Professor

Christopher Blocker, PhD. is an Associate Professor in the College of Business at CSU. He teaches courses like Product Design and Design Thinking for Social Enterprise in CSU’s Impact MBA, which trains future leaders to address issues of global sustainability and social impact. Chris counts it a great privilege to help students develop the abilities, knowledge, and passion they need for their careers and life. In his research and work with organizations, Chris helps leaders become better storytellers through deeply understanding stakeholders and empathizing with their needs. He spends time with large companies as well as non-profits and social enterprises, and his research program on value creation in services, sales, and society leverages qualitative, experimental, and other analytical methods to develop insight. During the fall, he can be found running around at middle/high school cross-country meets to see how many times he can see his kids before they cross the finish line.

Elijah Faye

Stop Motion Enthusiast

I’ve always considered myself to be myself at all times. I never hesitate to present my humor and empathy in my life. These things are very important to me and I can't live without them. One of my favorite things to do is to tell my crazy and interesting stories. Although sometimes exaggerated, my stories are fun and exciting, mainly because I love telling them that way. A major way I tell my stories are through stop motion animation and film. I have been doing Stop motion all my life. and it is where I aim to go in life. Overall, I love sharing with people stories worth sharing.

Ella Bruno

Student and Writer

Ella Bruno has been in her own dream world since she could physically dream. Her stories circulate through her mind far more than reality ever does, and she finished writing her first professional book in the summer of 2019. She's been in the Colorado Early Colleges district since 7th grade and is invested in achieving anything and everything she finds interesting. Her interests range from hiking to writing alone in the dark to binge-watching cheesy RomComs with a bowl of cookie dough in her lap. However lighthearted her hobbies may be, she is fiercely passionate about those in her community experiencing homelessness and strives to make the underprivileged feel important in a society driven to make them feel forgotten. She also loves french fries.

Gwendolyn Rewoldt

Student

"Listen. Are you breathing just a little and calling it life?" Gwendolyn is a big fan of poetry and literature and fascinated by the human experience. She dreams of traveling, meeting all kinds of people, and learning as much as she can about the world we live in. Whether it's science or math, art or music, or even juggling if she wants to try it. At the end of the day, she believes life is what you make it.

Jess Sklba

Teacher and Artist

Jess Sklba is a high school English teacher at Colorado Early Colleges in Fort Collins. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin and then her Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Northern Colorado. Jess has been a Fort Collins resident for 4 years, and while her heart will always be in the Midwest, she’s come to love the biking, hiking, and camping that the Front Range offers. Her passion for teaching comes from a desire to cheer teenagers on as they become more engaged, thoughtful, and creative members of society. She genuinely thinks teenagers are the best, and being their English teacher provides a wonderful opportunity to connect with and support them. When she’s not teaching, you can find Jess enjoying a coffee at a café in Old Town, enjoying time outside with friends, or watching endless Bon Appetit videos in an attempt to refine her mediocre, yet aspirational, cooking skills.

Michael Brown

Inspirational Speaker

I am beginning my 37th year doing my dream job! I have had the pleasure of working with young people as an instructor for almost 4 decades. It's so much fun to laugh, dream, and assist students in areas of personal growth, and prepare them for their future by providing them with strategies to capture their hopes and dreams. Unfortunately, in life, there are things which can be limiting and prevent us from maximizing our potential. My parents were involved in the mafia. When I was four years old my father was murdered by two mafia associates. This tragic event led me on an epic adventure of hope, drive, and courage. This experience was the catalyst of me choosing to evolve into a person who would someday make it and not just make it but maximize my very potential for living. Why? Because life is worth it. It's always been my dream to provide a positive impact in the lives of others by inspiring, motivating and challenging people from all different backgrounds.

Tobin Houchin

Student and Dreamer

Tobin is a girl who speaks of what she thinks, and what she thinks is everything. From questions to answers, stories to investigations, journeys to their completion, Tobin seeks to explore the aspects of the universe and how our thoughts might translate to our place within it.

Zac Huss

Student

My name is Zahary Huss. At 17, I aspire to attend the Air Force Academy to push to my skills in the field of leadership to better serve others as we collectively serve our country. I love having the chance to challenge myself and others to see where our limits are and where they could be both individually and collectively. I have a rather artistic and creative view of my free time. Investing time into a dedicated wood carving in memory of my great grandfather, for example, is no exception. I believe that the only way to better one’s self is to focus on their own moral character by pushing the shining qualities we possess, while rather than pushing away from our lesser qualities, acknowledging them and seeking to find where they fit in our life. There is value in the best and in the worst things in life. It is up to us to decide what belongs where and to sort through the chaos we all endure. That is what forges the better part of ourselves from where we have already fought to be.