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).

Dorseyville Middle School
3732 Saxonburg Blvd, Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15238
United States

Adele Grady

Miss Adele Grady is currently a fifth grader at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subjects include music, art as well as science. Outside of school, she enjoys horseback riding, sewing as well as skiing. In the future, she hopes to travel one day to Brazil.

Ashley Wingard

Ashley is 9 years old, and a fourth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. She enjoys gymnastics, chorus, dance parties, swimming, cooking, playing the viola, and having slumber parties with her friends. Her favorite classes are music and recess. She has a deep appreciation of nature, and, in particular, butterflies. She is always thinking of ways to be a good friend, and of how she can help others. She loves her family, her friends and Hartwood Elementary.

Beckett Swack

Mr. Beckett Swack is a fourth-grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. He enjoys playing with friends, playing video games, cooking with his family and playing with his pets. His favorite subject in school is definitely science because he enjoys studying about science-related topics. In fact, when he grows older, he hopes to become a scientist. Beckett’s speech is about the importance of family traditions and the fact that old is sometimes just as good as new.

Bella Gray

Ms. Isabella Gray is a current fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. Her interests outside of school include singing, playing the violin and art. She hopes someday she can either become a second grade teacher or perhaps a famous singer. In her speech, Bella wants others to know that art is a way to sooth the soul. Please enjoy her speech “I was Created to Create.”

Braxton Bielawski

Mr. Braxton Bielawski is currently a sixth grader at Hartwood Elementary School. His favorite subjects are gym because he gets to play fun games while getting a workout. In his free time, he enjoys video games, drawing cars, creating lyrics for rap songs or just listening to them. In the future he hopes to be either a car designer, a rapper or a producer. He sometimes is okay with waiting but not all the time and so this is the reason behind his speech “What is Patience?”

Cameron Lapiana

Mr. Cameron Lapiana is a current fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. His favorite subject in school is math because he enjoys problem solving. In his free time, he enjoys baseball, basketball and playing the trombone. In the future, he hopes that he will become an engineer. Cameron is passionate about having the ability to follow his dreams and interests. Please enjoy his speech, “I Believe.”

Cameryn Brindza

Miss Cameryn Brindza is currently a fourth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. Outside of school, she enjoys swimming as well as drawing. Her favorite subjects include math as well as science. In the future, she hopes to one day becomes an orthodontist. One of her greatest passions in life is teaching other people about her religion.

Elliott Willison

Ms. Willison is a fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. She was specially chosen to be our Master of Ceremony for the night.

Evelyn Owens

Miss. Evelyn Owens is currently a sixth grader at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subjects are math and reading because she can do them without thinking and she enjoys them! Her favorite hobbies include reading, writing, chemistry, art, gymnastics, dance and singing and poetry. In the future, I want to be a lot of things like a chemist, a doctor, an acrobat, a dancer and a journalist. She is passionate about her speech because one time her and her friends (in Maryland) had a fight and they realized that if they didn’t have each other, they wouldn’t be the same. Please enjoy her original song “Finding Friends.”

Gram Seymour

Gram is a current fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. His favorite subjects in school include reading because he loves novel studies. Outside of school, he enjoys playing soccer, building legos, reading and video games. In the future, he hopes to play soccer or become a lego designer. He is quite passionate about getting others to understand the importance of protecting animals. He gets his inspiration from his dog, Honey. Please enjoy his speech “Adopt Don’t Shop.”

Hanying Zhang

Ms. Hanying Zhang is a current sixth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subject in school is math. Outside of school, she enjoys reading because it makes her feel more relaxed. Someday, she hopes to get accepted into National Geographic because she loves animals. She is passionate about her speech because she wants it to affect the way a person looks at the world. Please enjoy their speech “Finding Your Character.”

Hartwood Students

Passionate group of 4th and 5th graders from The Fox Chapel Area School District dedicated to changing the world.

Helen (Heyi) Han

Miss Helen (Heyi) Han is currently a fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subjects include Gym, Reading, Music and Art. Her hobbies outside of school include dancing, playing the piano and pipa. In the future, she hopes to act in shows, help the homeless and become an artist. She is passionate about helping others but also realizes the importance of taking care of you.

Ish Conklin

Mr. Ishmael Conklin is currently a fourth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. His favorite subject is reading because he always has time to read. In addition, he enjoys playing sports as well as playing the trumpet and reading a variety of books. In the future, he hopes to play baseball for the Cleveland Indians. He is quite passionate about making sure that everyone in the world is treated the same. Tonight he will be discussing a new way to look at homelessness in his speech entitled “Helping the Homeless.”

Jaxon Branscum

Mr. Jaxon Branscum is currently a fourth grade at Hartwood Elementary School. His favorite subject is gym because he is able to get his energy out. His hobbies outside of school include running, Cub Scouts and creating obstacle courses. In the future, he hopes to become a marine biologist and help save the ocean and its creatures. As seen in his speech, he is very passionate about showing others love. His speech tonight will be centered on positivity with his speech entitled “The Beauty in this World.”

Krisha Thakkar

Ms. Krisha Thaakar is currently a fifth-grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. She really enjoys anything related to math. At home, she can be seen riding her bike or playing on her hover board. When she grows up, she hopes to become a scientist. Krisha hopes to reveal to others that having a personal self and a public self is not a bad thing! We have many sides of ourselves, and we can choose which side we wish to reveal to others. Please enjoy her speech “Loud like a Lion& Quiet Like a Mouse.”

Luke Krushinski

Mr. Luke Krushinski is a current fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. His favorite subject in school is science because he enjoys discovery. In his free time, he enjoys playing baseball and also the occasional video games. In the future he hopes to become either an MLB player or perhaps become a dentist. In his speech, he wants others to know what it is like to be the middle child in a family of three boys. Please enjoy his speech: “Squeezed in the Middle.”

Manha Malik

Ms. Manha Malik is currently a sixth-grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subject in school is science because she enjoys learning about new things. In her free time, she loves art, swimming and basketball. In the future, she does hope to help the earth in some way. In her speech, she discusses the importance of problem solving. Please enjoy her speech called “Out of the Box.”

Maren Shelkey-Bray

Ms. Maren Shelkey-Bray is a current fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subjects include math and reading because you learn something new everyday and they are really fun. Outside of school, she enjoys softball and swimming, baking and taking art classes. In the future, she hopes to do photography. She loves taking pictures of landscapes and a lot more. In her speech, Maren hopes for us to think about what makes us happy as people and how people feel comfort in his/her surroundings.

Mason Shelkey Bray

Mr. Shelkey Bray is a fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. He was chosen as the Master of Ceremonies for our TEDx event.

Nadia Grady

Miss Nadia Grady is currently a fifth grader at Hartwood Elementary School as well. Her favorite subject is art because she can express her feelings through creative design. Outside of school, she enjoys drawing, painting and horseback riding as well as skiing. In the future, she hopes to become a teacher. Her hope is to publish a book someday about something she wishes to change in this world.

Norah Kovach

Miss Norah Kovach is currently a fourth grader at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subjects in school include art class, library and reading class. Her favorite hobbies include creating art; reading books and spending time with the people she loves the most. In the future, she hopes to be either a teacher or a doctor. Norah is passionate about helping those around her. Her speech tonight is entitled “Be the Matcher.”

Olivia Schooley

Ms. Olivia Schooley is currently a sixth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subjects include reading because she loves to comprehend novels and other passages. In her free time, she enjoys riding her bike, Tae Kwan Do, and playing with her cats. Something she hopes to do in the future is become a veterinarian because she loves animals.

Purv Patel

Mr. Purv Patel is a fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. He absolutely loves anything math or science related in school. His hobbies include but are not limited to soccer, skiing and building with his hands. He hopes one day to become an engineer as he loves solving complex problems and thinking critically. In his talk, Purv wants the world to know the importance of origami and the lessons that can be learned because of it.

Quinn Carey

Mr. Quinn Carey is currently a 5th grader at Hartwood Elementary. He enjoys playing video games and Nerf wars with his friends. In addition, he watches many movies. He enjoys action/ adventure films and anything to do with the 80s. In his opinion, Netflix is an amazing platform. He states that Stranger Things, Series of Unfortunate Events and Umbrella Academy are truly binge worthy. Lastly, he loves amusement parks. The bigger the roller coaster the better! Tonight Quinn will be discussing childhood as he presents his speech entitled “It’s Stressful to be a Kid.”

Sam Kieffer

Mr. Sam Kieffer is currently a fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. His favorite subject is Social Studies because he enjoys learning about history. Outside of school, he enjoys drawing, writing as well as creating comics. In addition, he enjoys playing the piano as well as reading. In the future, he would like to write more books and hopefully become a psychiatrist. He is quite passionate about helping others through tough times in their life.

Sienna Mort

Miss Sienna Mort is currently a fourth grader at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subjects include math as well as writing. Outside of school, she enjoys playing on the computer. When she grows up, she hopes to become a computer coder. She is very passionate that she gets to share her joy of writing on stage.

Victoria Macklin

Miss Victoria Macklin is currently a fourth grader at Hartwood Elementary School. Her favorite subjects are both reading and art. Outside of school she enjoys singing. In the future, she hopes to pursue acting.

Yash Tahiliani

Mr. Yash Tahiliani is currently a fifth grade student at Hartwood Elementary School. In his free time, he greatly enjoys playing soccer as well as video games. Math is his favorite subject because he finds it both entertaining as well as challenging. He wants to be an astrophysicist when he grows up one day to put those math skills to good use. Tonight, his talk will be centered around mathematics in his speech entitled “A Different Way to do Math.”