Theme: Thinking "outside the box"

Through this conference we hope to promote a "outside the box" mindset, in order to combat the closed-mindedness present at our school, leaving audiences empowered to improve themselves and the world around them.

Bonita Vista High school gymnasium
751 Otay Lakes Rd, Chula Vista, CA 91913
Chula vista, California, 91913
United States

Alex McDonald

Deputy Public Defender

Alex McDonald is a public defender and trial attorney with Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc., where she defends the rights and dignity of indigent clients within the federal legal system. Prior to her work within the federal system, she worked as a deputy public defender for the County of San Diego, primarily serving clients in the South Bay region. In her role as a deputy public defender she led a collaborative mental health program that provided wrap-around social services for high-risk individuals within the legal system. Ms. McDonald has also contributed to the work of the California Innocence Project as a clinical student, and a homeless advocacy non-profit called Think Dignity. Aside her from her work seeking fairness in the justice system, she dedicates her time to community outreach, giving presentations on the Fourth Amendment to the Citizens Advisory Board on Police/Community Relations and serving as a mock trial coach for Bonita Vista High School.

Camila Tellez

BVH Senior

Camila Tellez senior at Bonita Vista High School and a candidate for the International Baccalaureate diploma. She has trained in multiple dance forms for over 10 years, including ballet, jazz, modern, and contemporary. She is currently serving as the captain of her dance team, Get To the Point. Camila also is a state and nationally ranked speech and debate student and has competed in speech and debate for all four years of high school

Craig Poole

Track and field Coach

A public school teacher for 16 years. Currently coaching track and field and teaching Biological sciences. For thirty years he was the head of the Women's track % Field at Brimingham Young University PLUS Proffesor teaching Performcance psychology. He was also a Four years Director & head coach Olympus Training Center (OTC) for Track and Field. Presently retired but serving the Jumps Coach at SDSU.

Isaac Broudy

BVH Junior

Isaac is a physics research intern in two facilities at UCSD. He has always been very curious and creative with an extreme passion for physics, which started as a young child. He aspires to get a PhD in physics to study concepts in quantum mechanics, black hole dynamics, cosmology, and more.

Jahja Ling

Musical Conductor

Jahja Ling’s distinguished career as an internationally renowned conductor has earned him an exceptional reputation for musical integrity, intensity and expressivity. Mr.Ling is the first and only conductor of Chinese descent who holds a music director position with a major orchestra in the US and has conducted all of the major symphony orchestras in North America including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. He has also served as Blossom Festival Director (2000-05) for the Cleveland Orchestra, and as a guest conductor ever since. Since 2004 he has been the music director and conductor of the San Diego Symphony. He is of Hokchiu Chinese descent, formerly an Indonesian citizen and is now an American citizen.

Nathan Smith

Navy Captain

Captain Nate Smith was a surface line officer in the US Navy for 6 years and sailed in the US Merchant Marine as ship’s master on 26 logistic, towing, and semi submersible ships in 5 of the 7 oceans over a 40 year career. He also sailed as Captain of the USNS Mercy that is one of two Hospital Ships operated by the US Navy. Captain Smith resides in San Diego, and is married 42 years with two sons. One is a four time Olympian and another working in Singapore with a financial consulting group.

Rushikesh Pande

West Ranch High School Junior

As current junior in high school, he is motivated about learning new subjects and exploring his passions. Whether off competing in speech and debate tournaments across the country or dedicating time to his nonprofit, he love to learn and gain new experiences. Currently, he is deeply involved in many activities at school and hold leadership roles within them. In order to give back to the world, he is in the process of securing the nonprofit status of Rush Foundation which is dedicated to distributing technological needs to underdeveloped schools in third world countries. Yet his academic interests lie at the intersection of technological advancements and medicine, as he is passionate about learning how to use today's advancing technology to help better the lives of others.