Theme: Crossroads

Crossroads: Where have we been? Where are we now? Where are we going?

We are all at a crossroads of some sort. Come explore seven talks focused on our common crossroads, and maybe find direction of your own.

This event is located in Commonwealth Auditorium in the Sadler Center. Please arrive by 6:20pm to claim your reserved seat; otherwise, your seat will be released to the public. There will be a catered reception immediately following the event for audience members to mix and mingle with one other and our speakers. For more information on the event and our speakers, check out our website: tedx.wm.edu

Sadler Center
200 Stadium Drive
Williamsburg, Virginia, 23186
United States

Cosmo Fujiyama

Co-founder of Students Helping Honduras and VP of Dream Academy at The Future Project

Cosmo is a coach, non-profit strategist and experience facilitator raised in suburban Virginia. She's a first generation Japanese American immigrant who learned from her parents that anything is possible when leading with kindness, openness, and a curiosity for learning. She's currently the Vice President of Dream Academy at The Future Project where she creates learning spaces. She has also been the Managing Director of the Center for Social Impact Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania designing and executing training programs for social entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. When she was an undergraduate, she co-founded and led Students Helping Honduras, a non-profit organization improving access to quality education for children across northern Honduras. Cosmo is here to talk about how we can put learning at the center of our growth in a world of constant change.

Jackson Sasser

Visiting Assistant Professor of Government at William & Mary

Jackson Sasser spent nearly a decade in college administration and is in his tenth year teaching interdisciplinary courses in Constitutional law, criminal procedure, race and the law, and the death penalty in William & Mary’s government department. An award-winning adviser and teacher, Sasser designs courses that help students understand the law in historical context and as lived experience. Professor Sasser is here to discuss how we should trade competition for compassion, and why there might be more important things that this midterm.

Kareem Al-Attar

W&M student

Kareem Al-Attar is a sophomore at William & Mary from McLean, Virginia and is pursuing a degree in Finance. On campus, Kareem is a part of the Muslim Student Association and Best Buddies. Kareem is here to share the story how a bottle of cologne helped him cope with adversity and change after his father was charged with tax evasion and left the country unable to return.

Lisa Green

Associate Rector, St. Martin's Episcopal Church

Lisa Green graduated from William and Mary in 1983 and worked in the publishing and nonprofit worlds before her ordination in 2008. She served churches in New Jersey and Massachusetts before returning to Williamsburg in 2017 as Associate Rector at St. Martin's Episcopal Church. She lives in Hampton with her husband Warren Hicks, also an Episcopal priest, and is the proud mother/stepmother of Mary Mitchell (W&M '2010) and Jonathan Hicks. Lisa is here to discuss how expanding the ways we talk about the divine can have powerful effects on humanity, free us from unhelpful hierarchies and move us toward healing and justice.

Mike Curtin

CEO of D.C. Central Kitchen

Mike is chief executive officer of DC Central Kitchen, the nation’s first community kitchen that operates social ventures aiming to break the cycle of hunger and poverty. Since he joined in 2004, he has used his experience as an entrepreneur to expand the organization from a small catering outfit to a business that includes full-service catering, locally-sourced school meals, and a wholesale program that delivers fresh produce to corner stores in Washington, DC’s food deserts. He's here to share how the story of how a hunger strike fed the hungry, transformed an organization, and showed that sometimes it is okay to be a little antisocial in pursuit of a larger social impact.

Sophia Ramsey

Visual Design Coordinator at William & Mary

Coming from the safety net provided by a two-parent, loving and supportive middle class background, you might think Sophia is a surprising choice to speak about failure. Yet in some ways, her idyllic upbringing makes her especially qualified to evaluate how the shock of an unexpected failure can change a persons worldview. Sophia Ramsey comes to William & Mary with an eclectic amalgam of experience that gives her the insight to relate to and guide her students in their current and ever-changing endeavors. With life experiences ranging from typical James Madison University student and subsequent Washington, DC graphic designer, to a surprising and informative stint as a bartender, the current Visual Design Coordinator for William and Mary’s student union has had the opportunity to experience the young adult world from a multi-disciplined lens. Sophia is eager to explore the meaning of failure, and share what she has learned about how to keep moving forward.

Sydney Moondra

W&M student, founder of Dil to Dil

Sydney will be a graduate of The College of William & Mary this spring with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Health Sciences, concentrating in Public Health. She founded “Dil to Dil”, a non-profit that helps destigmatize mental health illnesses and struggles, especially in South Asian communities. She's here to share her story of the immense power of vulnerability, strength in solidarity, and how a heart to heart can change and save a life.