Theme: Shifting Perspectives

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).

TEDxClearLakeHighSchool
2929 Bay Area Blvd
Houston, Texas, 77058
United States

Alina Dong

Student

As a classical singer in Houston Grand Opera's Bauer Family High School Voice Studio, Alina Dong has experienced first-hand the art of opera. She has learned from New York Metropolitan Opera singers, worked with renown composers and stage directors, as well as performed in a World Premiere opera production with Houston Grand Opera. Through it all, she has discovered not only the beauty of opera, but also the benefits and value in learning about the art form. In an effort to encourage more youth involvement with opera, Alina will share her discoveries of opera’s effects on the human spirit, music, and perceptions of ourselves and the world.

Ashlyn Lyon

Student

Throughout her life, Ashlyn experiences the struggles of dyslexia, a learning disorder that involves difficulty to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. At a young age, she discovered the meaning of dyslexia as it became difficult for her to read simple texts. Through the support of her parents and her siblings, they helped her by providing extra spelling, reading, and grammar help. Through hard work and dedication, she was able to succeed in her advanced English and language courses. Now, as a junior at Clear Lake High School, Ashlyn has learned to overcome her fears of public speaking with the help of tutoring and extra practice. She’s has also been a part of the dance team at CLHS for the past 3 years and an active volunteer in her community. She is hoping to inspire her audience about her struggles with a learning disorder by sharing how she dealt with dyslexia every day and her strategies to help overcome them.

Camille Villar

Student

Since entering high school, Camille has extensively researched the effects of performance anxiety and has developed a 3-step technique for coping with, controlling, and using this weakness to her advantage. Ever since, she has integrated this process into her own life. Now, as a senior in high school, Camille is a confident band president and the principal chair flutist of her school’s top band and orchestra. Everyone experiences performance anxiety, but Camille hopes to use both research and her own story to empower her audience to overcome this universal fear.

Evelyn Salbilla

Student

Growing up multilingual, Evelyn has always appreciated the benefits which her linguistic abilities offered her. Being able to speak to others in their native language has provided a unique opportunity to Evelyn that she wished others could likewise enjoy. Transitioning from middle school to high school, she noticed a consistent lack of appreciation for foreign language classes amongst her classmates. Many of her peers would treat their foreign language classes merely as requirement for graduation, instead of fully understanding and valuing the opportunities which foreign languages have to offer. In this ever globalized world, fluency in more than language has increasingly become a necessity for business and other career fields. Evelyn seeks inspire her peers to pursue bilingualism and/ or multilingualism. Currently, she is student teaching Spanish at Space Center Intermediate School and hopes to instill in her students the value of knowing a second language.

Reed Blanchard

Student

Through his four years of high school, Reed Blanchard has found success across robotics, french horn performance, scouting, science fair, and beyond. However, those successes were always preceded by failures in one form or another. Reed came to understand the importance of failure to ultimate success and decided to find the true connection between the two. In doing so, he uncovered key steps to the learning process that rely on failure, a significant trend in successful historical figures, and the prominence of a "fear of failure" in our society. Now, he is confident in the positive impact that failure can have on life, and believes that a better understanding of this in society will end a fear of failure and lead to greater overall success.

Sloan Beecher

Student

During the year, Sloan Beecher has discovered the effects the fashion industry has not only on human rights, but the environment also. In an effort to decrease her environmental impact, she boycotted fast fashion. Now she spends her time, finding different ways to recycle and discover sustainable fashion items. She believes that this change should start with the current high school generation to not only change the way we view fashion, but the way we consume it.

Steven Wu

Student

Growing up in the digital era, Steven Wu is no stranger to modern technology. Like many teenagers, he’s caught up in the 21st century’s excitement through buzzwords like “progress”, “AI”, and “cutting-edge developments”, which promise a future of limitless possibilities. But, after stumbling across Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Steven discovered that our “new” world isn’t as revolutionary as we think. From the chaos of colonization to the Industrial Revolution, innovation has the power to dramatically reshape human society. Groupthink and censorship are just a few of the dangers that modern technology presents, but Steven believes the solutions to the problems of the future can be found by studying literature and events from the past.