Theme: Perspectives

Welcome to our 3rd TEDxYouth@TashkentIntlSchool event, which features students from grades 9-12, each one speaking passionately about a subject related to our theme,"Perspectives." We are very proud of our TEDxYouth student speakers who have taken the risk to share their ideas and stories.

Tashkent International School
38 Sarakulskaya Street
Tashkent, Toshkent, 100005
Uzbekistan

Akbarjon Jalilov

Student

Akbar is a grade 10 scholarship student at TIS who doesn’t resort to abstract adjectives to define himself. He takes interest in more topics than sides on a D&D die. The intricacies of language in both English and Russian classical literature helped him develop a distinctive author’s lens through which he peers into the world around him. He takes pride in his writing style – a fact he uses to make drowning in his stream of consciousness seem deliberate. The topic of ethics appealed to Akbar due to its subversively simple nature. He had picked this journey, not in spite, but rather for the very twists and turns, the cracks and crannies that the current would take him through.

Apoorva Panda

Student

Apoorva is best described as a curious soul with a relentless spirit who is driven by inquisitiveness and characterized by her tenacity. As a grade 12 IB Diploma Programme student, Apoorva stands at the precipice of her identity as she prepares to leave her nest. In this edition of TEDxYouth, she takes a step further in this direction and questions the answers she had always accepted, thus challenging commonly upheld perspectives. As she refers to the past for reference to the future, she finds commonly missed instances that have now permanently changed public perception of culture. Her inquiries never cease, and this is the spirit she instills in her talk as she asks pertinent, but overlooked, questions and considers how they contribute to culture and agency.

Fernanda Silva Pinedo

Student

Originally from Mexico, Fernanda is in grade 10 and has been at TIS for six years. This is her second time in TEDxYouth. She also participates in MUN, Cancer Curesaders, Xcountry and basketball. Fernanda has wondered about death, dying, and the afterlife. These thoughts and wonders initially caused her to fear death, thus creating a dark and negative idea around this concept. While exploring and learning more about various cultural perspectives on death, including her own culture’s, she concluded that people fear not having a good life rather than the actual idea of dying. She encourages others to look at the topic differently, hoping that they too will embrace that they “shouldn’t be afraid their life will end, but rather be afraid that it will never begin” (G.Hansen)

Joshua Küster

Student

Joshua is a 9th grade student who joined TIS in the fall of 2019. Prior to Tashkent, Joshua lived internationally in Dubai, Doha, and Amsterdam. He enjoys participating in extracurricular activities such as UNICEF, Honey Project and MUN. Some hobbies he has are exploring new areas in Europe, and baking for his family and friends. During his free time, Joshua hangs out with his friends, and his two cats. This is his first time participating in TEDxYouth. Having been diagnosed with ADHD, Joshua wants to highlight his experiences living with this condition, the stereotypes and misconceptions others have of him and how he has felt.

Kyuhyeon Kim

Student

Born and raised in Korea, Kyuhyeon is in grade 10. He started at TIS in January 2021. He has participated in Badminton, MUN and Cancer Curesaders. Although a talented musician, his biggest interests lie in astronomy and astrophysics. Growing up, he has been irritated by people who made claims that had little scientific basis, for instance people who claimed that UFO sightings were proof that intelligent aliens had visited Earth. Kyuhyeon stresses that the sheer scale of scientific illiteracy in the public sphere is devastating to the development of humanity, especially in a democratic society, where everyone – even flat-earthers and moon-landing deniers – can make decisions on public policies. He believes that educating the public to be scientifically literate is crucial in order to improve the lives of all people.

Malika Hujaeva

Student

Malika was born in Japan, where she lived for eleven years. After growing up in a monocultural environment and being the only foreigner in a school with over 1200 students, her situation changed completely when she and her family moved to Singapore, where she attended her very first international school. Currently in grade 10, Malika moved to Tashkent two years ago. This move was her first time living in her passport country, instead of visiting it for short periods of time during summer breaks. Malika enjoys visiting theaters and museums, listening to and playing classical music on piano, and playing badminton or volleyball with her friends. In her TEDxYouth talk, Malika explores the idea of being unique by linking her own experiences of living in two very different environments.

Nigora Ashrapova

Student

Nigora is a 9th grader who recently moved to Tashkent from Tajikistan. She is interested in subjects like math, technology, and public speaking. But most notably, she is a deep analytical thinker who loves pondering about the core values and principles of humanity. Nigora's favorite question to ask is "Why?", because it helps uncover the reasons behind ordinary things that we are used to and have stopped questioning. Therefore, after a long time of questioning what influences our behavior and perception of the world, she discovered an important factor that shapes human culture: abstract language. During her talk, Nigora wants to share her thoughts and to encourage you to rethink the words you carelessly drop each and every day.

Rijul Jain

Student

Rijul is a tenth grader from India who has lived in Uzbekistan for the past 12 years. She is a talented musician who loves to read, draw and wonder about the world around her. She often spends her time surfing the internet, particularly watching video debates, and videos on flat-earthers. She, like many people, ridiculed such people initially, but as her curiosity pushed her to research why people believe what they believe she came to the realization that anyone can be susceptible to believing in conspiracy theories, and that ridiculing them is the wrong approach. This is her second TEDxYouth and this time, she shares her findings on conspiracy theorists and how they may be versions of us we never thought we were.

Sophia Küster

Student

Sophia is an eleventh grade student in the IB Diploma Programme. She is German-Irish but has lived abroad her whole life, having gone to 7 schools over the course of her life. This is her second year doing TEDxYouth, and she focuses her talk on a topic incredibly important to her: feminism. Apart from school work and TEDx, Sophia enjoys guiding the school’s MUN Club and Aquaponics Club. She participates in many MUNs including most recently THIMUN. Not only does Sophia enjoy participating in school associated activities, but she also greatly enjoys snowboarding as well as reading and crocheting.

Tristan Roddick

Teacher

This is Tristan's first experience with TEDxYouth, but not his first foray into public speaking. Through his career in international schools, teaching in Kuwait, Korea, and the UK, he has always had a passion for public speaking and helping students overcome their fears, to share their thoughts with the world. While Tristan has also helped organize and curate this event, he decided to be a 'mystery community speaker.' His talk focuses on positionality and how various aspects such as social position, power, opportunities, experiences, and so on dictate our perspective on a topic or issue.

Valeria Silva Pinedo

Student

Prior to living in Tashkent, Valeria has lived in her native Coahuila, Mexico. Currently in grade 10, she has been studying at TIS for six years. Valeria enjoys mind games and team sports like basketball and volleyball. During her transition between Coahuila and Tashkent, she has had the opportunity to meet different people and visit many places. Through these experiences, Valeria has realized that lies and liars are everywhere. She became interested in the concept of lies and how she and others have lied many times. During her TEDxYouth talk, Valeria shares her perspectives and experiences on how lies are not always as ‘white’ as we think. She hopes that the audience will widen their viewpoint on lies and accept that lies are pretty much everywhere.