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Thursday 31 Oct 2024
CTRL Z | 2024 TEDxWuxi DSAS Youth

On October 19, 2024, with the conclusion of the last guest's wonderful speech, TEDxWuxi DSAS Youth Event 2024 came to a successful conclusion. This event was led by a committee of 12 upper secondary students from NKCS, with full support of teachers. After careful preparation, it finally presented an event full of creativity and passion.

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This year, with the theme of "CTRL Z", we explored new ideas and new perspectives in multiple fields such as technology, innovation, education, language and music, and encouraged each participant to think about how to restart themselves and adjust their direction in a rapidly changing era.

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On this stage, eight speakers fully demonstrated their wisdom and enthusiasm. They are Ms. Jane Mosala, primary teacher at NKCS, who shared how she recovered from a negative experience and became a passionate and empathetic teacher. She emphasized the important role of listening, inclusion and self-reflection in education; Mr. Andy Li, Microsoft AI software development engineer, discussed the impact of emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence, on human life, and reminded us that while enjoying the convenience of technology, we must also be vigilant about the ethical, social and responsibility issues that may arise; Garcia Zhou, G11 student at NKCS, shared his experience in learning languages, emphasized the role of language as a cultural time machine, and encouraged people to explore and protect the world's diverse cultures by learning languages; Mr. William Zhou, a cross-border producer of biological visualization, shared how he applied his filmmaking background to the field of 3D biomedical animation, showing how the combination of art and science can help the public better understand complex medical knowledge; Mr. Giampaolo De Santis, a cross-cultural food inheritor and channel blogger, shared his arduous journey of pursuing his dreams, emphasized the importance of pursuing self-realization under social pressure, and encouraged people to never give up no matter how many challenges and failures they face; Ms. Jen, upper secondary teacher at NKCS, spoke candidly about her experience raising two children alone in a foreign country, sharing how she worked hard to make her children appreciate their cultural roots while facing external criticism and personal doubts; Mr. Qiangqiang Tan, founder of the Food Science Channel, discussed the importance of food science in an era of highly accessible information. He emphasized the value of asking good questions and the courage and importance of science workers in challenging common sense and spreading knowledge; Matthew Miao, G12 student at NKCS, talked about how he coped with difficulties in life through music creation, and how he used music as an educational and inspirational tool to bring hope and strength to people.

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The speakers were fully engaged on the stage to ensure that they could convey the most valuable information to the audience. These speech videos will be uploaded to the TED official website and YouTube platform after being reviewed by TED, and will be spread to the world and influence more people. In addition, after the speeches, we also invited teachers and students from the Pop Dance Club and they showed "Left Right" wonderfully, demonstrating the passion of youth. Zilin Yuan, a G10 student at NKCS, sang a song "Never Enough", igniting the atmosphere with her moving voice and affectionate melody, and won rounds of applause.

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Although the weather was not perfect on the day of the event, most of the audience showed their enthusiasm and arrived on time, which was the greatest support for this event. To welcome the audience, Committee carefully prepared souvenirs. During the speeches, the audience listened attentively and actively interacted in the Q&A session. The collision of ideas and opinions were happening, which is also the most important mission of TEDx, that is, to search for ideas worth spreading, and believe that the power of ideas can change people's lives and ultimately change the world.

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The smooth running of this event is inseparable from the hard work of the volunteers. They silently contributed to their duty, from registration at the entrance, distributing souvenirs, to guiding the audience, moving materials, and running back and forth when needed, showing a high sense of responsibility.

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Since the establishment of Committee, every member has worked diligently, and cooperated with each other: Frank Zhou, the student leader, successfully contacted two external speakers in the process of finding external guests, and kept strong connection with speakers; three students from the Content Team, Nancy Li, Lina Yang, and Ruyi Zhang, led the speaker training and selection, followed up with the speakers' drafting, helped the speakers organize their ideas, and provided practical and effective speech suggestions; four students from the Event Team, Rock Qiu, Jim Cheng, Kevin Lin, and Tina Chu, organized publicity and interview activities, and creatively started running social media. Three students from the Design Team, Flora Sun, Summer Chang, and Cindy Wu, carefully designed all the relevant materials, including the main visual of this event, tickets, speaker posters, signature wall, souvenirs, etc., which are all full of ingenuity. It is also the success of Rock's multiple attempts to find the most cost-effective producers. Tina and Jenny showed super talent and ability in video editing, with creativity and skills, and pushed a series of high-quality videos. Tina, Cindy and Jenny took the initiative to allocate the responsibility of volunteers, planning and training each volunteer's responsibilities in different time periods and locations. In addition to fully assisting Garcia during the preparation period, Kevin also took over the responsibility of director and integrated all the content. Ruyi was also in the control room and successfully completed all the lighting and headset switching. The hosts Frank, Lina, and Nancy made sufficient preparations in the early stage. Although faced with unknown situation, they successfully completed the event with excellent performance. Everyone worked together, helped with each other, and established a deep friendship among the Committee. Hope that this event experience will be a treasured memory of these members.

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Speaker Ms. Jen Jacobs-Kraft

The TEDx committee at NKCS are amazing! They were supportive and present every step of the way on what was a nerve-wracking and incredible experience. I'm so appreciative of the opportunity that I was given and so proud of what I was able to achieve! The event itself was thoughtfully put together and the speakers carefully chosen to reflect Ctrl-Z. I'm honoured to have been included in this brilliant event.

Speaker Ms. Jane Mosala

What an exhilarating experience! I absolutely love stories – especially the stories of people. So having the opportunity to share my own story was such a humbling experience. Knowing that I would be telling my story made me feel vulnerable, but I received so much support – most specifically from Ms. May. She reminded me how important it was for me to speak my truth, and I felt the presence and support of her and the committee throughout this very long process. I was honored to be on that stage. The audience were warm, engaged and it was a moment I doubt I will ever forget.

Speaker Giampaolo De Santis

I had a really great experience thank to the continuous and helpful support of the committee that took care of all the details in order to help me in this great experience. It’s really hard to describe my feelings : at the beginning was a mix of excitement and fear to face such a prestigious stage but thank to help of the committee during the rehearsal when I got on the stage for the speech I felt so happy to share my ideas with such a prestigious audience. I would suggest future speakers open their heart when they are on the stage to really share ideas and experiences which is the key of a TED Talk.

Speaker Matthew M.

It is quite smooth to communicate with Committee. The teachers and classmates were very accountable in helping me. I felt that doing this speech was very interesting. Of course, I was inevitably nervous before going on stage, but I felt all is well after standing on the stage.

Speaker William Zhou

The Committee was very responsible and they followed up the entire process of writing, preparing and rehearsing the speech. It was a good experience. It’s been a long time since I last stood on the stage, and I’m honored to be able to express something useful to others.

Co-organizer Frank Z.

As co-organizer of this event, I have gained a lot of valuable experience in the past several months. The most impressive moment was when I took the initiative to find external speakers through social media at the beginning of the event, I did not expect to get their responses, but surprisingly, many of them showed great interest in the TEDx event and responded to my emails very seriously.

TEDx Committee Rock Q.

As the leader of the Event Team, I helped to order event materials and find suppliers, such as mugs, keyboard switches, bracelet, tickets, etc. In addition, my team members and I together started running the social media of our TEDx event to promote the event.

TEDx Committee Kevin L.

During the preparation, planning and the final implementation of the event, I did not feel that I contributed quite a lot, but when I saw all of our team members together made effort and achieved such a big success, I deeply felt the strength and unity of TEDx Committee.

Volunteer Constance H.

I was passing the microphone to audience members as well as holding the door during break and moving chairs. I think there was a good amount of work to do in organizing an event, and that’s why I registered and came to help.