What’s it like to stand in the spotlight on the “Ted Talk” Red Carpet?
On October 28th, our co-captains, Adele S. and Kaylie C., and assistant captain, Venna W., gave their talk, “Our Turn in Tech” at the first-ever evening devoted to student speeches at the TEDxYouth@Edina event. When hearing about this event months prior, we thought it perfectly aligned with our core value, Inclusivity. Throughout last season and into this 2023 year, we have been focusing on inclusivity through our Girls in the Workshop events and this was a great new outlet to share that concept. This talk concentrated on the three individual experiences of our captains and how they have persevered in a male dominated team and field. This is the first time in Team 1816’s history that both co-captains and the assistant captain are all girls. So, we felt the need to use this opportunity and not only make changes on our team but, inspire other girls too.
In June, we began writing about our experiences but we also began seeking advice from a professional clinical counselor, Mary Kreitz. We learned how to present ideas about implicit bias in a slow and thought provoking way that would engage the audience and help them buy-in. As we were writing and practicing these speeches, we were also learning how to better lead our team members to notice the bias against inclusion of girls as part of meetings and workshop projects and call it out.
After months of preparation, it was time to give our speech! Although we were nervous, we were reassured that the crowd heard our message when they erupted with applause twice throughout the speech! Afterwards, we had our 2022 competition robot on display and were able to explain it to interested audience members, including Edina Mayor James Hovland. The response was incredible with people saying, “you not only belong in STEM you obviously rule STEM at EHS” and “your speech was so relatable”. All of the talks were videotaped, and eventually will be available via YouTube. This was an empowering experience, thank you TEDxYouth@Edina!
-Venna W.