The presenters are all 11 grade students. The task was to deliver a presentation that was both meaningful and rich. Their theme, as is the theme of this TEDx event is a Catalyst for Change. 170 students delivered presentations. Of those, 9 were chosen through a combination of peer selection, performance quality and the teacher team.
The presenters are:
Benya Kraus
Benya is a Thai-American Junior at the International School of Bangkok, has moved from Bangkok to Geneva to Hanoi to New Jersey and back to Bangkok in the last 17 years, leaving houses, cultures, and schools behind. However, one thing that has always travelled with her is her thirst to inspire and to be inspired. Benya’s passions range from theatre to sports to global issues to filmmaking, but what unites all these vastly different interests is her overall aspiration to leave this world making a difference. Whether it be through inspiring a whole nation, or thousands of movie seers, or just one single person, she hopes to contribute to this world a sprit of hope, compassion, and peace.
Leeann Schudel
Leeann is 16 years old and currently a junior at the International School of Bangkok. She is a third culture child who is Half American – Half Korean and has lived her whole life in Thailand. She enjoys volleyball, basketball, softball and tap dancing. She is the president of the Shining Hope club, which focuses on giving aid to the less fortunate in Nairobi. In school, her favorite subjects are English and Journalism, in which she is the Editor of the Sports Section for the school magazine. She hopes to one day major in Broadcast Journalism and become an anchor at ESPN. Since a young age, Leeann has been very aware of body image and beauty but has only recently explored why. She hopes to spread knowledge about the unfortunate effects of false advertising.
Jean Uchupalanun
Jean is a Thai junior who has lived in Thailand for most of her life. She is enthusiastic about music and would often spend her free time playing the cello or piano. She is also passionate about teaching young kids, as they are the future adults who will shape the world. Therefore Jean spends a lot of time with elementary students. In the past 16 years, Jean has seen the rapid spread of technology in the Thai society. Jean’s TED talk focuses on the idea of how technology has affected people’s relationships, not only with each other, but also with themselves. She hopes to tweak the perception that people have of technology and encourage face-to-face interactions.
Emma Ortega
Emma is of Spanish descent, but has lived in Thailand for the past five years. Emma likes to sit in her room and read, especially books by Milan Kundera. She also likes to drink a lot coffee and tea. Emma likes to go to the pre- school to assist the teacher, and help teach during her free period. She also co-instructs two dance classes for kids. All her work with kids contributes to her goal of becoming a child psychiatrist when she is older.
Xaivier Del Rosario
Xavier is currently a 16 year old junior at the International School of Bangkok. He is Filipino, but since he has moved through five different South East Asian countries, he feels that he has a very culturally diverse background. His main interests are sports, especially basketball. He loves to play, watch, and follow basketball all the time He doesn’t know what he wants his future career to be yet, but he definitely wants something where he will feel fulfilled after everyday. English is one of hi favorite classes because I am able to express myself in an array of techniques, for example, this TED talk.
Hinako Murai
Hinako is only in her second year at ISB. Before coming to Thailand, Hinako studied at a large public school in her native country Japan. She likes how she can meet students from many countries at ISB. Japanese people believe green tea is very beneficial and keeps drinking even now from a long time ago. She has been a green tea drinker since she was in elementary school and has been taught that green tea includes a lot of great healthy benefits. Her goal for this talk is to convince people to drink more green tea and to sell green tea in the cafeteria so more people will have more opportunities to drink green tea.
Christopher Chhouk
Christopher is an avid volunteer in community service and he envisions a society where people learn to accept each other. Throughout his life, Chris has lived in two different environments; the United States and Thailand. Both have given him different experiences about acceptance and understanding for different cultures. Being an American of Asian descent, he hopes to see that in the future, people will refer to each other as fellow citizens instead of being referenced by ethnicity. Chris’s TED talk focuses on solving the growing issues of extremism in certain countries by offering the solution of creating a truly multicultural society.
Brandon Friedman
Brandon is an international student that has attended ISB for 10 years. Before moving to Thailand, he lived in Bangladesh and Nepal. He enjoys participating in activities such as Taekwondo and Boy Scouts. His favorite area of study is biology and he hopes that, one day, he will be able to become a physician. Brandon has been exposed to the issue of human trafficking for the past 5 years and is now very intent on spreading the knowledge that he has learned and making sure that everyone starts what they can to bring an end to this nightmarish problem.
Anuka King
Anuka is a compassionate American student who is also an accomplished dancer in Bharathanatyam – Indian classical dance. It is the dance that exposed her to the various emotions of a human through its mythological stories. Her trips to India exposed Anuka to people who have great potential but whose circumstances did not give them an opportunity to rise above. Anuka wants these people especially in rural areas of developing nations to have the same empowerment that she is fortunate to receive. Recently, she has been raising funds for charity through her dance performances, however she feels that a more vigorous approach is needed. In her talk, she raises the importance of rural empowerment via examples and how it gives a country the ability to develop its villagers as self–driven problem-solvers. Anuka feels that this issue is especially relevant to schools, where students themselves are learning to be empowered and can do a lot to help.
Mutiara Windraskinasih
Mutiara is an international student in Bangkok. She is sixteen years old and
originally comes from Indonesia. She and her parents also lived in Geneva for four years. She
has been staying in Bangkok for the last two years and planning to graduate from International School Bangkok. Her hobbies include singing and listening to music. She wants to go to law school to practice law someday. Mutiara’s Ted Talk is sending a message to prevent bullying among teenagers.