By Amina Ahmed
Photos by Alex Doan
With the help of many students and staff members, FVHS brought its first-ever TEDx event to campus last Friday night.
The event was organized by a group of seniors – Rachel Phillips, Brittany Lee, Austin Davis, Hoang Nguyen, Harrison Nguyen, Steven Truong, and Tue Duong. English teacher Sara LaFramboise and history teacher Darios Felix also helped in organizing and advising.
TEDx is an independently organized event aimed at bringing people together with the sharing of ideas and sparking of discussion.
Teachers Michael Eich, JoAnna Jones, and Robert Zick also contributed to making the night a success. The event took place in the theater room and the entire setup was decorated with works of art created by FVHS students.
Speakers at the event included Bill Phillips, Jin Yi, Anna Lau, Sabastian Huynh and Nathalie Huynh.
“I think that the event was very well organized and I also liked how the speakers talked about a variety of different topics, to keep us engaged,” said Afraah Javed (’15).
Bill Phillips obtained his Ph.D. from USC in the Electrical and Biomedical Engineering field and is the CEO at NeoSync, Inc., his most recent startup company. He gave the audience advice on starting high technology device companies in 10 steps.
The second speaker was Dr. Jin Yi, who attended Shanghai Medical University and is also the co-founder of NeoSync, Inc. As a pioneer in the field of neuroscience, Dr. Yi spoke about mental disorders and their association with sleep difficulties.
Yi stated, “The brain is almost equivalent to a 25-watt light bulb, and sleep is the only way to cool off the brain…if it becomes too hot the system will not work. Mental disorders start from there.”
Discussing the coping of stress across cultures, Anna Lau spoke next. Lau is an Associate Professor of Psychology at UCLA and has also trained as a clinical psychologist. She discussed the benefits and downsides of bottling up one’s emotions and how views differed in Western and East Asian cultures.
At the end of her presentation Lau asked the audience to reflect. “What do you do with your emotions and how is it serving you?” she asked.
The next speaker was Sabastian Huynh, who received a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and a MBA in International Development.
Huynh spoke about his past experiences of trying to fit in and be like everybody else. He learned through his hardships that he can do whatever he set his mind to. “I had three thoughts that helps me take off the mask: I’m in, I can, and I count,” he said.
Christine Lac (‘14) stated that Huynh was her favorite speaker. “He talked about identity and as a teenager I understand that. His speech was funny and very informative too.”
Nathalie Huynh (‘15), the only student speaker, ended the event with her thoughts about spoken word poetry. Huynh and her sister won second place at last year’s Friday Night Talent Show for their spoken-word poetry performance.
The event ignited the audience’s interests in a variety of topics, creating an opportunity to be part of the TEDx experience. TEDx’s student coordinators plan to host another event in the spring.
