TEDxYouth@SHC, Bay Area, California
Introducing...
Our TEDxYouth Speakers!
Janani Krishnan-Jha is a senior at San Mateo High School. At SMHS, she has served as Captain of the Mock Trial Team, President of the Model UN Team, Founder and President of the Speech and Debate Club, Club & Class Commissioner, Choir President/Student Director, Executive Member of the Renaissance Leadership Team, and Publicity Chair of the Writing Club; outside of SMHS, she has been honored to receive a 2015 National Scholastic Award in Writing at Carnegie Hall, intern for Congresswoman Jackie Speier, appear in many local musical theatre productions (both on and offstage), earn multiple awards in the realm of public speaking, and perform in various venues across the Bay Area as an avid jazz vocalist. A passionate public speaker and practicing Hindu, she feels thrilled to bring the issue of religious bias
Janani Krishnan-Jha
in high schools to a larger spotlight, and hopes to raise awareness about the growing problem while illuminating possible solutions. Janani plans to continue her advocacy next year as a member of the Class of 2020 at Harvard College.
Eric Wang is a senior at San Mateo High School, where he has worked as the Captain and Secretary-General of the San Mateo Math Team, Executive Manager of the Green Team, and both the Founder and Problem Coordinator of the Middle-School Mateomatics Competition. He teaches problem solving techniques at his local middle school, contributes code to open-source software projects, and has conducted original research in stellar evolution and hyperdimensional geometry, currently in the process of publication. He has also participated in national-level competitions in linguistics, algorithms, and mathematics, performing strongly in each. In his free time, he writes in books, plonks around on his piano, and rambles at length about literature. As an agnostic, Eric has always been interested in how humans’ perceptions of the world are shaped by internal and external factors. He hopes to encourage people to examine the interactions between themselves and society.
Eric Wang
Dylan Brown is a junior at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, California. Empowered to speak up about the effects of racism on not only his own life, but the effect it has on countless lives of black youth around the country, Dylan will share a message about the complexities of racial tensions youth of color are forced to confront in American society.
Dylan Brown
"I want my story to be heard, to not only resonate with my audience, but to call them to re-examine the role racial bias plays in their life. I want them to walk away with an understanding of what it is like to live in a society that will define who you are, and judge what you say, before you have even spoken one word."
Carolyn Scott
Carolyn Scott, a junior at SHC, has always had a passion for imagining, designing and building. As such, she is drawn to both science and math, but also the arts, and loves exploring the places where they overlap. In her talk, she will explore how the physical aspects of construction and design intersect with society and family. Carolyn has performed onstage as a singer and actor in SHC's chorus and drama productions. She is a member of the cross country and track teams, and enjoys drinking tea and reading newspapers or novels in her spare time.
Liliana Steeg
Liliana Steeg is a senior at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco, California. Deeply passionate about the prevalent social justice issues of poverty and homelessness, Lily will share her experience of actively working to address the issue in her San Francisco community through the distribution of sleeping bags through Warm Corazones, an organization she co-founded. Through this incredible experience Lily has learned not to be overwhelmed into inaction, but rather strive to make a difference in her community.
Vita Solorio-Fielder
Vita Solorio-Fielder, a junior at SHC, spends her time obsessing over the college admissions process and analyzing the sexual implications of everything as much as she can. Besides this, she is an editor of her school's literary magazine, the host of their poetry slam, and is on the robotics team. As of the past year and a half, she has been utterly infatuated with sex education. She hopes to share her passion for the topic with all and perhaps teach a thing or two along the way.
Tomás Saldaña-Mitre
Tomás Saldaña-Mitre is a junior at SHC and has a developing passion for cycling and engineering, which he hopes to combine in the future to make something really awesome. As a founding member of I2, an innovation and inquiry program at SHC, he enjoys to collaborate with his peers. Tomás spends a large portion of his free time riding bikes or researching cycling in the hopes of understanding the sport that motivates many. He is also one of the few students who actually commutes to SHC via bike, a rare breed indeed.
Riley Chagniot is a senior at Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep and was born and raised in San Francisco. She is a part of the softball team and on the Spirit Rally Board at SHC. Riley enjoys listening to the classics, hanging out with friends, and watching classic comedies. She has found herself in comedy; she is trying to make individuals happier and use her comedic skills to change the world.
Riley Chagniot
Carter Pauline Roa
Carter Pauline is a junior at SHC who performs for the theater and the choir programs. Her passion for the performing arts started when she was very young and hopes to perform outside professionally one day. As a young girl she has always been described as independent and strong. This was an amazing compliment and she always questioned why some girls aren't told the same. Her topic was inspired by the events that she witnessed growing up, and she's happy that now she gets to share the importance of developing a strong, independent young woman.
Priyanka Vatturi
Priyanka Vatturi is currently a junior at James Logan High School in Union City. Most of her time is taken up by school work and studying, but in her free time she is an avid musician and fitness junkie. In JLHS she serves as varsity members in cross country, track and field, and speech and debate. She is also the president of her pre-med club and a leader in her Future Business Leader of America and Marketing and Management club. Priyanka is a nationally ranked athlete and talks on a social issues radio show every week. Since she was young, Priyanka has been competitive in speech and has always had an affinity for sharing her ideas with others. As a speech and debate team member, she is very passionate about social change and spreading new ideas. She feels very strongly about sexism towards women, because she has first hand experience with this issue. She knows the limitations that are involved in changing this and wants to be a youth ambassador for gender equality. She hopes that, using this event as an outlet, she will be able to spark change and conversation on a national and global scale.
Kinga is a sophomore at Sacred Heart Cathedral. She loves soccer, photography, music, and solving the problems she sees in the world. Ever since her little brother was diagnosed with autism, she has had a passion for changing people’s views on the disorder. She and her family’s journey with her brother has not been easy. They worked hard to receive the diagnosis, having to jump through the hurdles of the school system and therapies, and ultimately dealing with the barriers in communication that make relationships hard. Through all this, she has been able to create a great relationship with him and with other amazing people in the autism community, which has inspired her to show the often overlooked, unique, incredible side of people on spectrum to the world. She believes that raising awareness about the beauty of autism is the first step to opening up opportunities for all people who are on the autism spectrum.
Kinga Hope Csikszentmihalyi
Jackie Foti
Jackie Foti is a senior at Sacred Heart Cathedral and has lived in San Francisco her entire life. She is on the Track and Field and Cross Country teams at SHC. She enjoys partaking in sports, hanging out with her friends, and reading, especially spiritual and self-healing books. She has a strong interest in the concept of happiness and fulfillment with oneself as well as others. She intends to continue her passion for this topic by majoring in Psychology in college.
Michael Legon
Michael Legon is currently a junior at Marin Academy in San Rafael, California. He is a dedicated jazz pianist, starting at the age of 9 and quickly taking up the styles of the great jazz musicians. He currently plays in a jazz trio called Blue News and performs at concert venues and parties all over Marin and San Francisco. It was through his work in his trio that he began teaching music at Cascade Melody Music School in San Rafael, teaching jazz to students of a variety of ages and skill levels. In his free time, he enjoys playing jazz piano, as well as discussing foreign films, classic literature, fashion, and political philosophy.
Andre Menchavez is a junior at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory and is the captain of SHC's Dance Team. He is an advocate for HIV/AIDS education and volunteers at many events. Andre is currently training to become an ambassador for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. With this talk, Andre hopes to fight ignorance through education and change the stigmas around HIV/AIDS.
Andre Menchavez
Rachel Yuen
Rachel is a Senior at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, where she is actively involved in student council. Rachel's friends describe her as a ball of non-stop energy. She spends much of her time outside school with her fencing club, and has had the opportunity to broaden her global outlook through national and international competitions. This year, through some of her classes such as "Living and Dying" and "Prayer and Spirituality", she has learned to look at life in new and positive ways. Like many of her peers, she has endured ups and downs and is learning to love herself more and more everyday, and in her talk she hopes to inspire others to do the same. Aside from fencing and school, Rachel likes to spend her time perfecting her skills in the kitchen, especially her bruschetta recipes.
