On April 4, ETSU was proud to host their first ever TedxETSU talk, with a large team of students and professors working to make it a success.
Chloe Philpot was the student director who came up with the idea of having TEDx on campus and earned a license to run one with the parent organization. They picked the theme of “communication” to be the presentation topics.
The night hosted nine speakers and an art exhibit of four presenters, both of which had people with the East Tennessean involved.
All of the speakers were students, each with a professor coaching them, and their hard work paid off that night. Each speaker gave a presentation on their topic, ranging from the healing powers of music to the importance of representing differently-abled.
The night began with the Bluegrass Buccaneers performing two songs and a little bit of an information plug about the major itself. After that was an introductory speech from Philpot.
Speeches included Jordan Bennett, who spoke on disfigurement and representation; Erinn King, who recited a story-telling poem about change and resilience; and Amy Inthavong, who told her story of body-shaming within her culture and society today.
Every single person who spoke talked about interacting with and being seen by others and the negative and positives of how that affected them.
Overall, with a wonderful environment, a set created by the organizing team and catering provided by the dining hall, the night did exactly what was intended, which was to spark discussion and make the world a better place.
