Selkirk College hosts TEDx talks about student experience
By Contributor
Area youth will be sharing stories of challenge, resilience and inspiration this Saturday at the Shambhala Music and Performance Hall at a special TEDx event.
TEDx events are designed to give communities an opportunity to stimulate dialogue. This Saturday’s event is co-sponsored by Selkirk College and School District 8 with the aim of bringing a better understanding of student life.
“Students would want to come to this if they are facing challenges themselves and want to hear from other students themselves to see how they get through difficult times,” says Theresa Southam, the coordinator of Selkirk College’s Teaching and Learning Institute. “By attending, parents and educators will be able to get a better understanding of today’s student.”
The Nelson event will feature four youth speakers who have overcome challenges and are thriving in their current pathway. From depression and anxiety to finding acceptance to reinventing yourself at a young age, the speakers will bring a variety of inspirational personal stories to the stage.
“They will be talking about how they have gotten over these enormous challenges in their lives,” says Southam.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and began 25 years ago as a conference. Several incarnations later, TED is now a foundation which runs conferences worldwide and curates the main website (www.ted.com) as an incredibly clever way of liberating latent creative energy of the intelligent masses. TEDx is the newest iteration and is a series of TED-like events around the world, independently organized by teams of passionate individuals in each location.
This Saturday’s event in Nelson is part of the Teaching and Learning Institute’s mandate to support Selkirk College instructors and staff in meeting the opportunities in the 21st Century learning environment. As part of a bigger learning region, the TEDx talk welcomes the entire community.
“Part of being better instructors is really understanding students and hearing the student voice,” says Southam. “We want to provide as many opportunities as possible for our staff to hear from the students themselves and this is one of them.”
The youth event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Shambhala Music & Performance Hall on the Tenth Street Campus. It is limited to 80 seats and tickets are free, available on a first-come/first-served basis by calling 250-505-1342. There will be a lunch of beans and tacos available from Selkirk College Nursing Program students as a fundraiser for Nurses in Guatemala.
The talks will be available after the event on Selkirk College’s website: selkirk.ca/research/tli.
For more information on Selkirk’s Book Learning Club, its annual debates, and other public events contact Theresa Southam at tsoutham@selkirk.ca or 250-505-1342.
