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TED Village Earth Day: We Are the World

By Aditi Iyer, The Village School, School Buzz Editor | May 7, 2021

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Mina Petrolito delivered closing remarks at the Spring TED event.

On Thursday, April 22, 2021, TED Club at The Village High School held their bi-annual TED Talks on Earth Day. The event took place in the Moore Gym, curated by junior Sanjana Jain, senior Meera Moujaes, and sophomores Aditi Iyer and Kahani Malhotra.

10 speakers delivered their well-rehearsed speeches with topics extending from animal cruelty to anti-Asian hate. Not only did the event spotlight self-expression and a platform for advocacy, hence its name, We Are the World. Furthermore, the event was flooded by non-stop entertainment with breath-taking musical performances. Junior Zhi Zheng, president of the Guitar club at VHS, skillfully delivered a song on his guitar and junior Xavian Panjwani played a piece on the piano.

“Listening to each of the musical performances was an incredible experience,” said junior Elaine Ho, the Director of Media & Design in TED club. “I loved how elegant each piece was and, by far, these performances were definitely one of the highlights of the event for me.”

Devoted to expressing ideas through short and empowering talks of usually 18 minutes or less, TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a nonprofit that welcomes people of different cultures and communities who seek a deeper and better understanding of topics of the world. After going through a rigorous club application process a couple years ago, alumni Vy Thai brought this unique platform to The Village School by starting the club. Thai was a residential life student at VHS and used his experiences growing up in Vietnam to make a change around campus. Each member of TED club enjoys something different about it and brings something new to the table.

"My favorite part about the spring TED event was that we were not only able to celebrate student voices but also celebrate our beautiful planet concurrently," said junior Sanjana Jain, the President of TED club. "I truly enjoyed seeing our speakers’ ideas and arguments come to light and feel honored to have the opportunity to work with them."

TED club is commended as always for successfully hosting this event twice a year, an outlet for the student body to start the conversations and understand that they are the world.