TedX plans presentation to address stress in students

By Maysen Marolda

Staff Writer

Dr. Kelly Warren, Costa sophomore Shelby Friedman and her mother Tiffany Friedman, will be coming to Costa on Nov. 18 during office hours to talk to students about how stress can be diffused, enabling it to turn into something positive.

Dr. Kelly Warren, a pre­licensed professional psychologist, will be lecturing on the best ways to alleviate and handle stress. Similarly, mother and daughter Tiffany and Shelby Friedman will be discussing how to combat stress and anxiety, and how to perform breathing exercises to help relieve and overcome stress.

“I am excited to share my experience with my peers of calming myself in stressful situations and how to cope with stress,” sophomore Shelby Friedman said.

The topic of the talk, to help students at Mira Costa cope with stress, was selected by the organizers of TedX, sophomores Danielle Smith and Lily Raffety. However, the talk is not associated with Dr. Ben Dale’s stress reducing plan. According to Raffety, the event planning team felt that many students at Costa are over stressed and thought stress would be an applicable theme to everyone, including adults who will also be attending the talk.

“Danielle Smith and I are co­directors of the event,” Raffety said. “Ourselves, along with the planning team, chose the speakers and got most of the event together on our own.”

Costa seniors Allison Gist and Noah Forman are the executive directors of all TedX events at Costa. This is the first of three TedX talks that will be held throughout the school year, as the other two will be in Jan. and Apr.

“Our job as executive directors is to get everyone together, divide them into groups, and divide tasks between everybody,” Forman said.

According to Forman, the theme of stress is a valuable introduction topic because seniors are writing college applications and studying for SAT and ACT and freshmen are new to Costa and the high school atmosphere.

“A lot of people blow things out of proportion, whether it be college, schoolwork, social issues or anything of the like,” Forman said. “So, students should listen to the speakers, take the lessons to heart and try to view a situation through a different, more positive point of view and not make everything a “this is the end of the world” situation.”

The talk is not mandatory for all students, but Raffety and her team are encouraging as many people as possible to attend. As of now, the event will be held in the Fisher gym, but may move to the small theater.

“I hope Costa students will take away useful tools to help them navigate their stress,” Friedman said. “I’m excited to provide my peers with information on how to combat anxious feelings with breathing.”