By Michael Beeli
Copy Editor
The Manhattan Beach Mayor’s Youth Council is organizing a series of TEDxSalonManhattanBeach events that will take place on March 8, 15 and 29 during office hours in Mira Costa’s small theater.
TEDx events are community-based speaking events based upon the format of technology, entertainment and design. MYC is a program for high school students to meet professionals.
Student curators in the MYC Program are organizing all three TEDxSalonManhattanBeach talks. The six curators are juniors Liam Cook, Alex Gist, Harrison Mayesh, Kayla Samimi, Ellie Shalvarjian and Hannah Zaslansky.
Manhattan Beach Mayor’s Youth Council Website
“Last year was the first year we tried TEDxSalonManhattanBeach, and this year, the student alumni from last year helped guide the students this year to create a program that is really great,” Mayor Pro Tempore Amy Howorth said.
Each curation team chose a theme for its respective TEDx talk and selected two people to speak at the event. According to Howorth, approximately 20 students are involved in running the TEDx salons, including the six curators.
“It’s pretty hard to find the right speakers and then make sure that they are prepared to give the talk,” Howorth said. “I am really impressed by how hard the Costa students have worked on this.”
The March 8 talk addresses mental health awareness. Curators Cook and Samimi chose junior Emily Angstreich and certified eating disorder specialist Diana Lipson-Burge as speakers for their talk.
“We are excited about the topic of our talk,” Cook said. “We think it’s important to educate people on such an important topic as mental health since there is so much stigma around it.”
Zaslansky and Mayesh, the curators for the March 15 talk, will emphasize having a positive outlook on life. The team chose art instructor Judith Pickle and senior Michai Clinton to speak.
“Judith stays positive and does what she enjoys, and whenever somebody asks me who inspires me, I always think of her,” Zaslansky said. “We chose Michai because we thought it would be interesting to hear about how he overcame challenges in his life.”
Ted.com-The importance of TEDx salon events
Curators Gist and Shalvarjian organized the talk scheduled for March 29 that will focus on modern connections. In order to incorporate this theme into the talk, the curators chose Zislis Group culture director Katie Kruft and Costa parent Nina Patel to speak at the event.
“The goal of TEDx is to get people talking,” Gist said. “We aim to really make people think about their perspectives and compare their personal ideas.”
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