Senior Hannah Gedion speaks her mind at TedX Talk

TED X: Senior and Perspective Speaker Hannah Geidion speaks at TED X Manhattan Beach about the implementation of ethnic studies classes into Costa and the importance of the curriculum. Gedion hopes to include recent case studies such as the Uyematsu family and Bruces’ Beach in the classes’ future teachings. Photo Courtesy of Hannah Gedion

By Emily Von Buttlar

Executive Features Editor

By Raci Levine

Features Editor

Senior Hannah Gedion speaks at TedX to discuss diversity and ethnic studies.

Gedion was nominated to talk at TedX by school board member Jasmine Tintut, who reached out to her over the summer of 2021. Gedion is a part of a program called EDSJI (Equality, diversity, social justice, and inclusion) where issues within the Manhattan Beach School District (MBUSD) regarding diversity are discussed. This community involves alumni of Costa, Costa parents, and two other students, Armaan Shivpuri, and Jenna Ahmed. Gedion created Diversify our Narrative in June 2020, which is a club that focuses on having more diversity within Costa.

“I noticed that the curriculum at Costa wasn’t representative of the many cultures that exist in the United States,” Gedion said “One perspective does not create a fully visible picture, you don’t have a good enough comprehension of the way that things work if you only have one perspective.”

Gedion’s goal is to get books written by people of color in Costa’s English curriculum. There are currently five books that have been approved: “Slay” by Brittney Morris; “The Memory Police” by Yōko Ogawa; “Beloved’’ by Tony Morrison; “The Color Purple’’ by Alice Walker; and “Raisin in the Sun’’ by Lorraine Hansberry. Gedion is also currently working to implement ethnic studies as a class at Costa.

“I originally planned for [ethnic studies] to be a required class,” Gedion said. “I haven’t changed my mind about that yet, but I’ll see what the school board ends up saying about it.”

Gedion works closely with Jason Boxer, who is a member of the school board and alumni of Costa from the class of 2012. Gedion and Boxer met through the Panel of Equity.

“I just want to highlight the importance of diversity in curriculum and how it can really benefit the student body of Costa,” Gedion said. “Especially because we aren’t as diverse as the rest of America, it’s important to expose ourselves to different experiences whether or not you agree with [what] those experiences are.”

According to Gedion, she hopes for Costa’s future to be more diversified and less ignorant of other cultures. She wants to give her perspective on how to change Costa’s education by making it more inclusive and obtain more of a productive dialogue for students in the classroom.

Additionally, she would like to be involved with diversity groups in college, but she doesn’t think she will be able to keep up all the programs she’s involved with now, due to her college workload, according to Gedion.

“I believe [on] October 8th of this year, California became the first state to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement,” Gideon said. “Diversify our Narrative help[ed] make this [ethnic studies course] happen as well, but for the class way down the line [in] 2030.”

Gedion believes there is a lot of misinformation going around in the current political climate. She feels that people have to make the choice to be exposed to accurate sources in order to become a stronger critical thinker and diversify their knowledge.

“It is really cool to have [Diversify our Narrative] still going even when I leave,” Gedion said. “It is a really powerful community; I am lucky enough to have younger club members to carry this out.”