Seven Imaginate Ink Kids Speak at TED
six of clarissa's students speak at ted at microsoft in front of 750
Congratulations to my six students who were invited to speak at the TEDx Redmond conference at Microsoft. They spoke about their humanitarian accomplishments in front of an audience of 750, and the event was filmed as part of an ABC News documentary.
The TED conference is highly respected, and only the most amazing people in the world are invited to speak. Bill Gates, Philippe Starck, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, and JJ Abrams are a few. For the adult conference, it costs a minimum of $6,000 to even be in the audience, and it is by invitation only. However, you can see the TED talks free here.
There are only 23 speakers a year at TEDx Redmond, so I am very proud that six of them are my students.
cameron, 12
Discovery Girls’ Top 12 Role Model (in North America), Butterfly Caretaker, Cam’s Caring Cakes Founder, Educational Filmmaker, Internationally Published Humor Writer, and TED speaker
Cam as Aug 2011 Amazing Kid of the Month
macall, 17
Nationally ranked writer, dancer, and former Junior Olympic gymnast; working Hollywood actress; founded MoonMan Reviews; aviation and circus aerial tissue dabbler
MaCall dancing
stephanie, 17
Founded the non-profit R.A.I.S.E. Guatemala to help orphans and “dump kids” through her photography, nationally published and award-winning photographer and equestrian. Watch her here.
conor and kendall, 17 and 16
Founded the non-profit PLANETLifeFORCE for Zambian orphans, movie stunt practitioners, novelists, travel blog for kids founders, and award-winning equestrians.
carter, 15
Founded the non-profit Students for Safe Water, which raised $200,000 to bring fresh running water and sanitation systems to Nicaraguan villages. Carter won the Dighu Humanitarian Award at TEDx Redmond 2012 for speaking about how toilets save lives and has since spoken in front of 10,000 people. Carter is a GenerationOn Hasbro Community Action Hero, a Carson Scholar, and a Montage Hero of the Month. He has also been honored with a Gold Medal Presidential Volunteer Award, Kohl's Cares award, Point of Light Award, Disney Friends for Change grant, and a matching $20,000 grant from PepsiCo. He is also a published writer and photographer.
Elizabeth, 15
Elizabeth, Founder and Chief Baker of Piggalicious bacon s’mores, admits that the weirdest thing about her is that she likes vegetables, including, but not limited to: cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, and carrots. Currently, she is writing a series that involves her house getting kidnapped by aliens with her brother inside. At first, Elizabeth thinks it’s the best thing that ever happened to her, but then realizes that now she’ll have no one to torment. As for hobbies, she enjoys smashing balls on the tennis court and playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl with her brother. However, she always loses.
Besides tennis, you will most likely find her traveling the world with her orchestra, performing everywhere from Santiago de Compostela to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. She is a nationally published gold medalist poet after being the only young person in the nation last year to win Scholastic’s creative writing award for social issues, in which she wrote about the Taliban acid gun blinding of Afghan schoolgirls in Kandahar. Elizabeth’s fondest wish is to one day own a dog of her own, but all her mom says is, “When you’re older, you can pay for your own.” Elizabeth hopes one day to sell enough cookies to buy a dog. Donations gladly accepted.
Elizabeth spoke at TEDxYouth@Electric Avenue 2013. Watch her here.