ERIN NEGLEY | Staff WriterEvery speaker at the latest TEDxLancaster talk challenged audience members to think differently and make changes in their lives.
At Saturday's event, Drake Gooding asked them not to allow age to hold them back.
"Not in your ambitions, not in your education, not in your life," he said. "Own your ambitions. Own your education. But more importantly, own your life."
Gooding, who's 15, just graduated from Ephrata High School three years ahead of schedule so he can get a head-start on a career in business.
He had a plan to graduate early, and with help from parents and teachers he did just that, showing age is only a number.
Lancaster's fourth TED talk featured the youngest participants yet. Billed as TEDxYouth@Lancaster, the dozen speakers ranged from ages 12 to 21. They shared ideas about volunteering, taking action and “embracing awesomeness.” They expressed why it's important to spend time with refugees, how to make an affordable, sustainable and comfortable home, and how to talk about suicide.
Brennan Stark spoke about natural building at the TEDxYouth@Lancaster event in 2017. A second youth TED talk is coming in late June.
TED, or technology, entertainment and design, is a nonprofit movement that started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people under the theme "Ideas Worth Spreading."
Self-organized events called TEDx have popped up around the world. They've been held annually in Lancaster since 2014.
At the TEDxLancaster events, three teens have made the cut through the years.
"We thought, ‘Hey, what ideas are there that youth have that need to be spread?’ " TEDxLancaster Executive Director Bob Vasile said.
The response was overwhelming. More than 80 applications from the region came in for a dozen slots. Vasile and two other TEDxLancaster volunteers searched the applications for strong ideas worth spreading.
"We want these ideas to change people's mindsets for the better," Vasile said before Saturday’s event. "Possibly change their lives, change their communities or change the world.”
Akash Banerjee, a freshman at Warwick High School, kicked off the event by explaining the difference between stereotypes and bigotry.
Siblings Alexa and Sammy Schwab, students at Central Dauphin High School, urged the crowd at Millersville University's Winter Center to take action on their dreams, big or small.
Sammy Schwab started his own sports network at age 13. Alexa Schwab co-founded the MAST STEM technology center in Harrisburg city schools. Now the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation wants to build more around the country.
"Think about what you want to accomplish," Sammy Schwab told the audience. "Now imagine what you can do with that idea if you take action now."
About 250 people attended TEDxYouth@Lancaster.
Sarah Hafiz, a senior at Franklin & Marshall College, lamented the fact that so many victims of the war in Syria are children. On a mission trip to Jordan, she met a young girl who watched her grandmother die in a bombing. The girl didn't speak for a year.
Instead of reacting by sharing stories on social media and being "slacktivists," Hafiz asked people to get to know refugees who have moved to the U.S.
Sadie Penn shared the story of her attempted suicide along with startling statistics on the topic.
She asked people to educate themselves on the signs of suicide, to be honest about their lives — especially the bad days — and to be brave by talking about this taboo subject.
"I know that sometimes helping others requires us to be honest and vulnerable about our own struggles," said Penn, who just graduated from Penn Manor High School. "And that means we have to overcome shame sometimes. We cannot let shame and we cannot let fear stop us."
The afternoon ended with Annie Dickinson, a teen with synesthesia. The neurological condition causes blending of the senses. For Dickinson, a sophomore at Lower Dauphin High School, that means colors have sound and sounds have color.
She explained how her voice is purple and emcee Elizabeth Raff's voice is a vibrant turquoise.
"Synesthesia has taught me that the world is bigger than any one person's experiences," she said.
Dickinson has made her own music and showed a video mimicking the patterns she sees every day. Just because the audience can't see those colors doesn’t mean they can’t learn about her vision. She asked the group to be just as open-minded to other viewpoints and perceptions.
