TEDx Youth Club
by Adam Bezrati
The TEDx Youth Club was club founded by Sriram Surapaneni, a seventh grade student at The Science Academy STEM Magnet. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TED Talks are well known for presenting complex information in an engaging format. You may have even seen a TED talk on YouTube or in class. TEDx is a program that is not directly overseen by the main TED organization; it is instead self-organized by the participants. According to Sriram, “I started this club because I realized that The Science Academy is an amazing school, but we need to show our talent to the world, and what better way to do this then get our students to perform TED Talks that will be on the official TEDx YouTube channel!” The club activities consist of drafting, writing, and presenting speeches on any topic of your desire, as well as giving feedback and helping improving member presentations. It meets almost every Monday at lunch in Ms. Butler’s room, W305. During meetings, Sriram typically goes over speech progress, event ideas, or reviewing and studying TED Talks. The club also contains a skilled media team that creates promotional media to help recruit new members.
You may be asking, “Why should I join the club?” The benefits of joining the TEDx Youth Club include boosted confidence, enhanced critical thinking, and strengthened writing. To start, the initial brainstorming process of formulating a speech requires selecting a topic to be the main focus of your presentation, which requires critical thinking. Furthermore, drafting the script of your speech requires a comprehensive knowledge of ways to engage your audience. In addition, public speaking is one of the most common causes of anxiety. Joining the TEDx Youth Club can make you significantly more comfortable when speaking in front of an audience by desensitizing you to public speaking through experience and support from your peers. This boost in confidence can help you appear more confident and professional, assisting you in important aspects of your life, such as class presentations and job interviews. Sriram strongly believes that joining his club can benefit anyone, regardless of skill level, because there is always room for improvement.
According to Sriram, the Science Academy TEDx Youth Club hopes to “get our [The Science Academy’s] innovative ideas and creative thoughts out to the world.” He shares he plans to achieve this by hosting events where anyone may attend, and by uploading the TED Talks created by the Science Academy to the official TEDx YouTube channel. Using both of these strategies to gain publicity, there is a significant chance that he will succeed at his mission. You can help the Ted X Youth Club out by joining the club or participating in future hosted events.
Sriram plans to host an event at the Science Academy in April of 2026: “I am working with Ms. Tanguay to organize a TEDx event that will feature our student speakers and professionals in their field. I believe that as a team, we can accomplish anything.” For the STEM Talk event, a mix of club members and community members will be recorded as they present their speeches to an audience, ensuring that there is something for everyone. More details will be available soon, so keep an eye out for updates.
This is an image of Felix Gordon’s speech outline. He hopes to present a speech with the topic of how artificial intelligence affects the music industry. He selected key topics and main ideas to go over during his presentation. His excellent outline will help him write an engaging and informative speech to develop during club meetings and to present at a future TEDx event hosted at our school.