By Amina Ahmed and Sandy Hoang
The second TEDxFVHS event took place last Friday at Founders Village. The independent event was once again organized by the team of students who put together the very first TEDx earlier this school year. These students included seniors Rachel Phillips, Brittany Lee, Austin Davis, Hoang Nguyen, Harrison Nguyen, Steven Truong, and Tue Duong.
These seniors organized the events as their innovation project in English teacher David Theriault’s AP English Literature class. The aim of the event was to inspire individuals to spread and share their ideas, and to offer a knew and thought provoking perspective.
The speakers at this event included Shawn Sheikh, Jon Warren, Andy Nguyen, Dr. Jim Fallon, and Nikki Tran (‘14).
Shawn Sheikh, an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, started his first business during his sophomore year at high school. Sheikh discussed his Keys to Success, which included sharing ideas, the importance of teamwork and learning from one’s mistakes, and the need to be passionate in what you do.
Sheikh said, “I used to feel like a pawn and that the world was a chess game.” He encouraged the audience to bring out their inner king.
The next speaker was Jon Warren, a former staff sergeant in the United States Army. Warren served two tours of duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and he was awarded two Purple Hearts, three Army Commendation Medals, and two Army Achievement Medals.
Upon his return, Warren suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. After 7 years, Jon Warren found the Brain Treatment Center in Newport Beach, where he received treatment.
“I can only tell you that it [treatment] really gave me my life back… I felt normal again,” said Warren.
Jon Warren has earned a degree in Psychology and is now helping to heal veterans who have suffered from the war.
“I believe it is our obligation to find a way to bring our veterans home,” he said.
Dana Miller (‘15) was moved by his accomplishment. “It was nice seeing the story of the former soldier with PTSD,” she said, “and then have him stand in front of us as a soldier that recovered from it was amazing!”
However, Miller believed the previous TEDx event had been better orchestrated. “The speakers were more thorough and the presentations were lighthearted and informational; I also liked having it in the theater room more,” she said.
The next speaker was Andy Nguyen, who launched AFTERS, the hand crafted ice cream shop was only opened about a month ago, and has gained much popularity. In 2006 he also co-founded IMKING clothing.
Nguyen’s founded AFTERS to create ice cream flavors that cannot be found anywhere else. The store features flavors like milk and cereal, jasmine milk tea, and cookie butter. AFTERS also sells ice cream filled donuts, the idea of which he and his friend stumbled upon by chance.
Dr. Jim Fallon, who was unfortunately unable to attend the event, discussed his discovery of having brain patterns similar to those of psychopaths in a video presented to the audience. He also later discovered that his genetic data was similar to those of psychopaths that he was studying. Dr. Fallon realized this correlation was due to the fact that he liked manipulating and playing games with people.
Of course, those are only some traits usually characteristic of psychopaths, as they are typically cunning. However, these criminals enjoy instilling pain, and they lack conscience and empathy.
Nikki Tran, senior at FVHS and four-year theater student, performed a spoken-word poetry called “My Hair” and she spoke about her thoughts on femininity. Tran went through the evolution of hairstyles over history, discussing Louis XIV, flappers, and the big hair of the 1960s.
She shared a statistic that 38% of women spend more than 30 minutes a day in front of a mirror. Discussing her obsession with long locks of hair that rooted in her childhood, Nikki Tran later said, “I don’t want to be remembered for my hair.”
Melissa Huynh (‘15) said, “My favorite speaker at the Tedx event was the student speaker Nikki Tran. She shared her ideas and insights on the topic of femininity and physical appearance which was really interesting to hear.”
“I really enjoy Ted Talks and I’d be willing to attend even after I graduate,” she said.
