Check out the TEDxTheBenjaminSchool videos here!

Where can you find a trilingual speaker, a trapeze artist, and a glassblower? The answer is the Middle School student body, and such talents came to light thanks to the recent TEDx event. On Friday, April 28, the Middle School hosted TEDxTheBenjaminSchool, allowing more than 30 seventh and eighth-grade students the opportunity to share their unique stories with the TBS community and the world.

Technology Integration Coordinator Mr. Nicholas Crisafi was the event emcee, opening and closing the program while also introducing each speaker. “I felt very honored to be chosen as the event host,” said Crisafi. “Sharing the stage with these amazing students and their phenomenal stories was both humbling and gratifying.”

TED, according to its website (www.ted.com), stands for “technology, education, and design,” and is “a non-profit organization which believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.” TED holds conferences all over the world, and its website provides the public with inspiring TED Talks from individuals whose topics range from how to fight climate change to the practical uses of 3D holograms.

TEDx is an offshoot of TED and allows individuals or organizations to officially license the TED name and brand (as long as one adheres to the TED guidelines). After attending a conference and hearing how Pine Crest, another South Florida independent school, hosted a TEDx event, Dean of Academics and seventh-grade English teacher Dr. Tina James envisioned Benjamin doing the same.

“The TEDx Talks were a great English assignment in that they allowed students to use their critical analysis skills in a creative way,” said James, who along with English Department Chair Mrs. Kathleen Devine, organized Benjamin’s TEDx event. “It allowed them a creative writing forum which sometimes can be hard to come by when we are always honing our critical writing skills. I think that it [also] sponsored diversity at the school. Diversity is what we all bring to the table and what we might not know about each other, and that came out through these talks. We learned things about each other that we might not have learned if we were sitting in class reading a book together.”

Head of Middle School Mr. Charles Hagy feels the talks benefitted students in a number of ways. “The students learned about perseverance, whether it be practicing their TEDx Talks three, four, five times a day, or attending multiple rehearsals,: said Hagy. “These skills are highly transferrable. I believe that the students that participated in this event are forever changed. The experience that it gave the presenters, the teachers, and the school community – and even beyond the TBS community as it is going online – is wonderful. The TEDx Talks will always be out there to inspire others.”

The presenters, with the help of their English teachers, wrote draft after draft of their speeches and recited them in class in front of their peers in order to perfect them. “I went over my speech multiple times, rehearsed, [and] came in to Ms. Devine’s room at lunch so that I would be more comfortable and familiar with performing on stage,” said seventh grader Stephanie Bjork. Bjork’s talk was about the untimely death of her father last year and how it inspired her to want to become a cardiologist.

The TEDx theme this year was “pentimento.” Italian in origin, “pentimento” mean a change in a painting, evidenced by traces of previous work, showing that the artist changed his or her mind

regarding the composition during the process of painting. As a result, many of the talks had to do with students changing in some way, either by overcoming a challenge or through a key personal experience. Several of the speakers referenced the theme in their talks, including keynote speaker Karen Avery, Senior Director of Institutional Giving for the PBS Foundation and former Dean of Harvard College. She joked that it reminded her of a pimento – the pepper stuffed inside of an olive – but detailed how the various brushstrokes within her life, both personal and professional, has made her into the woman she is today.

The other keynote speaker, Benjamin’s own Nancy McAllister, middle school Fine Arts Department Chair and visual art teacher, talked about her journey as an artist which helped her learn about the things in life that are really important. “Your family, children, health, friends, philosophy, and passions – if everything else was lost and they remained, your life would still be full,” she told the audience. “Enjoy time with friends and family, go out and play. There will always be time for everything else.”

Even though this event was Benjamin’s first foray into the TED world, it was a phenomenal success, not only for the speakers, but also for the students who had the opportunity to hear the talks as well.

“I liked the TEDx Talks because they were inspiring and made me think about topics I had never thought about in depth before, such as why people don’t follow their New Year’s resolutions,” stated eighth grader Alex Wolff.

TEDxTheBenjaminSchool was the first brush stroke put to canvas for TBS. However, hopefully there will be more to come in the future, creating yet more meaningful layers over this initial “pentimento” masterpiece.