Let me just start out by saying that TED talks have really caught on with me. I enjoy watching talks on various topics, especially talks that have to do with life, technology and health. I even have the TED app on my iPad!
Recently, a blogger friend, Jay Jaboneta, was invited to speak at TEDxMontpellier on his Yellow Boat Project – providing yellow boats for children in villages isolated by bodies of water and where children had to SWIM just to get to school. It was quite an experience for me to listen via livestreaming to someone I actually knew who was in the company of other illustrious speakers as well.
A few days after TEDxMontpellier, I got wind of a TEDx talk even closer to my heart. Xavier School, my boys’ school, was going to host its own TEDx talk in just a few weeks. I quickly registered for the talk which happened last Feb. 18, 2012.
Six (6) speakers were lined up for TEDxXavierSchool (click on their names to view their TEDx talks posted on YouTube):
- Raynard Raphael Lao — a Xavier High School student, who is also a champion public speaker at both local and regional competitions
- Brian Maraña — International Programs Coordinator of Xavier School who has transformed the way students learn from the world
- Tony Meloto — Founder of Gawad Kalinga, providing countless homes to the homeless and building them into communities, and speaker at the World Economic Forum
- Dodie Ng — Games and apps creator who also founded a robotics organization and team for the youth while also being a Xavier High School student
- Mark Ruiz — Co-Founder of Hapinoy and Founder of Rags2Riches, providing social business enterprise and microenterprise development as a living means to some of the poorest people
- Brian Tenorio — Internationally-acclaimed, New York-based designer who has altered the way development is done through Design
Xavier School has always been one of the educational institutions in the forefront of innovation when it comes to integrating academe and technology. For some years now, the high school students and teachers have been using Macbooks inside the classroom for internet-integrated learning. This coming schoolyear (2012-13), all the high school sophomores will be moving to using iPads in school. There are many more things I can write about but that is probably for another post.
I was able to interview the two movers behind TEDxXavierSchool. Fr. Johnny Go, S.J. is Xavier School’s School Director and Martin Gomez is a Xavier alumnus who brought up the idea of doing a TEDx talk in the school.
Congratulations to Fr. Johnny, Xavier School, the speakers, and everyone who made the first TEDx Xavier School talks a big success. On to the next one!