{"id":348917,"date":"2022-11-01T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T13:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/?p=348917"},"modified":"2025-09-26T09:49:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:49:46","slug":"pace-hosts-third-ever-tedx-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/2022\/11\/01\/pace-hosts-third-ever-tedx-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Pace Hosts Third-Ever TEDx Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sophomore Leah Negero shares her speech: “The Sprinting Poet.” Photo: Patrick Pan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Pace held its third annual Ted Talk on Sunday, Oct. 16. The theme of the event was \u201cThe Game Behind the Game,\u201d and it was hosted by sophomore Claire Jiang and senior Davis Rice. \u201cThis event was made special because so many different students were able to leave their mark on the event,\u201d said Rice. \u201cSome were hidden, but [they] made a world of difference.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of adult speakers set this TEDx event apart from the previous two. \u201cThis event was the first TEDx event to feature exclusively students, working with me,\u201d said 11th-grade English teacher Mr. Kaufman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were several other significant changes with the event compared to last year. Seniors Jack Schmitt and Ava Byrne created a hype video for the first time to generate some excitement for the event. Additionally, the number of speeches was significantly reduced; there were six speakers this year compared to nine last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first speaker was senior Camille Caton. In her speech titled \u201cSlaying the Monster,\u201d Caton describes her struggles with dyslexia, and how she learned to deal with her condition. She shares an anecdote about feeling excluded and different from others due to her inability to do mental math. The guidance from her teachers and parents helped her accept and cherish her difference. \u201cThe message that I wanted to get across was that everyone has their own story and it is okay if their story is not like others,\u201d said Caton. \u201c You can still succeed and have a successful future and high school career, even if you have some bumps in the road.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next up to speak was junior David Fu. In his speech, he spoke about his experiences playing the piano and the cello in \u201cHow Playing the Cello Shaped my Life.\u201d Fu shows how his journey through music taught him valuable life lessons. The highlight of the speech was his cello performance; he played The Swan by Camille Saint Sa\u00ebns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophomore Leah Negero was next up to speak. \u201cI was lucky enough to see Kate Romero give her speech at “The Force of Words” TEDx event last year and the way that she connected her writing to her art truly inspired me,\u201d said Negero. \u201cI yearned to give someone else this feeling of pure inspiration Kate was able to give me!\u201d In her speech \u201cThe Sprinting Poet,\u201d she describes her experiences as a writer trying track for the first time, and how she was able to let go of the idea of perfection and embrace improvement. \u201cImprovement is all that truly matters, and as long as you\u2019re truly passionate about what you do, improvement is likely. All you have to do is keep pushing,\u201d said Negero. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freshman John Hardesty was next up to speak. \u201cI wanted to speak to share my experience with others, as well as to hopefully get people to reflect on their past and think about what makes them who they are,\u201c said Hardesty. In his speech \u201cThe Power of Fifteen,\u201d Hardesty describes his struggles with asthma, and how the medical staff, who treated him with such kindness, made his frequent, overnight visits to the hospital much more bearable. He describes the importance of the number fifteen, the number of times he has had pneumonia, and how, like athletes, everybody has a number representing their identity. \u201cThe message I wanted to convey was that no act of kindness is ever too small and we each have a chance to positively shape and influence each other’s lives,\u201d said Hardesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophomore Amina Zubairi was next up to speak. In her speech, \u201cMere Kahani,\u201d she describes her childhood as a Pakistani Muslim. Zubairi describes the shame and exclusion she felt because of her identity, but how her passion for martial arts helped her find pride in her cultural heritage. She found comfort and confidence through martial arts and has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She demonstrated her mastery of the nunchucks during her speech and performed a Tae Kwon Do demonstration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class of 2019 Drew Schiffer was the last speaker. As a senior at Syracuse University, Schiffer polled some of his college friends and created a list of advice he thought was important. He flew in from New York to deliver his \u201cOne Percent Better\u201d speech.  In his speech, he focuses on one aspect of the list: daily improvement. He shares the story of his first triathlon, and how through small, daily improvements, he was able to complete it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pace held its third annual Ted Talk on Sunday, Oct. 16. The theme of the event was \u201cThe Game Behind the Game,\u201d and it was hosted by sophomore Claire Jiang and senior Davis Rice. \u201cThis event was made special because so many different students were able to leave their markContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":467,"featured_media":348924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-david-fu24paceacademy-org","post-348917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pacenews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/files\/2022\/10\/TEDxRGB.jpg?fit=1008%2C672&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1TYqQ-1sLH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348917"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348981,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348917\/revisions\/348981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}