LFHS Pumped for First Ted Talk

Motivating, forward thinking and cutting edge are all ways one could describe both TEDx talks and the student body at Lake Forest High School.

So it’s only fitting that the first TEDx event to make its way to a North Shore high school will take place on April 16 at LFHS, an event that students, faculty, staff and even the non-LFHS community in Lake Forest have circled on their calendars.

TEDx is a set of conferences that occur throughout the world with a basic slogan of “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Events, like the one planned in Lake Forest, usually consist of a series of usually motivating or unique speakers that share an idea that is outside of the box.

Bringing a well-respected event like this to Lake Forest all started as a social studies class project for freshmen in Joe DeRosa’s second semester class this year. To allow the high school newcomers to experience a final project that’s more non-traditional, DeRosa had them each prepare a Ted Talk of their own using history.

“The idea fell in line with how we are rethinking how we do education and final exams,” DeRosa said.

Others on the LFHS staff had watched the final presentations and were so impressed that the idea to have an organized, TED-sanctioned event on campus.

“Jimmy Juliano - our instructional technologist - said that we could actually apply for a license and have a Ted talk here,” DeRosa said. So he and Juliano teamed with IT instructor Laura Grigg and new media teacher Steve Douglass to get things in order to make it happen.

That meant “quite an extensive application” would follow, according to DeRosa.

“There’s a lot of different pieces to it,” he explains. “We first had to pick a theme as we went with ‘Ideas and Innovation’ and then needed to formulate a plan on how to get speakers and fundraise.”

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Once you are approved, a manual with tight guidelines and restrictions is presented so the event falls in line with Ted’s expectations.

“It’s about how Ted wants to proceed with the ideas,” DeRosa said.

Meanwhile, making sure next month’s event is seamless is a team operation.

Juliano is working on the “creative and technical” side of things, he says.

“Every conversation we have with a student, teacher or community member is enlightening, and we come away thinking about the event in a different way,” he said. “From stage design, to our event lab, to video production, to our social media campaign - everyone working alongside us is so passionate, so dedicated and has such unique talents and ideas to share. There’s no way we could pull this off without the team of students and adults working to make TEDxLFHS a success.”

“Giving students the opportunity to seize the moment and possibly change the world is a special thing, and I’m honored to play a small role in the process of making it happen.”

Read about how a typical TEDx event unfolds

Grigg says planning an event like this is “a huge commitment of time and energy,” but continues to be an awesome experience.

“We’ve got several teams of students, staff, and community members working on various aspects of the event, and everyone brings so much enthusiasm to process that we leave each meeting feeling more energized than when we walked into it. We’ve gotten the opportunity to meet, brainstorm, and work with amazing people.”

In addition to the several students who have volunteered to help out or even give talks, the school event has become a community affair.

The city of Lake Forest’s economic development team is one of a handful of organizations helping out.

In all, there will be eight adult speakers and 10-12 student speakers at the David Miller Theatre. According to DeRosa, more than 40 had applied - including some who already gave talks during the classroom assignment. All speakers will be either current students, alumni or members of the community.

Confirmed are Matt Dewar, LFHS English Teacher; Tom Dickelman, Founder and Director at The Center for Innovative Ministry; Kristin Mikrut, Artist, Creative Manager, and Owner of Re-invent Gallery; Allison Neumeister, President & Chief Executive Officer of Africa Offline, Inc.; Barry Rodgers, LFHS Principal; Ahmad Sadri, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Lake Forest College; Jack Schuler, Lead Director and Chairman of Nominating & Governance Committee, Stericycle, Inc. and Eleanor Thorn, Owner of the Lake Forest Book Store.

The show’s hosts will be LFHS seniors Sydney Richmond and Caleb Fietsam. They will add a question and answer session to the program, something that’s not usually done at TEDx events.

“Ever since hearing about the TEDx event at our school I wanted to jump aboard and help,” Richmond said. “At first I was eager to submit my own TED talk, and I had that already prepared. But before I knew it, my former History teacher approached me asking Caleb and I to MC the event. I was very excited about this opportunity and have been working my best to stay involved.”

As a bright senior interested in following a career path in Public Relations and Advertising, Richmond is also helping with the social media side of the event.

“I think that will help teach me the skills I need to be successful in those fields in the real world,” she said.

TEDxLakeForestHighSchool, which will be known in the Twitterverse as #TedxLFHS, will kickoff at 9:30 a.m. and be live-streamed on a big screen at the school since only 100 attendees are allowed at any location’s first ever Ted talk.

Douglass, a 10-year veteran teacher at the school, is heading up the media side of things, which will include an edited version of the event in addition to the live-stream coverage.

“We will stream it, but our main focus will be on the mass audience - putting together a cut down, edited version for the Ted website. That makes a huge difference in their evaluations,” he said. “We will shoot with our best SLR to get the highest production value possible.”

Several classrooms are also expected to watch the event live, as the entire Lake Forest community is encouraged to do so as well.

Five or so videos have already been uploaded to the tedxlfhs website in promotion for the event all involved would like to see occur every year.

Douglass was one of the visiting teachers that sat in on the presentations the freshmen gave in DeRosa’s class. Some of which plan to give a second talk in front of the much larger, worldwide audience in April.

“I was very interested in the visual storytelling part and encouraged them to take the next step and present live,” he said.

What started as a new approach to a final exam will soon turn into a new approach to expressing pride in Lake Forest. Many cities of its size wouldn’t be able to dream of having enough qualified people to be able to give a talk - let alone plan and organize an event...at the high school. With organizations such as the city of Lake Forest, LFHS Foundation and the APT stepping up in various ways, #TEDxLFHS is truly a community effort.

“It’s an incredibly way for us to showcase our amazing students and amazing people in the community,” DeRosa said.

Photo 1: Faculty, staff and students who are volunteering their time to help plan TEDxLFHS gather for a photo. Submitted by Lake Forest High School.

Photo 2: How a TEDx location in Northwest Indiana was set up prior to an event in November 2014. Courtesy of Brett Fuller/NWIndianaLife.com

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