As the bright spotlight illuminated the stage of Thermond Drama Center, junior Vedant Padhi stepped forward and took the microphone to begin his speech. Standing up on the stage in front of a crowd of listeners, Padhi shared his hardships fighting life-threatening stomach birth defects and using humor as a coping mechanism.
With 40 students and parents gathered, the speaker event on March 30, hosted by the TEDx Club, featured four speakers: prosthodontist Nick M. Nguyen, freshman Daisy Ispaiou, juniors Sahana Kumar and Padhi and senior Arsh Tikku. Each presented on the theme of recovery and resilience.
After narrowing down three potential themes, the TEDx Club chose recovery and resilience for its relatability.
In the beginning of the year, the TEDX Club sent out Google Forms through their Instagram (@tedxsaratogahighschool) for people to sign up as speakers.
The first speaker, Nguyen, the father of sophomore triplets Noah, Chloe and Lauren, shared his experience failing a college exam that was crucial to his dentistry career due to overconfidence. As a student with impeccable grades, this unexpected performance left Nguyen in shock but pushed him to study diligently for another year to retake and pass the exam.
Next, Tikku, whose parents were refugees who fled Kashmir when they were in high school, explained how he was very grateful for having the opportunity to attend SHS, a privilege that his parents could never have dreamed of.
Following Tikku, Ispaiou talked about how her journey in sports strengthened her both physically and mentally. Through her commitment in club soccer and the school track and field team, Ispaiou learned to face the reality of making mistakes and seemingly impossible tasks, whether during a soccer game or track practice, by pushing through the pain and treating it as chances to improve herself.
The fourth speaker was Kumar, who spoke about her journey in dancing Bharatanatyam Arangetram — a traditional Indian solo debut marking a dancer’s graduation — and the challenges of endurance she faced in her 50-minute final performance.
After her speech, Kumar said she felt that the event went very well for her.
“I was really nervous leading up to it; I was going over my speech so many times, but when I went on stage, I was able to let go and connect to my audience really well,” Kumar said.
Finally, Padhi shared how he was born with serious stomach defects. Growing up, he endured countless days of severe pain. Padhi found ways to brighten his life through hobbies like sports and humor. Eventually, he was able to muster enough courage during his freshman year to undergo an open-stomach surgery, a success procedure that has markedly improved his life.
Afterward, Padhi said, “I shared my story to show people that although I have undergone so much, I’m still fighting. Life’s all about the struggle, and you have to embrace it and live it.”
A student who attended the event, junior Mahika Jandhyala, said, “One of the things TEDx taught me to do is to learn how great resilience can be. The speakers talked about how they overcame things in their lives, and it really showed me how the people who are going through so much are able to push back against their pain.”
Next year, the TEDx Club plans to host two TED Talk events and aim to attract a broader variety of speakers through better outreach, such as using social media and directly contacting speakers through email.
“I think the event went better than we expected, and our speakers were very strong. [In the future], we hope to get more outside speakers like professionals and teachers to make the event more professional,” said sophomore club officer Noah Nguyen.
