‘Rite Idea: TEDxSHHS is a Win for Shaker
With its thought-provoking event, IB Class of 2015 leaves a legacy
The Shaker Heights High School International Baccalaureate class of 2015 pulled off an incredible accomplishment with TEDxSHHS.
After a year of hard work, the seniors put together TEDxSHHS as their IB Legacy Project. With a full audience and seven powerful speakers, the large auditorium lit up with energy and inspiration.
TED, which stands for technology, entertainment and design, is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading ideas through passionate, brief speeches. Their TEDx branch allows for individually organized events in local communities.
We realize that organizing something of this magnitude is an extremely difficult task, and the diploma students handled it with grace.
In order to acquire the license for TEDx, one of the organizers, senior Zach Reizes, went through a long process, which included an interview and discussion with a member of the TEDx licensing team. Reizes applied for the license in December 2013 and received it March 2014. The license allowed the seniors to a host their TEDx event within a year of receiving it. As Reizes pointed out during the event, it’s not easy to get a group of seniors to work together on a T-shirt, let alone organizing a program with seven adult speakers, some of whom don’t live locally, at a high school for free.
Events such as TEDxSHHS make Shaker truly unique. They show us just how lucky we are to live in and attend school in Shaker Heights, with the community’s resources and support at our disposal. It’s often easy to lose sight of the amazing opportunities available to us everyday. TEDxSHHS not only inspired curiosity, it rekindled our love for Shaker.
We hope we’ll be treated to this event again in the future, possibly from future IB seniors. TEDxSHHS certainly left a legacy.
