College is a time of transitions. Often, students are not just moving to an institution of higher education, they are often moving from home, from family and from the familiar. One thing that we have noticed happen during this transition, is that college students, particularly freshman, will lose their sense of voice. With all the commotion that comes with this huge move, students feel as if they have no right or authority to make grand, world changing actions. Moving to a large place and being thrust into the "adult" world, they often feel small and too childish to make a difference. Here within the SOS office, we feel that this is the opposite of what should be happening. At this age and level, students should be taking the opportunity to be making bold, optimistic and change inducing actions. Why? Because they are just as capable, if not more so, than anyone else. College students have the great ability to see road blocks, and yet still remain optimistic that they can over come them. College students are wonderful in the way that they keep their sense of creativity overflowing and unending.
We urge our students to not wait till they get a degree or become an "adult" before they start aspiring to their dreams. We believe that time is now.
To get the real essence of what we feel about this, today's TED is from Adora Svitak. This video speaks to the power of bold ideas and intense creativity that come from thinking "childishly".
With just over a month left to go till TEDxWWU, we are excited and pleased to announce the innovative speakers for the first TEDx event at Western. This week, we would like to introduce two more of our speakers, Gina Bacon and Dannie Soloff.
Gina Bacon graduated from Western Washington University in 2008 and received her Master’s Degree in Communication from the University of Utah in 2011. Gina is a Korean adoptee and has shared her story of racial identity at several events, including two international adoption conferences. Gina has a publication in press about familial and racial identity, and was featured in the newsletter of the Autonomous University of Barcelona’s (UAB) AFIN Research Group. She currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah and works in the Dean’s Office of the University of Utah School of Medicine.
Dannie Soloff was raised in the Pacific Northwest and grew up fascinated by the history of humans and the sciences of the earth and cosmos. In the effort to positively serve society, Dannie is exploring the true capacity of Social Development Programs in opening individuals and groups to greater integrity. After exploring general studies at Western Washington University, Dannie transferred to Fairhaven College to design an interdisciplinary concentration involving leadership, eco-mimicry, and social health. His self-designed major is titled "Social Stewardship". Daniel also enjoys gardening, ecological projects yoga, dance and cooking; his meditative activities. "May everyone everywhere be well."
Sometimes, it is hard to
put yourself in a position where you may fail. A position where you think that you may
come out the other side less popular, on the losing team, a little lost in the
commotion of life. When in college, it is easy to stick with what you know. The
job you work to just get a paycheck, the classes that you know you will get an
easy A in, the same plans each Friday night. It’s pretty normal to get content
and not take risks.
However, that’s not what
I want for the students that come through the Student Outreach Services office
here at WWU. I want students here at Western to leave with not only a degree,
but a lifetime of knowledge that can only come from making real, raw connections
with others and by taking opportunities that may frighten them at first. I
believe that learning doesn't just happen in a lecture hall on campus. I
believe that learning happens with every activity you partake in, every event
you attend, and every new person that you meet. I also believe that a
university like Western is the perfect platform for this growth.
The trouble with this
idea of growth? Often, allowing oneself to be open to these new experiences is
a frightening decision. Why? Because you may fail. That is the honest truth.
However, another truth is that you may not fail. You may come out the other
side of something with amazing memories, new friends and incredible growth that
you never would have found otherwise. If we were to place those two options on
a scale, I believe that taking those chances would outweigh the risk of failing,
every single time.
So here is my challenge
to you: College is the one place in life where, as cheesy as this is, the world
really is your oyster. So, go out and make those connections. Meet new people
who may have to ability change your vision. Seek out new experiences that leave
you pondering deep questions. Have a few adventures that will create a lifetime
of memories. The willingness to open yourself up for those adventures and opportunities
is as simple as getting in the metaphorical car and joining along for the
ride. Once you make that first step, the excitement, learning and growth fall
right into place.
My goal for you is to
make the most of your time here at Western. Go and take those opportunities for
failure. Find those moments to connect with people and make the most of them.
Go out, open yourself up to the unknown, and take some risks that may end up in
failure. The beauty is not in the risks that don’t end up in failure, the
beauty is in taking the risk in the first place and the joy that comes along
with it.
-Kayla Swallow
WWU Student and TEDxWWU Curator
“Twenty years from now you will be
more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade
winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain
One TED Talk that has meant a lot to me is Brene Brown's The Power of Vulnerability. This talk emphasizes the connections we make with others, and the level of vulnerability we must put ourselves in in order to make those connections. -Kayla Swallow
Here at TEDxWWU, we are excited and pleased to announce the innovative speakers for the first TEDx event at Western. This week, we would like to introduce two of our speakers, Swil Kanim and Corey Warren.
Swil Kanim, an enrolled member of the Lummi Nation, is the
president of HonorWorks, a 501c3 nonprofit corporation.He is a classically trained violinist, native
storyteller and actor.He and his team
carry the message of hope and healing to schools and organizations where young
people learn to honor themselves by staying in school, staying alive, staying
sober, and creating healthy communities. Swil Kanim’s compositions incorporate classical influences as
well as musical interpretations of his journey from depression and despair to
spiritual and emotional freedom. The stories and music emerging from his
experiences have been transforming people’s lives for decades.
To learn more about Swil Kanim, please visit his personal website here.
Corey Warren is an artist, a dreamer, and an entrepreneur. After attending four different universities across the north west, he settled in Bellingham and graduated from Western Washington University's Class of 2008.
The abundance of creativity, good people, and quality of life was too good to leave after college, so immediately upon graduating, Corey and his best friend Dylan Warnberg began a lofty project that would become INNATE; a symbol for their commitment to encouraging true, human expression and its infinite possibility.
To learn more about Corey Warren, please visit the website for INNATE here.
We get it. Honestly, we know that un-defining is really not a word. But all the same, it fits in with what we believe to be true about leadership so well that we took the creative liberty of making a word that would work for us. One of the things that we strongly support, encourage and cultivate here in the Student Outreach Services office is leadership. We believe that everyone has the power to be a leader and change the world. However, some people struggle with viewing themselves as a leader, or thinking that they have the potential to take action and create change. We feel that leadership is often a term that is confined to a specific definition. There are those who say that to be a leader you must have money, power, and a huge following of people to really be a "real" leader. We disagree. We feel anyone has the capacity to lead and everyone has the capacity to make a difference. We don't believe that it is enough to redefine leadership, as just by doing that you risk the possibility of limiting the people that will fit into the new definition. We think that we should un-define what it means to be a leader, so that more people will feel comfortable in that role. By un-defining what it means to be a leader, we can open the doors for more people to call themselves leaders and to go out and make a difference. In true TEDx spirit, we have found a two of our favorite TEDx and TED talks that are all about different definitions and ways to view leadership. Drew Dudley: Leading with Lollipops
Derek Sivers: How to Start a Movement
If you have a way that you think helps to Un-define Leadership, please let us know!
With our last post, we revealed the theme of our very first TEDx event at WWU, Renovations: Building Our Futures. With this theme, we have learned that there is a wide variety of interpretations. So, what does Renovations mean to us?
For us, Renovations is an exploration of both maintaining and strengthening values and foundations that one currently has while enhancing their potential to adapt, change and grow as individuals. We chose this theme to reflect the stories and experiences of our target audience, which will be primarily made of first generation, low-income and underrepresented college students.
Student Outreach Services works with incoming students who are coming to Western to pursue higher education and what it has to offer. They leave their homes, families, cultures and communities to join and become a part of a new culture at Western. They are thrown into a huge university where they are encouraged to change, learn and grow as much as possible. We feel that this is one of the main purposes of receiving a higher education and it makes for a positive impact on our students. However, we feel that students are not always encouraged to dig deeper into what they already came to campus with; their foundations, their values, their unique cultural identity. Our hope with TEDxWWU is to provide students with talks that really emphasize the power and strength that comes with the foundations they already have.
On the flip side of that, we feel that once one has a strong foundation built, they can grow and expand from there, hence the word Renovations. Renovations is not an idea that tears, destroys or removes something. To Renovate something, you are adding and improving upon what is already present. It is growth and movement.
It is about building our future and creating something that inspires us.
TEDx is all about Ideas Worth Spreading and choosing a theme for each event brings everything together and distinguishes one event from another. A good theme has the potential to capture the attention and interest of those who interact with your event. Not only will it be the first thing that they know about your TEDx event, it will also be the one thing they keep referring back to when discussing, sharing and thinking about your event.
In other words, the theme of your event has some serious power.
When starting the planning for our event, we were discussing themes before we really even had a team set up. We were discussing themes before we even had the official word back that our license was approved. In case you didn’t pick up on that, we were really excited about picking out a theme.
So it should also be no surprise that at our first group meeting, we started off by brainstorming for a theme. Brainstorming is, by the way, the perfect word for what was happening, as by the end of our meeting, it really did look like a storm had passed through the room.
We found that the best way to start was by focusing on who our target audience would be and what they would benefit the most from hearing at our event. By focusing on college age students from Western, we were able to come up with theme ideas that would not only interest them, but also have an impact on them.
After passing out multi-colored sticky notes to the team, everyone started jotting down ideas, key words or phrases that they thought would pertain to our audience. Once everyone had a sufficient number of ideas written down, the fun really started. By placing sticky notes in groups together on a wall, we as a team were able to see how our ideas matched, fit into and complimented the ideas of other group members. It was here that we started to vocalize and actively discuss our thoughts.
This part of the process is the most important, as it gives everyone a chance to fully think out their idea, and see other views. It was here that our theme was born - through dialogue and discussion - it happened almost suddenly - completely by accident - someone misread a word and said aloud - RENOVATIONS. And that was it! We talked about it, around it, what it meant to us and it felt perfect. We determined that this theme was not only accessible to Western’s students, but one that we felt speakers could really grasp the essence of.
The theme we have chosen for this year’s event is Renovations: Building Our Future.
Stay tuned to learn what our theme means to us!
Lead Curator Marli Williams leading the group discussion in front of the brainstorming wall.
TEDx has the power to inform and enlighten people. It is also the perfect platform to call people towards actively doing something about what they just heard. We love TEDx because of the change and movement these events bring to the local community. Here at Western Washington University, we have seen the impact that watching TED Talks has on students and the way that they perceive their education. We have seen first hand how a great Talk can change the way a student views the ownership they have for their education and how they are motivated into doing something new or different.
It's not just information, it's a call to action.
That call to action is about creating forward momentum towards initiating drive and motivation to encourage students to see what is possible for themselves and the communities they are apart of. However, it is not only their lives that will be affected. We firmly believe that if great things happens for one person, it will create a ripple effect, reaching out to their friends, community and finally the world. This is the kind of impact that TEDx has.
A maximum of eighteen minutes is all the time you need to bring this type of impact to a group of college students. TEDx is more than just talks, It’s a catalyst for movement. And movement is something the world needs more of.
Want to learn more about what TED and TEDx talks are all about? Check out this link here.
Have any questions about TEDxWWU? Feel free to send an email to TEDxWWU@gmail.com
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