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.
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