Hailey Hardcastle: student advocate

At 19, Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle is already an accom­plished advo­cate.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon stu­dent is a mem­ber of Stu­dents for a Healthy Ore­gon and was one of four teen activists who lob­bied for a men­tal health bill (HB 2191), which excus­es stu­dent absences for men­tal health rea­sons. The law was enact­ed this year. 

Her fam­i­ly includes three younger sis­ters, a won­der­ful hard­work­ing moth­er and two Alaskan husky pups. Hai­ley enjoys paint­ing, read­ing the news, lis­ten­ing to musi­cals (her favorite is Hamil­ton) and watch­ing foot­ball. In Jan­u­ary, we will wel­come her to the TEDxSalem stage to speak about her advo­ca­cy, but first, let’s get to know Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle. 

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I had a fan­tas­tic math teacher in mid­dle school who would show us an inspi­ra­tional TED talk every Fri­day. I remem­ber think­ing that every per­son who gave a TED talk must be a celebri­ty or incred­i­bly smart. When I grew old­er and learned that TED speak­ers are just reg­u­lar peo­ple, the talks became even more empow­er­ing, know­ing that I could be like one of those peo­ple I admired so much in mid­dle school.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? My favorite TED talk is called Be The Hope by Gay­athri Ram­prasad. I came across this talk after meet­ing Gay­athri per­son­al­ly to dis­cuss the men­tal health leg­is­la­tion that I helped pass. Her sto­ry changed the way in which I talk about my own men­tal health strug­gles. I used to be embar­rassed about what I’ve been through but her talk inspired me to see the pow­er with­in my sto­ry and myself. I now open­ly share my sto­ry and embrace it to fur­ther my men­tal health advo­ca­cy work.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? Vision to me means look­ing ahead to the future. There is a time and place for reflec­tion but right now is the time to con­sid­er what a bet­ter future will look like.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? My three younger sis­ters, two of them are in mid­dle school and the oth­er is four years old. They’ve helped me see life from a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive and can always put a smile on my face.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I have severe gen­er­al anx­i­ety. My anx­i­ety makes some things a lot hard­er for me but it also led me to find­ing my pas­sion for lead­er­ship and activism.

Do you have any com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties? I’ve always been very involved in stu­dent gov­ern­ment! Now that I’ve grad­u­at­ed I still enjoy vol­un­teer­ing for the Ore­gon Asso­ci­a­tion of Stu­dent Coun­cils to work with kids on build­ing their lead­er­ship skills.

Under your bed right now? Well I’m in col­lege so under my bed right now there’s an unrea­son­able amount of snacks.

Make one change in the world? If I could change only one thing in the world, it would be the way in which peo­ple com­mu­ni­cate. I wish more peo­ple would be will­ing to empathize and com­pro­mise with oth­ers who may not have the same beliefs as them.

Great­est fear? The ocean because so much of it is still unex­plored so we real­ly have no idea what’s out there.

Ran­dom fact: My favorite place I’ve ever been to is Machu Pic­chu in Peru.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com