Alumni

Ever won­der what life is like for TEDxSalem speak­ers after their talks?

We know the joy and enrich­ment that we get from watch­ing them, but what about our speak­ers? What do they get out of it? What last­ing impres­sions do they have from their big day?

As we pre­pare for our upcom­ing event, “Through the Look­ing Glass” on Jan­u­ary 6, we check in with a few alum­ni to find out what’s hap­pened since they left the TED stage…

---

Noah Schultz

“There’ve been some strug­gles in there, but you high­light the beau­ty.”

After his talk in 2016, Noah Schultz was released from incar­cer­a­tion. For a time, he worked on a col­lab­o­ra­tion called Ver­bal Escape, teach­ing spo­ken word per­for­mance in prison com­mu­ni­ties. He also col­lab­o­rat­ed on a fash­ion line and food/beverage sales effort called Cas­ca­dia Kom­bucha.

When we reached him in San Fran­cis­co in Sep­tem­ber, he was on a nation­al speak­ing tour of cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties, high schools and youth orga­ni­za­tions to pro­mote his doc­u­men­tary film “Noah Schultz: From Prison to Pur­pose.”

“It’s been a marathon,” Schultz said, “a lot of sprints in there as well.”

“My TEDx expe­ri­ence was one of the most incred­i­ble expe­ri­ences of my life,” he said.

“That expe­ri­ence, that feel­ing of com­mu­ni­ty and sup­port, love and accom­plish­ment in the same room, that whole expe­ri­ence lift­ed me up,” he said.

“To be able to tell my sto­ry and to be accept­ed for who I was, where I’d been and where I’m going was a huge build­ing block,” he said. “One of my biggest accom­plish­ments.”

---

Jonathan Chase

“Noth­ing com­pares to the feel­ing as you step out of the spot­light with the echo of applause still ring­ing behind you.”

Since his appear­ance at TEDxSalem, Jonathan Chase has giv­en pre­sen­ta­tions across the coun­try includ­ing to nation­al con­fer­ences and col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties such as Duke Uni­ver­si­ty. He also pub­lished a book, “From Sur­viv­ing to Thriv­ing: Class­room Accom­mo­da­tions for Stu­dents on the Autism Spec­trum”. He cred­its his TEDxSalem appear­ance for giv­ing his self-fund­ed book the boost it need­ed, hav­ing gar­nered over 300,000 views on YouTube.

While he does­n’t play music full time any­more, he still brings the bass out to con­fer­ences every now and then, he said.

“I think TEDx is great because any­one can get involved and sub­mit their idea as a pre­sen­ter,” he said.

“It requires com­mit­ment and a lot of rehearsal, but the pay­off is immense, and noth­ing com­pares to the feel­ing as you step out of the spot­light with the echo of applause still ring­ing behind you.”

---

Mark Davis

“I hope to do anoth­er TEDx talk some day.”

Dr. Davis’ talk has gar­nered almost 26,000 views on YouTube — “Cer­tain­ly the largest audi­ence I’ve ever had,” he said.

“When peo­ple book appoint­ments with me, many of them will men­tion that they’ve ‘watched my TED talk,’ ” he said.

Davis remem­bers the prepa­ra­tion for his appear­ance fond­ly.

“The group that reviewed my talk gave me excel­lent feed­back, which real­ly improved the qual­i­ty of my talk,” he said.

“The rehearsals, pre-par­ty and event itself were a great mix of pro­fes­sion­al and fun.”

---

Kelsey Juliana

“It hum­bled me, but it also empow­ered me.”

It was less than a year ago that this “cli­mate kid” inspired her audi­ence to believe in the pow­er of youth to fight cli­mate change. Her infec­tious opti­mism encour­aged oth­ers to believe that any­one could make a dif­fer­ence in the world, even in the face of seem­ing­ly insur­mount­able odds.

These days Juliana is hold­ing down two jobs, work­ing at a local bak­ery and vol­un­teer teach­ing with the City of Eugene, while tak­ing class­es at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon as a junior. And of course she’s still part of a poten­tial­ly ground­break­ing legal prece­dent.

On Decem­ber 11 the case that bears her name, Juliana v. U.S.A., 15-cv-01517, came back into the news as oral argu­ments were held in front of a three-judge pan­el of the 9th U.S. Cir­cuit Court of Appeals, where Trump Admin­is­tra­tion lawyers had filed a motion to dis­miss.

A rul­ing could be hand­ed down any day.

“It’s very excit­ing,” she said. “It feels like it’s part of a move­ment.”

And she is grate­ful for the brief time she spent with TEDxSalem.

“What the TED expe­ri­ence allowed me to do,” she said, “is to actu­al­ly crys­tal­lize what I as a per­son, not as a youth in the move­ment, but what I as Kelsey have expe­ri­enced, have learned, have tak­en away.”

“I real­ized through that expe­ri­ence, through map­ping out my sto­ry and shar­ing my sto­ry, that, wow, I am quite an empow­ered per­son.”

---

Get your tick­ets for TEDxSalem V

TEDxSalem V is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag that takes place Sat­ur­day, Jan. 6, 2018, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Pur­chase tick­ets here. 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.