TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

Youth

Student scientist Mihir Joshi has a solution to save the ocean

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The youngest speak­er to take to the TEDxSalem stage this com­ing year is Mihir Joshi, a 13-year-old stu­dent at South Salem High School. Mihir, who enjoys play­ing video games, prob­lem-solv­ing and run­ning cross-coun­try, at one time, was able to solve a Rubiks Cube in under 45 sec­onds. Always look­ing for solu­tions, this curi­ous teen will take to the TEDxSalem stage to share how he learned to pre­dict the change of Marine Pro­tect­ed Areas and what you can do to help save the ocean.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I par­tic­i­pat­ed and spoke at the first-ever TEDxYouth@Salem event in Novem­ber 2017. (Check out Mihir’s talk here)

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? “This is What Hap­pens When you Reply to Spam Emails” by James Veitch. I love this TEDxTalk because of its amaz­ing use of humor.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? To me, Vision means to visu­al­ize some­thing that doesn’t exist today and strive to make it a real­i­ty because of your pas­sion and hard work.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? Being able to grow up in a pos­i­tive and sup­port­ive house­hold with amaz­ing par­ents and a great sis­ter.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I won home­com­ing court this year in my high school.     

What song best describes your life? “Haven’t Met You Yet” By Michael Bublé. I chose this song because I’m always look­ing for the next thing out there and I believe the best is yet to come.

Top 3 movies of the moment?

  1.     3 Idiots (Bol­ly­wood movie)
  2.     Guardians of the Galaxy 1
  3.     Ter­mi­na­tor 1

Top 3 songs or artists?

  1.     AJR
  2.     Jon Bel­lion
  3.     Khalid

Where would you go in a time machine? I would go back in time to watch Neil Arm­strong take his first step on the moon.          

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? How could any­one ever like chunky peanut but­ter! Smooth is the only option.  

Favorite col­or? Red

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and swag. 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

Anna Nixon: An advocate for girls in science

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Anna Nixon, Founder of STEM 4 Girls

Meet our final sur­prise speak­er for TEDxSalem V “Through the Look­ing Glass.”

Anna Nixon’s STEM career began in the sec­ond grade, when she and her father start­ing build­ing robots togeth­er in their garage. She was hooked imme­di­ate­ly.

“I loved that feel­ing of accom­plish­ment that came with final­ly get­ting a robot work­ing after hours of hard work,” she said.

Now, a senior at West­view High School in Port­land, she intends to take her pas­sions to a big­ger stage. Once she earns her degree in com­put­er sci­ence, com­put­er engi­neer­ing, or bio­med­ical engi­neer­ing, she aspires to work with robots that will be used to pro­vide med­ical aid.

Anna has learned a lot since the sec­ond grade, being involved in FIRST Robot­ics, tak­ing advanced STEM class­es in school, and start­ing a non­prof­it, STEM 4 Girls. She’s not only more knowl­edge­able and skilled, she’s become aware of the field’s chal­lenges recruit­ing and retain­ing girls and women.

Ever since Anna first joined robot­ics, she was often the only girl in the room.

“I think that the biggest chal­lenge that comes with being the only girl in the room is feel­ing the pres­sure that your actions will reflect on every girl,” she said. “And I think this is true for any minor­i­ty in any field. It’s easy to get into the mind­set of ‘If I make a mis­take peo­ple are going to think it’s because all girls are bad at this’ instead of mere­ly accept­ing your mis­take and mov­ing on. While it may seem unfound­ed, that fear of fail­ure makes you less con­fi­dent tak­ing risks or ask­ing oth­ers for help which can have a neg­a­tive impact.”

Anna’s non­prof­it, STEM4Girls, aims to solve these issues and help girls stay in STEM by build­ing up their con­fi­dence and fos­ter­ing a sup­port­ing and encour­ag­ing com­mu­ni­ty.

“Var­i­ous stud­ies have shown that girls actu­al­ly tend to do bet­ter in STEM sub­jects than their male coun­ter­parts, at least until around mid­dle school,” Anna said. “As they grow old­er, girls often tend to lose inter­est in STEM because they don’t see oth­er girls doing it or they get the mes­sage that ‘STEM is a guy thing’. Thus, the great­est sup­port that girls can get is mak­ing them feel includ­ed in the STEM com­mu­ni­ty. This means pro­vid­ing them with female role mod­els and peers that they can depend on as well elim­i­nat­ing prej­u­diced views against women in STEM.”

Join us Jan­u­ary 6 to hear more about Anna’s sto­ry and her call to action.

Get your tickets for TEDxSalem V

TEDxSalem V is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag Sat­ur­day, Jan. 6, 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.