Speakers have been chosen for Stetson’s TEDx event and they include Stetson faculty and students as well as members of the community. The topics being discussed range from human qualities to the importance of media. Each Tedx talk will be approximately 6-18 minutes in length. In addition to the live speakers, 2-3 TED talks will be shown from the TED website.

Speakers at Stetson include:

• Stetson visiting assistant professor Andy Dehnart will be discussing the importance of TV and media on learning about yourself and how it is important to value reality TV and social media–and to value critical thinking about them.

• Another Stetson professor, Mario Rodriguez, will focus his discussion on the impact contemporary media has on the future of emerging adults. He will be discussing his research and observations on the topic of privacy and censorship within social media and other media outlets and how it pertains to self-representation.

• Stetson student, Luke Ford, will be discussing the importance of imagination in learning and in the workplace. He will highlight the significance of imagination on everyday life.

• Kai Eckenrode, also a Stetson student, will be focusing his talk on masculinity and the social construction of gender as it relates to American society today. He will be centralizing on the idea and importance of advocacy for feminism even for men, helping to reconstruct the idea of how masculinity is seen as well.

• Ben Collins, a member of the DeLand community will talk about the evolution of faith. He will explain the importance of every generation to take part in finding new expression, emphasizing the importance of opening the conversation and participation between the critic and the practitioner to be able to create the evolution.

• Another member of the DeLand community, Steven Carrillo, will be focusing his discussion on the characteristics of leadership that are most forgotten. He will be using personal experiences to emphasize his ideas of learning from failure, understanding empathy, and the significance of every person because they leave behind their own legacy.

TED, a nonprofit organization with a mission to spread ideas, brings together three different realms of society — technology, entertainment and design – for discussions on a broad range of ideas. Stetson’s TEDx event will give the Stetson and DeLand communities a chance to engage in thought-provoking presentations, comprised of short talks, demonstrations and performances on a variety of topics relating to the theme, Significance in Action: Inspired Learning.

Tickets are on sale in the CUB in room 229 from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. until the event itself, Friday, March 15. Tickets can be reserved until Wednesday, March 13. Tickets are $5 and are limited to 2 per person. There are only 100 tickets on sale. For more information email [email protected].

by Lauren Robbins