TEDxOneonta Message: ‘Look Around, Look Ahead’

By Monica Calzolari
ONEONTA

The all-volunteer planning committee for 2023 TEDxOneonta attracted a diverse slate of speakers on Friday, September 15.

TEDxOneonta was founded in 2017 with a goal to bring big ideas worth sharing to our community and to connect community members. Delivering on its promise, it has hosted 30 speakers, held six events and its videos have received more than 500,000 views on YouTube.

The youngest speaker on September 15 was just 17 years old and a senior in high school from downstate New York. Noemie Florant aspires to earn a degree in computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Cornell University. She gave the audience two examples of how artificial intelligence produces discriminatory practices in the hiring process and in the prison system. To reduce bias, Florant proposed that more underrepresented youth like herself need to become developers. She wants to inspire “Young Minds to Erase Algorithmic Bias in AI,” the subject of her TEDx talk.

Juan Carlos Montenegro from Los Angeles, California spoke about “Unleashing Human Potential through Volunteerism.” He described his own struggles from dyslexia. He was not diagnosed until he was 40 years old. He failed all of his classes in high school and was considered “dumb” and “never felt like I fit in.” All that changed after a pivotal experience at age 19, when he spent one year volunteering in the Amazon jungle. He credits the priest who insisted that he become a teacher with learning new strategies to overcome his challenges. He recommends volunteerism as a way to reverse the depression, anxiety and isolation that many youth today experience after spending so much time on digital devices.

Jean Tien of Long Island moved to the United States from Taiwan when she was a child. She grew up believing Thomas Edison’s advice that “there is no substitute for hard work.” She shared that “seven years ago I hit a wall.” Today, she insists, “Thomas Edison is wrong.” Her talk “Hard Work Doesn’t Have to be Hard” introduced the concept of “fractional success.” She said you do not have to try to be the best in all areas of your life at one time. Tien proposed slicing your life into five categories and making sure you prioritize what is most important to you at different phases of your life.

Josiah Brown of Delhi, New York posed the question, “Could Tourists Save Your Town?” He spoke of a new travel industry fueled by millennials like himself who “want to travel the world.” Unlike his grandfather’s generation that waited until they retired to travel, Brown was strongly influenced by the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 when he was 16 years old and the stock market crash of 2008 to not wait until retirement. He cited the explosion of opportunities in Goshen, New York when Legoland opened. He suggested that rather than complain about “too many visitors” that locals recognize that “this is your moment, rural America.” Visitors are looking for smaller schools and less crime and if they see what they like, they just might relocate to your town.

Julianne Kirkland of Georgia spoke of “Managing Multiple Identities.” She is a wife, a mother of six children, a daughter, a best-selling author, and a CEO. She went from being a mother of two to a mother of six when she had quadruplets. The experience of trying to be “everything to everyone” left her feeling “unworthy” and “fragmented.” She proposed that “identities were never meant to be managed, they are meant to be merged.” When her father died at age 63 of Alzheimer’s, she was able to tap into her authentic self and integrate all of her roles for better decision making.

Keneea Linton-George is a Jamaican-born fashion designer and social entrepreneur who studied philosophy. She discussed “The Paradox of Ethical Fashion.” The message advertisers send is to shop more. She encouraged the audience to use their power as consumers to insist on more sustainable fashion options. She described humans as “creatures of excess” and reminded us that animals produce only and exactly what they need.

The committee who planned the event included Dan Butterman, Cassandra Harrington, AJ Hecox, Lisa Meschutt, Leslie Parmerter, Liz Rickard, Lisa Samols and Pam Sparaco.