Photo Courtesy of TedX Foggy Bottom
Students part of the TedX Foggy Bottom group put on their third TedX conference on Friday in Lisner Auditorium. The group of 30 dedicated students are part of one of the largest TedX groups in the nation.
“I was just amazed by all the speakers and I just had to get involved,” said sophomore Lauren Lamb who saw last year’s event and is now part of the planning team.
Memorable speakers from the event were Dr. Leana Wen, who told an emotional tale about her struggle with stuttering when she spoke and how she overcame that to become who she was today. Youtube sensation Postmodern Jukebox and Scott Bradlee gave a wonderful performance as they gave today’s hit songs a vintage makeover. GW’s own Oz Fishman talked about his fraternity fund-raising efforts for cancer research and how that showed him how much we truly don’t know about how fortunate we are.
“They have done a phenomenal job,” said GW Dean of Students Peter Konwerski, who was attending TedX for the first time. “From the leadership on down, every one of the students has been amazing.”
The 21 speakers all worked with the theme of Illuminate. Another great aspect of this event was the interactive breaks in between speaker sessions. Attendees could meet some of the speakers, do various activities, or look at tables from organizations like Make DC Smile, a group dedicated to doing random acts of kindness in the DC area or D.C. Central Kitchen, who helps by preparing meals for the underprivileged and works with farmers to make sure they have the tools they need.
A crowd favorite was Coexist Coffee, who sells coffee from a farm that’s worked on by people of all religions who use to fight but were brought together to make a better life for their community by producing coffee beans.
“We are part of the community and we want students to know that there is an Alumni association for them to be a part of when they graduate,” said first time platinum sponsor Jim Core. “I hope everyone takes the message of actions and illumination and make a better world for GW and our communities.”
Sophomore Lauren Lamb saw last year’s event and is now part of the team running it. “I was just amazed by all the speakers and I just had to get involved.”
If you want to get involved with TedX in the future, the group says that they have an application process online. The future of TedX Foggy Bottom seems bright as the group continues to stun the GW and Foggy Bottom community.