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Jamie Voros – The Journey

I love that any given cohort of TEDx speakers make up an incredibly diverse crowd. As a graduate researcher, part of my job is to share my ideas with those in my field. We routinely present at conferences, write papers and engage with those inside our field of work. TEDxCherryCreek, however, piqued my interest as a way of sharing and hearing ideas beyond the community of scientists, engineers, and academics that I would normally interact with. I love the people I meet in my line of work but after getting accepted as a TEDxCherryCreek speaker, I was most excited to meet my peers. I was most excited to meet incredible people with amazing stories from far beyond the bare white walls of the laboratory that usually surrounds me.

As much as I am fulfilled by the work I do, I often miss the diversity of conversations that I had before I really specialized and chose a field of work to delve into. Even with the current restrictions on in person meetings, thus far, being part of a TEDx cohort has not disappointed. I have already had the opportunity to meet (even if over zoom) most of the women with whom I will be sharing a stage. I continue to be impressed with the broad range of backgrounds and topics that we are going to cover.

The biggest challenge I have faced so far is dramatically changing the way I talk to an audience. I am comfortable explaining technical details. I am comfortable fielding questions from an audience interested in the underlying technology. However, I am less experienced with making the work we do applicable to a far broader population. The team at TEDxCherryCreek puts in immense effort to ensure that we, the speakers, are best prepared to talk to their audience.

Overall, I am incredibly excited that I will be able to share an idea which I am genuinely passionate about. I am also excited to hear talks, stories and ideas that I would never come across in my day to day. Beyond that, however, meeting the people behind the ideas that are so far flung from my everyday has been the most exciting part of my TEDx journey so far.

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Nga Vương-Sandoval – The Journey

The moment. That moment when I received the news.  I re-read my e-mail multiple times to ensure that that read it correctly. Yes!  I’m going to be presenting at the TEDx Cherry Creek event! I was overjoyed. 

I believe that things will happen when they’re supposed to happen.  I trust that there’s a greater purpose and reason for each of us individually and within our greater society. The fact that this opportunity to be a speaker at TEDx transpired at the most unlikely time meant that it was supposed to happen now. 

We’re living in the midst of an international pandemic. We’re sitting in the front row of daily events of social and racial justice movements that fiercely contend against the establishment. I’m observing that communities and individuals are defining who they are and fighting for what they believe in during this time of global unrest.  I’m witnessing the increased appetite from those who want to discover who they are and how they’re viewed by others.  I’m witnessing the importance of how others perceive us, but more importantly is how we see ourselves.

We’re in a time when there’s an upsurge for diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of our spaces.  From all of these events and issues, one particular message has become clearer than ever: how we view an individual is less significant than how that person views themselves and what they identify as. 

This is why I’m confident that now is the perfect time to present my talk on “Assimilation as Colonization.”  It’s time for me to share a topic that has profoundly shaped how I view myself, how I view others, how I interact with various communities, and how I identify with the vast world around me.  Now is the perfect opportunity for me to share my “idea worth spreading.”

Now I have the challenging mission of encapsulating how I decolonized my framework about race, culture, and identity.  I have the task of transforming how my viewpoint and personal journey ultimately inspired my talk.  Most important, I’ll be taking the TEDx stage, standing on the big red dot, and dismantling the outdated concept of assimilation.

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Julie Ulstrup – The Journey

“Excited feels the same as nervous,” I know, I know. Whenever I  give a talk, I feel nervous, excited, joyful, scared, freaked out and excited. Did I mention excited?

In my previous life, working at a large university in the Midwest, I would speak to large groups frequently without batting an eyelash. As a middle school and high school counselor, I taught classes to students and their parents, no sweat. But giving a TEDx talk, sharing my own big idea, now this is exciting!

Giving a TEDx talk and being on the TEDx stage to share my big idea is really quite incredible. My talk, about being seen, has many parallels to being on the TEDx stage and being heard. It is a basic human desire to be seen and to be heard. To share my message with a larger audience, is being seen and heard in a way that can change lives and inspire others to do the same.

Several friends have given talks on the TEDx stage  and their journeys have been different than mine. My experience with TEDxCherryCreek Women has far exceeded my expectations as I prepare for my talk. My fellow women  with whom I will be on stage, all are inspiring. The coaching and guidance I have received from the organizers has been supportive and empowering. In fact, this has been the best part of preparing my talk. During our first meeting I had the opportunity to practice with their guidance. They explained, “the reason we do it this way is to help you realize you’ve got this all inside, you know what you want to say.” YES, I do.

There is a parallel to what I do, as a portrait photographer to the TEDxCherryCreek process. I empower others to be seen, so that they can then portray themselves to the world as vulnerable, real, beautiful and powerful. It is in my clients all along. The same has been true of this experience for me. The organizers are guiding me through the process empowering me to discover that the words within me were there all along, ready to be shared on the stage.

Sharing my big idea is what I do, who I am and how I live. Every day in my studio, meeting with clients or having a conversation with someone I have just met, my enthusiasm is contagious. Others can feel the bright light that shines within themselves. In six weeks, I’ll be on the TEDx stage. I’m excited.

Julie Ulstrup is an elevator of women, inspiring, celebrating and empowering them to see themselves every day as powerful, vulnerable, authentic, beautiful because she believes an empowered woman makes the world a better place. For more information about Julie please visit her website https://www.julieulstrup.com

Joy and Gratitude,

Julie

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Gavriella Schuster – The Journey

Clarity through the process

After 30 years growing up in the technology industry, and many years as a corporate executive, I have delivered hundreds, if not thousands of presentations in my career—some in arenas packed with 15,000 people or more. Preparing for large-scale presentations can be challenging and exhausting. And while I know the audience for my TEDx talk will likely be larger than any presentations I’ve ever delivered, the process of developing my idea worth spreading somehow isn’t exhausting.  It’s exhilarating.

From the moment I was accepted as a TEDx presenter, my mind has been in hyperdrive. I have consciously set aside time to contemplate my idea and think about it in new ways and from different angles. I’ve been on a journey to find the most impactful way to communicate and build a movement that will bridge the gap of gender equity in the workplace at scale. Working with the TEDx speaking coaches and some trusted colleagues, I’ve been able to slow down and unpack the why behind the idea and how I can move people to action.

What’s truly exciting about this process is the realization that I can jumpstart a movement that’s been close to my heart for many years. I’ve worked hard to create meaningful change by bringing women into the technology industry. I’ve mentored women in all stages of their careers. I’ve sponsored organizations that support female students and entrepreneurs. And while those organizations have blossomed, we’re not hitting a level of scale and action that is necessary to disrupt the status quo. We are simply not making fast enough progress and meanwhile more women drop out of the industry than join.  We need a call to action that will resonate with business and community leaders. Through the process of developing this TEDx talk, I have discovered what that call to action needs to be.

It came to me as I sat down and watched several TED talks in a row. After getting lost in an inspiring rabbit hole of video presentations, I found that the most impactful presentations left the audience with a clear roadmap for people to follow—simple instructions and ideas they could put into practice tomorrow. That was a light bulb moment for me. Tapping into my background in product marketing, I shifted my mindset and came up with a compelling text-based visual to close my presentation. It’s memorable. It’s relatable. And it’s actionable.

With that missing piece in place, I’m more excited than ever to share my idea with the world. And I can’t wait to see what else I discover on this TEDx journey. 

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Ideas Worth Spreading

About TED/TEDx, x = independently organized event.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.