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Sonia Chavez – The Journey

I have always been a big dreamer. Since being a child I’ve loved to daydream and have entire musical set-ups in my mind of being the heroine, or the badass of the story. I thought that everyone had dancing musicals of major success in their heads until my bestie looked at me like I was crazy! Since watching my first TED Talk, I knew I wanted to be on that stage.

TED and TEDx was a place of hope and possibility. The speakers so intriguing, so bold, and with ideas to change the world. These were disruptors of the norm. There were longing and a knowing within me that I was meant for this. I didn’t know how or why, but from that moment, being on a TED/x stage one day became a huge dream of mine. Getting into TEDxCherryCreekWomen was like fate. I had previously applied to be a speaker but something felt different this time.

I was and continue to be incredibly grateful and astonished to be a speaker. I sometimes have to pinch myself. There are a beautiful reputation and expectation that comes with being a TEDx speaker and it’s been really fun to see how friends and family respond as I ask for support to practice my speech. There is an air of honor and it’s been a gift to bring others into this experience with me.

The process of training for TEDxCherryCreek has not disappointed in the least! I’ve loved being held at a high expectation, thrown deep into the process, and held so kindly at the same time. Just the first training session gave me such confidence that this is what I want, I’m willing to work for it, and it’s what I’m meant to do. I have the idea and the story within me. It’s there, and now I get to offer the world a beautiful perspective that can truly shift the lives of many. What  an honorable opportunity to have!

I will admit that every single practice I do live in front of friends and family is nerve-wracking  right before. What has been truly altering for me however is getting to see how much my idea impacts those who resonate with it. Getting to see people I care about feel permission to see themselves differently, to see possibility where there was none before, and to feel the relief of knowing they are exactly where they should be today; that experience has been priceless.
I can’t wait to share this experience with all of you.

With Tons of Love,
Sonia Chavez
Looking2Leap LLC

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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.

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.

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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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.