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, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. 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 (subject to certain rules and regulations).

TEDxLAHS
201 Almond Ave
Los Altos, California, 94022
United States

Charles Atkins

Charles Atkins is a senior at Los Altos High School. When he isn’t sprinting for the LAHS track team, he enjoys reading and writing. In middle school, he founded the blog Neologikon, which explores philosophy, literature, psychology, and history. Interested in the question of how best to live, and seeking the interconnection among philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and more, Atkins will examine in his talk the popularized Buddhist practice of mindfulness in an effort to recover its moral roots and its critical role in guiding people to be their best selves as well as to live good, moral lives.

Donna Young

Donna Young is a senior Executive with The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) who moved to California in 1978 and holds degrees from Stanford University and Berkeley. While her son was an LAHS student, she was active in local fund-raising and Parent-Teacher Association activities. In her talk, she plans to talk about the struggles of being black and how it has affected her life in Los Altos.

Harini Nagappan

Harini Nagappan is a sophomore at Los Altos High School and she spends her free time reading, writing, baking, and hiking. Outside of school, Harini is a dedicated scout and an avid volunteer. Being a high schooler herself, she understands the pressure put on teenagers and the lifelong effect it has. Being a first-hand witness to the drawbacks of society, Harini hopes to fight against the stigma of stress and disabilities. Through her own personal experiences, she aims to talk about the domino effect stressed has on one's life and what we as a society can do to reverse this.

Karan Dalal

Karan Dalal is a junior at Homestead High School. After finding himself with a surplus amount of time from the distanced learning transition, Karan co-founded a "pet-tech" startup called PetCode. Through his experiences, he has come to understand the importance of unprepared speaking. During his talk, Karan will share some of his favorite tips and tricks to perfecting the art of impromptu.

Maria Palacios

Maria Fernanda Palacios is a senior at Los Altos High School. She has always admired the technological advancements and changes occurring around her in Silicon Valley. Currently, she is a part of the sponsorship and outreach teams for Los Altos Hacks and aspires to study software engineering next year. Only recently did she realize how much her community's struggles were intertwined with the changes she had glorified all these years. Her interest in gentrification began after reading The Great Gatsby and stemmed out of the enigma that is the American dream. With this talk, she hopes to give insight into how gentrification impacts individuals and spark interest in exploring solutions to displacement caused by inevitable advancements.

Richard Field

Safari Guide

Richard Field works as a safari guide in Australia. He figured out at just 7 years old he wanted to be a safari guide, and as soon as he finished university he left to start his life in the wilds of Africa. As a trusted and loved safari guide, it seemed like he lived a remarkable life. But it wasn’t all that smooth sailing. In his talk, Richard will share his personal challenging experiences that have helped shape him into who he is today. Richard has a real passion for sharing his story with high school students. He hopes that the perspectives and understandings that he shares will help them utilize their own challenges to become the humans that they wish to be.

Sarah Su

Sarah Su is a sophomore at Los Altos High School with a love for all things chemistry whether it’s mixing together ingredients or performing organic chemistry research. As a high school researcher, she engages in organic chemistry research regarding antimicrobial resistance, anticancer therapy, molecular antiviral solutions, and applications of computational chemistry in small molecule inhibitors; her passion for medicine and research has been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic where she’s been working on computational modeling of small molecule interactions with proteins indicated in the Sars-Cov-2 pathway for the purpose of finding a treatment. She hopes to be able to incite similar passion in others, as well as to increase education regarding the uses of computational chemistry for pressing medicinal issues.

Shreya Anand

Shreya is a sophomore at Los Altos High School and the host of the podcast, All About Her, where she interviews women in STEM about their careers and experiences. Her talk discusses the disparities that are often covered up in the field and tells the stories of women in STEM around the world. Shreya’s inspiration was her own love for STEM and, more importantly, her confusion about the various different fields. She hopes to help others understand how to overcome similar obstacles while empowering women at the same time.

Yao Yao Xiao

Born with sensorineural hearing loss, Yao Yao Xiao has had to adapt to life in a hearing world. She is an avid biker, and enjoys spending time meeting new people, writing poems or op-eds, and teaching her bunny new tricks. Now a senior at Los Altos High School, she is sharing her story and speaking out about the damaging stereotypes towards the deaf/hard of hearing community. Her hope is to spread awareness about the challenges students with disabilities face and shift the conversation towards how we can contribute to a future of accessibility for everyone.

Zain Merchant

Zain is a senior at Los Altos High School. He has published several mobile apps and has started several businesses. He runs his own social media channels to document his entrepreneurial journey. He is a firm believer in the power of technology to solve problems and positively disrupt society which he plans to discuss in his talk. In his spare time, Zain enjoys playing rock and metal guitar as well as playing competitive badminton.