Theme: Inner Odyssey

We hope the talks today will inspire you to learn more about yourself and look inwards--both within yourself and your society.

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

Bianca Aguirre

Teacher

Bianca Laureano-Aguirre is a teacher of Positive Psychology and English. She received her BA in English and MA in Education from Stanford University and is now pursuing an MA in Happiness Studies. She is passionate about learning how to live the good life and teaching what she learns to students and fellow teachers to bring more happiness, wellbeing, and excellence to all.

Brian Weisfeld

Entrepreneur, Author

Brian Weisfeld is a youth entrepreneurship advocate and author who has been building businesses his entire life. As a kid, he bought gummy bears and hired his friends to sell them. As a teen, he sorted baseball cards, babysat, and sold mixtapes. As an adult, he helped build well-known companies including IMAX Corporation and Coupons.com. Brian co-authored Penguin’s forthcoming You’re The Boss: A Kid’s Ultimate Guide to Starting Your Own Business to inspire kids to start their first businesses and to empower them to think like entrepreneurs. Brian is the co-author of the Macmillan-published The Startup Squad book series and founder of The Startup Squad Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to teaching entrepreneurship to girls from underserved communities. Brian has spoken to thousands of kids and adults on three continents during his career and was featured on Good Morning America for his work. Brian lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two daughters.

Dean Harpaz

Student, Conservation Activist

Our oceans matter. Far too little research has been dedicated to exploring what can be uncovered in our deepest oceans. Dean’s talk aims to inspire young minds to take the initiative for our planet and explain the process by which oxygen is created. He hopes for a better future for the planet, one we can only achieve together. As an environmental organization founder, he is excited to speak on the most important parts of our planet.

Jordan Rahmfeld

Student

Jordan is a senior at Los Altos High School. She’s an avid horror movie fan, Swiftie, and programmer planning to study political science and computer science in university. School, hobbies, and Taylor Swift: Jordan thinks about things that are privileges to think about. Whether it be rabbits traded for lip gloss manufacturing, monkeys traded for vaccine testing, or even humans traded for national security, in her talk, she explores the hidden tax of the American high school experience, and raises the question: how do we decide the value of each life?

Kaitlyn Don

Student

Kaitlyn is a senior at Los Altos High School preparing to major in Political Science and Computer Science. Her passion for these two subjects led her to founding the Ethics and Technology Society, becoming the lead student coordinator for STEAM week, and competing in a variety of speech and debate competitions. In addition, Kaitlyn has interned for two Congresswomen, one democrat and one republican, to learn about how politicians can work across the aisle to get work done and reform the technology industry.

Matt Abrahams

Lecturer

Matt Abrahams is a leading expert in communication with decades of experience as an educator, author, podcast host, and coach. A Lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, he teaches popular classes in strategic communication and effective virtual presenting. He received Stanford GSB’s Alumni Teaching Award in recognition of his teaching students around the world. Outside of the classroom, Matt is a sought-after keynote speaker and communication consultant. He has helped countless presenters improve and hone their communication, including some who have delivered IPO road shows as well as Nobel Prize, TED, and World Economic Forum presentations. His online talks garner millions of views and he hosts the award-winning podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart The Podcast. His new book Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You're Put on the Spot provides tangible, actionable skills to help even the most anxious of speakers succeed when speaking spontaneously.

Samuel Stein, Sreyas Kadiyala

Student Athletes

Sam is a Los Altos High School senior and is currently a Campus Captain and Chapter President for The Hidden Opponent, a national nonprofit dedicated to breaking the stigma surrounding student-athlete mental health. He’s run Cross Country for all four years of high school and captained the team during his junior and senior years. Sreyas is a junior at Los Altos High and currently runs in both Track & Field and Cross Country. He joined Track his freshman year and grew to love and appreciate the sport during his sophomore cross-country season. He is also an officer at The Hidden Opponent.

Shakti Ann Kanyal

Student

Shakti Ann Kanyal is a sophomore at Los Altos High School. She has been a victim of bullying for almost all her life. This has taught her the people you surround yourself with and the amount of time you spend on social media determine your confidence. At school, she is a two-sport Varsity athlete and an officer of many clubs including a Spirit Club, Hispanic Appreciation Club, and a Tennis Club that helps teach tennis to kids with disabilities. In her free time, she runs Tiktok page @Shaktianntalks where she shares her viewpoints on many topics like bullying, grades, change, and most importantly confidence. Her goal is to teach her audience how to have a logical mindset that questions the criticism and comparison one might have in order for them to be happy and confident rather than letting others' words tear them down.

Trisha Shetty

Student

Trisha Shetty is a junior at Los Altos High School. For years, she has been interested in the issues surrounding mental health and tackling the associated stigma. In her talk, she dives deeper into one of the barriers to receiving adequate help: the nationwide shortage of mental health professionals.

Venkat Yarlagadda

Student Researcher

Venkat Yarlagadda is a 14 year old researcher who works to genetically modify plants for photosynthetic efficiency. He also completed TKS (The Knowledge Society), a 10 month human accelerator to build the next generation of people who will solve the world's biggest problems. He is not only interested in using exponential technology to solve the biggest problems, but also inspiring other kids to chase their dreams.