Genetics junior Irene Li has worked almost her entire college career to get TEDx, an independently-organized idea-sharing talk and performance event, back on campus.
This spring, her work will come to fruition as TEDxMSU remerges after a hiatus that began in 2012, stemming from a lack of leadership and funding for the project.
Li, who began her freshman year at MSU in 2012, the last time a TEDx event was held on campus, said no exact time and date is set for the event, but it will be held sometime in March at Wharton Center. The theme of the event is “The Will,” a play off of MSU’s slogan “Spartans Will.”
Li said curators of the event are still looking for speakers, and are hoping to cast a wide net out to students, faculty, and the MSU community, who can apply at the TEDxMSU website.
“I’ve always liked TED talks, and one thing I told myself was that I would either get involved in TED, or start it at MSU,” Li said. “So I studied and researched what we needed to do to have a TED talk at MSU. The hardest part was getting the license, which we got in late September.”
Since then, momentum has been picking up for the event. Li and the other students and individuals involved in the planning of the event secured funding from donors and grants and were able to solidify the venue this month.
“We want students to go to this event and see that it’s not just about awards you’ve won or scholarship, but about the stories each student can bring to the stage,” Li said. “It’s going to be even more special because the ideas came out of MSU, and are being shared in East Lansing and MSU.”
Comparative cultures and politics sophomore Lizzie Depentu is the speakers co-director for the TEDx talk, and said she and other student organizers are on the lookout for community members who want to share their story.
“‘The Will,” can be interpreted in a lot of different ways, it can be anything, what gets you up every day,” Depentu said. “This is really inspiring for me personally. We get to showcase and highlight all the great stuff going on at MSU.”
