A few years ago, when Constantinos Coursaris visited Japan with a group of study abroad students, they got lost in a subway station looking for a train.
Insisting on helping out, a local man showed them in the right direction, missing his own train in the process, said Coursaris, an assistant professor with the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media.
“That is culture,” he said. “That is beautiful, that respect and appreciation for others.”
Coursaris spoke about connecting people on both a global and local level at the TEDxMSU event Saturday afternoon in the Business College Complex.
The independently organized event, sponsored by the International Students Association, or ISA, and the Office for International Students and Scholars, hosted nine speakers.
ISA Director of Events Lex Ariff said although this was not the first TEDx event held at MSU, it was the first one to be student run and MSU affiliated. The event’s theme, Global and Local, was intended to bring together students from diverse backgrounds and brought about 600 registrants, he said.
“We were really thinking about this idea of how we could maximize the interaction between domestic students and international students,” Ariff said.
Each of the speakers told personal stories about their own lives and how they could cultivate a better global understanding, whether through soccer, filmmaking or even first dates.
Hearing the different stories encouraged applied engineering sciences senior Anupama Prasad to come to the TEDxMSU talks.
Although most of the speakers touched on the same subjects of how to impact changes among different cultures, Prasad said each had a unique way of teaching the attendees about new ideas and cultures. She said one speaker who stuck out to her spoke about how lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender rights in China are a taboo topic, with the message that everyone deserves to be loved.
“It was so powerful and really true,” Prasad said.
Ariff said he hopes to continue TEDxMSU to accommodate up to 1,000 people in future years and live stream the events.
“We wanted to maximize attendance by choosing a theme that would draw audience from both (international and domestic) demographics, and at the same time create an impact on campus, and I think we have done that,” Ariff said.
Graduate student Danielle Han said she attended the TEDxMSU talks because the theme interested her, and she also wanted to hear her professor, Coursaris, speak.
She said several of the talks helped her learn more about how to be successful in the workforce.
“I know what I have to strengthen (to find a job),” she said.
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