Saturdays aren’t usually so busy for Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex.
By 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 22, the space was buzzing with activity — attendees milled about, grabbing pastries and coffee; others looked over the several posters set atop easels, each with the title of a speech and a speaker’s name. A table outside the auditorium held stacks of mini notebooks and pens. TEDxNortheasternU was spelled out in large, bold letters at the front of the hall, directly behind the franchise’s signature red circular rug. And soon, several speakers would take the stage to share what they’ve been preparing for months.
TEDxNortheasternU is a student-run organization that serves as an extension of the TEDx franchise on campus. This year’s annual conference was themed “UncharTED: Seek the Uncertain,” which rang true throughout the event by means of six powerful, enlightening and emotional speeches.
Divided into two sessions, the first began with Zara Northover, a Northeastern alum who represented Jamaica at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But she wasn’t there to discuss her accomplishments — she instead opened up about her experience facing racial discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
Northover got choked up several times while discussing her “mental marathon for justice” and the lengthy process of filing a lawsuit to fight against hate. Her case is still ongoing, but with encouraging cheers from the audience, she told her story of resilience. Towards the end of her speech, she asked the crowd to repeat after her, and the room echoed with chants of affirmation.
“I am worth the cost of justice.”
“My voice matters.”
“I am moving in faith.”
TEDxNortheasternU started planning this spring’s conference at the beginning of the fall 2024 semester in September, according to Savannah Murphy, a fourth-year media relations coordinator for the organization. The club functions in several teams, including the marketing team that she’s a part of, as well as the speaker development, finance, and operations and community engagement teams.
“It started off more just with ideation and brainstorming,” said Aryan Singh, a third-year procurement coordinator. “What does UncharTED mean? What do we want the event to represent? What do we want the overall vibe to be?”
As the semester went by, their plans became “a lot more detailed and chaotic.”
The next speech had a similar exercise that engaged the audience. Naomi Rajput, who studies behavioral neuroscience and Spanish at Northeastern, spoke of grit, growth mindsets and how tenacity strengthens our neural networks. The speech was backed by neuroscience statistics and colorful diagrams of the human brain. She also recounted how yoga and meditation helped her overcome personal challenges over the years, like academics and her tendency to compare herself to high-achieving peers.
“Failure isn’t a permanent outcome,” Rajput said during her speech. Our inner dialogues — the way we speak to ourselves — matters more.
After a vibrant performance from NU Kaliente, Northeastern’s Latinx Dance team, Northeastern student Zara Poon wrapped up the first half of the conference. In another moving speech, Poon, a bioengineering and biochemistry major, discussed her recovery from anorexia and the feeling of perfectionism. The talk covered shame, belonging, support systems and struggles with mental health. Entitled, “Lessons From the Psych Ward: The Importance of Vulnerability,” Poon’s speech spotlighted the fact that we should be able to have difficult conversations outside of group therapy settings too — that type of conversation helped her through her recovery journey.
“People innately care for each other,” she said. “What we need to learn from the psych ward is how to care for each other, how to have these vulnerable conversations.”
The session broke for lunch, and, around an hour later, the second half began with a performance from NU Malhar, Northeastern’s Indian classical dance team.
Northeastern student Jarrett Lobb resumed the speeches, speaking about the prison and justice system and how prisoners face challenges during and after incarceration. Emphasizing rehabilitation over punishment, Lobb, who is studying mathematics and political science, told stories of real people he encountered at a summer program where he worked with formerly incarcerated people to show how the American justice system is not just failing citizens, but actively damaging them.
Incarceration doesn’t have to be such an isolating experience, he said, quoting Nelson Mandela — “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”
Janine Hamner Holman began her speech with a series of rhetorical questions about workplace bullying and difficult experiences with higher-ups. She spoke about how younger generations are beginning to revolutionize the workforce. Gen Z and millennials are standing up to toxic work cultures and changing norms to create a more humanistic labor force, one that does not tie value to the work that you do. Many are even voluntarily choosing to leave their jobs if unhappy because they know they deserve better treatment. Holman brought up differences in how younger generations are raised, which affects how they value work and employment. This phenomenon is called the “Great Resignation,” or a long-term pattern of mass quitting where millions of Americans exited the workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The last speech of the day was about broken conservation systems in South Africa. During a trip to the rhino-poaching capital of the world, Brecker Ferguson, a fourth year studying environmental science and business administration, worked at nature reserves and was surprised at their intense security systems. He analyzed the circumstances that drive people to poaching and found that it is rooted in apartheid and racial disparities. In a country with around a 30% unemployment rate, the immense financial gains from poaching are too good for some to pass up.
“While my intentions were certainly noble,” Ferguson said, “my actions followed a wider trend of well-meaning conservationists prioritizing African wildlife over African people.”
At around 2:30 p.m. the second session came to a close, after which attendees and the event organizers filed out of the auditorium to socialize and take photos.
Just like the assortment of speech topics, the selection of speakers also varied.
“We really look for ideas, so we don’t really care about speaking experience,” said Poorvi Mohanakrishnan, a second-year Northeastern student and Lobb’s speaking coach, about how the speaker selection occurs within the organization. “We scout for ideas, and we think about TED’s general mission.”
The selection process includes a rigorous process of interviews, questioning what applicants can do with their ideas. The coach then works with the speaker, not just on dialect and tone, but also on how best to tell their stories. They try to get the speeches finalized by December, after which the next couple of months are spent on memorization and gearing up for the big day. Each speaker receives a partnered speaking coach, who helps them prepare their speech for the conference. It took lots of practice, said Lobb, even memorizing and planning hand gestures.
“It’s a very rewarding experience to have something that you create at the end of this experience and something that you’re both proud of,” Mohanakrishnan said.
When Lobb returned from his summer program and came back to Northeastern, it was a vastly different setting from what he had been immersed in all summer.
“It’s a school with a lot of privileged individuals, which isn’t a bad thing at all,” Lobb said. “But it just means that people aren’t necessarily privy to the experiences and things that a lot of other people have to deal with.”
He wanted to help show a different perspective to the Northeastern community, and TEDx seemed like a productive way to do that.
“I just wanted to… at least give new ideas to people, and I hope my talk today did that,” Lobb said.