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On Saturday, April 9, seven speakers will present in the Underground at the Schine Student Center as a part of the TEDxSyracuseUniversity series. The event will start at 2 p.m., with speakers giving approximately 18-minute talks each. The Daily Orange spoke with five of the seven speakers about their presentations.

William Khabbaz

William Khabbaz is a Syracuse University junior majoring in public relations who is originally from Sarasota, Florida. A writer for Zipped Magazine and a brother of Phi Kappa Theta, Khabbaz hopes to follow his love for communications, fashion and entertainment to a future career. On April 9, Khabbaz will give a TED Talk on his journey to this point in his life and the intersection of his many identities.

Shari Alyse

Shari Alyse is a writer and speaker residing in Los Angeles. Originally from Miami, Alyse went to school at SU and received her degree in theater. She is now a published author and speaker for many outlets, including a previous TED Talk. Alyse will be speaking on April 9 about the power of being wrong.

Ava Notkin

SU alumna Ava Notkin has been busy since graduating in the fall of 2020. Between her 300,000 followers on TikTok to the work she’s done with NBCUniversal for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Notkin has made the transition from academic to working life with her fair share of experimentation. In her forthcoming TED Talk, “The New Social Currency & Its Effect on our Mental Health,” Notkin pulls from her personal journey with social media, which includes moving to California with her mother during the pandemic.

Nicole Cox

Nicole Cox is a senior broadcast and digital journalism major at SU who is passionate about health, wellness and most importantly, weightlifting. Cox will give her second TEDx talk — with the first having occurred at TEDxYouth@Sammamish — about how weightlifting helped her recover from an eating disorder and allow her to trust and appreciate her body again. Cox will speak about how daunting it can be as a woman in the weight room and how to overcome the fear of embarrassment and be confident as a beginner because that is where everybody was once.

Geena Matuson

Geena Matuson is an arts technologist, educator and speaker who graduated from SU with her master’s degree in arts journalism in 2019. Matuson’s talk, titled “Reject the Disconnect,” will explore how people can use social media to connect themselves with the world around them.

Bob Boden

Bob Boden is an Emmy-nominated leader in the unscripted television industry. He has acted as an executive producer, creator, showrunner and more on over 100 television specials and series. Boden is currently the executive vice president of production and development for Entertainment Studios as well as the executive producer of “Funny You Should Ask,” a syndicated celebrity game show. He also teaches the SULA program’s TV Nation course. Boden’s April 9 talk is titled “What Game Shows Teach You About Life.” He was unable to speak with The D.O. about his upcoming TED Talk.

Krystol Austin

Krystol Austin is an SU graduate student from Kingston, Jamaica, pursuing a Master of Architecture. Her passions include bamboo, biophilia, climate change and social justice. Austin won first prize in Gensler’s 2021 Rising Black Designers Scholarship and Design Challenge and has also received the 2021 James A. Britton Memorial Award. She is the first Jamaican to present for TEDxSyracuseUniversity, and her talk is called “Schizophrenic Architecture.” She was unable to speak with The D.O. about her upcoming TED Talk.

Published on April 7, 2022 at 2:53 am