Creativity doesn’t die as you age— it just morphs. Attacking the root of creativity “deficit” and understanding its okay to feel uncreative. Cormac Flanigan is a freshman at Neuqua Valley. From a young age he’s been obsessed with bugs and has lead this passion into creating an ambitious character with a desire for a voice. Being fairly talkative, Cormac thrilled to be involved in the speech team at his high school. Using these skills, Cormac is interested in sharing his ideas, he will be speaking about fostering creativity in children, how that creativity carries on to later years, and how you can bring creativity in to your own life. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

What if we treated a heavy heart like any other vital sign? This talk explores how cultural expressions, funding gaps, and siloed care systems leave millions’ distress unheard. Discover how simple shifts in listening, investment, and design can weave mental wellness into daily life and close the 10–20-year mortality gap. Maya Sharma is sophomore at Neuqua Valley High School. She created HAAL, a mental health app that uses mood journaling and AI to help students recognize signs of emotional distress early, which earned national recognition through the Congressional App Challenge. She currently serves on the board of the Youth Advisory Committee for 360 Youth Services, a nonprofit focused on youth mental health and wellness. In her TEDx talk, Maya explores the need for culturally specific and inclusive approaches to mental health. Through technology, advocacy, and her own lived experience, she hopes to reshape how mental health is understood and supported in diverse communities. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

What if the next life-saving emergency alert didn’t come from the government, but from you? In this talk, Shushan Arora explores how everyday technology and student-driven innovation can transform how people prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Discover how simple technologies could empower communities to act faster and save lives. Shushan Arora is a student at Bolingbrook High School with a passion for using technology to enhance public safety and emergency preparedness. After witnessing the destruction of a tornado in his hometown, he developed Prepshield, an emergency preparedness app designed to help families create personalized safety plans. More than just a tool, Prepshield has helped local residents better prepare for natural disasters and reflects an ongoing effort to explore how AI might one day anticipate threats even before official warnings are issued. For this work, Shushan was recognized as the 2024 Congressional App Challenge winner for Illinois’s 11th Congressional District. Shushan will talk on a youth-led innovation in crisis response. At school, he is the junior varsity captain of the Scholastic Bowl team and participates in Model UN, Best Buddies, Mathletes, The Word, SkillsUSA, and boys volleyball. He believes young people can lead change through accessible, purpose-driven technology. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

High school cross country runner and mental health advocate, Joshua Mathew, believed that being an athlete meant being silent, and self-reliant— until personal struggles and anxiety running in his cross country team challenged his view on mental health. In this talk, Joshua shares his story, the importance of having a support system as an athlete in modern times, and why conversation revolving around mental health need to be normalized more often in the sports world. Joshua Mathew is a sophomore at Neuqua Valley. As a student athlete, he runs cross country and track for Neuqua Valley, and runs year round. In addition to his athletic endeavors, Joshua is also a youth leader at his local church, St. Peters Syriac Orthodox Church. His talk is about the flawed culture and norms in athletic environments, and how they restrict athletes from getting a support system and the mental help they need. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

-- Jean Troillet est un alpiniste hors normes, le seul de l'histoire à avoir passé plus de 30 ans à parcourir les sommets de l'Himalaya sans jamais y laisser la vie. Dix sommets de plus de 8 000 mètres, gravis sans oxygène et en style alpin : pas de cordes fixes, pas de camps établis, juste l’essentiel. En 1986, avec Erhard Loretan, il signe une ascension-éclair de l’Everest par la face nord, aller-retour en 43 heures. En 1997, il devient le premier à descendre cette même face… en snowboard. Mais Jean Troillet ne se résume pas à ses exploits. Ce qu’il partage aujourd’hui, c’est une manière de vivre forgée là-haut, dans l’engagement total, le doute, l’intuition. Il nous invite à poser un autre regard sur le risque, à sortir du contrôle permanent, et à retrouver un peu de justesse dans nos choix. Son regard aiguisé et authentique ouvre des pistes pour mieux vivre, avec plus de simplicité, d’audace et de cohérence. Un moment rare avec un homme qui fait rimer hauteur avec profondeur. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Offrant un miroir à la société, l'art du portrait a élaboré ses codes et ses modes au fil des siècles. Considéré, en Occident, comme un genre à part entière, il a connu avec la photographie une profonde remise en question. Adulé puis abandonné, c'est dans la rue qu'il retrouve aujourd'hui ses lettres de noblesse grâce à l'art urbain. Longtemps apanage d'une élite sociale, conservé dans l'écrin des demeures puis des musées, il s'exhibe à présent au grand jour et à la vue de tous. Historien de l’art, auteur et commissaire d’exposition, Cyrille Gouyette travaille notamment au musée du Louvre où il a développé de nombreux programmes pédagogiques. Passionné par le street art, il a étendu ses recherches aux relations entre le street art et le patrimoine classique. Auteur de plusieurs ouvrages dont « Une street histoire de l’art » et dernièrement « Faces au mur, le portrait dans l’art urbain », montrant l’héritage des maîtres anciens chez les street artistes, il co-signe aussi un film documentaire « Sous le street art, le Louvre ». Commissaire de diverses expositions faisant entrer le street art au musée, notamment « Veni, Vidi, Vinci - L’art urbain face au génie » à Fluctuart. Il est aussi le directeur artistique des M.U.R. à Oberkampf, Bastille et Antibes qui exposent des artistes urbains d’horizons divers pour montrer un panorama de cet art planétaire. Il donne ainsi régulièrement des cours à l’Ecole du Louvre sur l’art urbain. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx