12 minute read
THE BIG 3: A STUDENT-LED JOURNEY TO TEDx
from KALO | Spring 2023
by alphachi
When navigating a landscape of relentless change, three key components of success are innovation, collaboration, and scholarship. On February 11, 2023, three determined students at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke brought these concepts to life by organizing their campus's first-ever TEDx event. The half-day conference, held in the newly built James A. Thomas Hall's Upchurch Auditorium, brought together six faculty and staff speakers and four professional speakers from outside of North Carolina to delve into groundbreaking ideas and spark deep discussions that covered a wide variety of topics.
THE BIG 3
The masterminds behind this exciting event, Peace Ajirotutu, Hannah Irving, and Jaelyn Wilson, all members of Alpha Chi, embarked on a year-long mission to create an inspiring, thought-provoking, and inclusive space where ideas worth spreading could be shared.
Ajirotutu, the president of UNCP’s Alpha Chi chapter, served as the Founder and Speaker Curator for the event, while Irving, the chapter’s vice president, took on the role of executive producer. Wilson, the chapter’s secretary, and treasurer took the lead on event management and website design.
Through persistence and careful planning, the smallbut-mighty team gathered a speaker selection committee and created a speaker application. "I started playing around with the website, getting some ideas and putting some of the most important things on the website...” Wilson said, noting the importance of a website’s layout when it comes to accessing important application forms. "And then of course there's a page talking about Alpha Chi, which is where we started from and who we wanted to represent in this process."
THE JOURNEY
"We held our Alpha Chi induction ceremony, and shortly after that we had our first chapter meeting of 2021," said Ajirotutu. "I wanted to be president of our NC Kappa chapter, and, when you run [for office], you have to write a little blurb about why you want to be in the position you're running for," she added With the support of the chapter, Ajirotutu’s idea of bringing a TEDx event to their campus as the chapter president was well received Ajirotutu, Irving, and Wilson ran for their respective positions and started working on the event with the guidance of their chapter advisor, Dr Teagan Decker "She's also the dean of the Honors College, so she was also able to grant us $1,000 from the Honors College and $2,000 from our chapter funds,” said Peace.
"When we were thinking about our theme, 'Innovation, Collaboration and Scholarship,' we were thinking, 'What is Alpha Chi about?'” Ajirotutu details Alpha Chi’s influence on the event “We thought about scholarship and how it can lead to innovative and creative research That's where we found the basis for the scholarship aspect of our theme " Irving elaborates, "When we were talking about the theme and ideas we had for this event, we always came back to how Alpha Chi was the foundation for us wanting to put this event on and how Alpha Chi centers around scholarship and service This event is completely volunteer-based, not just for the speakers, but also for the professors who've dedicated their time to listen to all of the potential speakers and help us choose a great lineup It was about giving back to our community " Irving further adds, "I think something that became our core throughout this process was that we wanted to bring this event to Pembroke through our chapter because Alpha Chi is about service. I think we all really care about service and want to promote our community.”
CHALLENGES
Organizing a TEDx event on a college campus comes with its fair share of challenges, as the organizers of this event quickly realized. Wilson, Ajirotutu, and Irving would have to navigate a variety of hurdles to ensure the success of the event. Wilson, who was responsible for creating the website, described the process, "With the website, there's often something—either this doesn't look right or it looks great on one device but not on another. It’s not easy to build a website when it looks different for people on different devices."
Ajirotutu, who worked with the Speaker Selection Committee, also faced challenges that forced her to develop new skills. "I had to create rubrics for how the committee was supposed to evaluate each topic. I figured it out and everything, but it was a new experience for me," she said.
The team found that money—and how much they would need—posed a significant challenge. "We thought we could throw the event with just $3,000 or $4,000; this is going to be a piece of cake. Very, very, very quickly we started realizing we did not have enough money to put on the caliber of event that we wanted to put on," said Hannah. She realized that money was everything for an event like this and was impressed with the way the team was able to work together despite the stress they faced.
Peace acknowledges that the team faced some difficulties in trying to organize the event with just three people. "Another university in our system, Chapel Hill, has 25 people on their TEDx team. With us, it’s the three of us doing everything,” she says. "It's definitely a lot of work, but we've learned a lot from the process, and I think that's the most important thing.” As a team of three busy honors students, time and resources are natural obstacles when it comes to fundraising. Appearing legitimate to potential funders, the team found, was another obstacle in and of itself.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
"When we got speakers, when we got the website, people started understanding what we were looking for in terms of the event I created a sponsorship packet ” Irving noted the importance of quality returns for potential backers of the event “We were able to come up with different types of opportunities for potential sponsors so that they would be able to support us in our event, but also receive recognition and promotion for being a part of it "
Ajirotutu describes how the team sold their event through heavy preparation, planning, and developing highquality supplemental materials, saying, “The head of the UNCP Foundation told me, 'When I got the initial email about this event, I was very worried. I didn't think that the students doing this would be serious I didn't think it would happen ' But because I was able to show him a sponsorship package and prove to him that we were serious about the event, he was able to give us $3,000 Then, we were able to get more money from Alpha Chi's national office Things started falling into place.”
Despite an ambitious $15,000 goal, Ajirotutu, Irving, and Wilson managed to work together to meet their fundraising needs and were “able to live-stream the event and provide for our speakers, our attendees, and have volunteer shirts and the official TED carpet,” Irving says
Irving highlights the importance of ambition in this process, saying, "I would also say that I have realized throughout this process that ambition does account for a lot in terms of how people view you." By having a clear vision and being confident in their abilities, the team convinced others to help bring their event to life
Considering Ajirotutu, Wilson, and Irving’s academic backgrounds in political science, music, and law, respectively, these individuals share a common theme of forced skill acquisition when organizing such a highscope event. "It's ambition, but it's also the pressure and excitement," says Peace "That combination is forcing me out of my comfort zone and making me try new things and learn new skills."
Irving notes the challenges of managing a large budget and keeping track of sponsorships. "I love Excel, but I've never made a budget quite this big. It's really challenged me to diligently keep track of money and remember what goes where and what we can and cannot afford." Irving continued to discuss how taking on ambitious projects forced her to develop new skills that can improve future career prospects. "The job of
creating the sponsorship packet made me realize that people are going to see this and want to give us money. I think all those different skills like flexibility in adapting to new challenges are things that will translate really well for us in our professional lives and be skills that we can continue to take with us no matter what career field we go into." According to Wilson, "We all had to kind of dip into each other's roles. I was forced to learn a lot between making media, fliers, and the website."
Through the challenges and hard work of organizing the TEDxUNCP event, these student organizers have not only made a positive impact on their campus and local community but have also acquired valuable skills that will serve them well in their future careers. The success of this event is a testament to the power of ambition, hard work, and determination.
LOCAL IMPACT
The impact of the TEDx event on the local Alpha Chi and UNCPembroke communities is already palpable. According to Peace, the goal is to have the speaker's videos on the official TED YouTube channel with the university's name prominently displayed. This highlights the importance of promoting scholarship from the university, as noted by Irving: "Being able to promote this kind of scholarship from our own university is something that has been so important to us throughout this process.”
As Irving notes, the organization of the event is completely volunteer-based: the speakers, the speaker selection committee, and everyone else who supported the event worked together to make it a reality. Irving emphasizes the core values of Alpha Chi, saying: "Alpha Chi is about service, and I think we all really care about service and want to promote this community. We are one of the smallest schools in the UNC system, and I think a lot of times we are underrated as a university because we're located in a rural community that's underrepresented."
Ajirotutu emphasizes the importance of raising awareness of the NC Kappa Chapter on campus and the impact they are making, saying: "I really want people to know that this is a legit honor society. I want people to know that we're here on campus, we're doing things, and we're holding wonderful events. I think if we pull off an event like this, other chapters may want to do something like this, too." Wilson adds that their Alpha Chi Chapter plans to create a "how-to" book for hosting TEDx events at UNCPembroke in the future, ensuring that the event can continue year after year.
Irving reiterates the passion and commitment the Alpha Chi chapter has for this event, saying: "We're doing it because we care about this community and we care about the ideas that this community has to offer. Bringing an event like a TEDx talk to this campus just means so much to us." The TEDx event has the potential to not only promote the university and its Alpha Chi chapter but also to inspire new ideas and spark important conversations within the UNCPembroke community.
As event management veterans, the powerhouse trio hopes to usher in a new era of chapter events and involvement. For chapters that aspire to host a similar event, the Alpha Chi organizers have learned valuable lessons along their journey and are eager to share their insights and advice to ensure success. In fact, the trio will break down what was involved in a session during the upcoming national convention.
Ajirotutu emphasizes the importance of preparation before pitching the event, stating, "Before we even told people about our idea, we created a PowerPoint, we created the answers that we were going to use for the license application, and we had other people review everything first. We had our theme, we had our host, we had a date, and we had an idea of what the speaker selection committee would look like. We had a plan and a timeline, and we followed the timeline very well. It's really important for people to prepare before bringing the event to important people that could potentially donate or that could want to be involved in it."
Irving highlights the significance of having support from the university and a faculty mentor, saying, "We were so lucky to have support from the Honors College, from the dean, and from the assistant dean I don't think there's any way we could have done this without their support. Having a faculty mentor somebody who can vouch for you makes a huge difference in the minds of the people that you need to make a good impression on."
The journey of organizing a TEDx event also proved to be an opportunity for personal and professional growth for the three Alpha Chi members. Irving adds, "It's amazing the things you can accomplish if you ask. People really do want to help. I think if you are able to show how much you care about something and how excited you are about something, people will find a way to make it happen."
For students who are considering organizing a similar event, the TEDxUNC Pembroke team's advice to be prepared, secure support from the university, and reach out to others for help, all stand out as crucial pieces of wisdom to help ensure the success of any event. The TEDxUNC Pembroke team's journey to organize their event showcases the power of teamwork, passion, and dedication that Alpha Chi members regularly use to make a difference. Through enriching scholarship in their local community, the team's experience serves as inspiration for others to pursue their own passions and make their own impact on scholarship, innovation, and collaboration.
