Oppsite left: Aaron Pascal Mauck. Opposite bottom: Front row: Eleanor Clerc ’17, Sherisa Abbaspour ’18, Bhumika Choudhary ’18, Dayana Aleksandrova ’15; back row: Lorenzo Puopolo ’18, Carolyn Kimmick ’15, Ursula Granirer ’17, Nicholas Recka ’17, Taylor Ogan ’18, Gio Quattrochi ’16. This page top to bottom: Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Sandra Lopez-Leon, Joshua Michtom, and Nell Gibbon Daly ’98. Right: Trinity Associate Professor of Music Dan Román
[CHOUDHARY] WAS DETERMINED TO DO SOMETHING WITH HER EDUCATION THAT WOULD COMPEL HER TO STEP OUTSIDE HER COMFORT ZONE AND TAKE SOME SIGNIFICANT RISKS. … IT WAS UPON THAT GROUND THAT SHE DECIDED NOW WAS THE TIME FOR HER TO ENGAGE WITH TED. energies into the myriad details, from finding a venue to promoting the program, that are essential to the success of any event.
LE A R N IN G O P P O RT U NITIES A good-sized crowd showed up at Trinity’s Vernon Social on the day of the event. They were not disappointed. The speakers were informative and engaging, and they covered eclectic territory. But there were a few minor hiccups. The date chosen for Trinity’s first TEDx event turned out to be a meteorological marvel, the first truly nice day after a brutal winter that set records for snowfall and cold temperatures. When an intermission ran a bit long, that beautiful weather conspired to lure attendees away. Choudhary’s team also ran into issues with one of the most predictable special-events gremlins, audiovisual problems. But TEDx is, by definition, a learning opportunity. One of the ways in which learning takes place is through the development and execution of the program. And beyond a postmortem analysis of how they could learn from those mistakes, all eyes quickly focused on the future. “Producing this event was both scary and thrilling,” says Choudhary. “We learned a lot from doing it, and we’re determined to produce a new TEDx event in 2016.” She expects to convene a meeting of the team as early as possible in the fall semester, with a goal of mounting a new production in February. That eye to the future doesn’t surprise Laura Whittemore, Trinity’s director of student activities, involvement, and leadership (S.A.I.L.). “Bhumika worked tirelessly on this event, despite a full course load, the challenges of being so far away from home and her family’s support network, and being a first-year student,” Whittemore says. “It was a pleasure having the opportunity to get to work with her one-on-one during the planning process and being able to support all the student planners the day of their To see a highlights video and more photos of the event, as well as being able to see Vernon Social utilized as the TEDx event, please visit event location in such a unique way. Her drive to make this event commons. trincoll.edu/ successful, despite having no funding at the start, was inspiring to Reporter. me as very rarely do we see such passion and commitment in firstyear students. “I think that this has started a wonderful and exciting tradition for Trinity College, and I know that Bhumika and the students involved in this event will continue to build upon the success of this program to bring TEDx to a higher level in the coming years.”
A Great Event
“I was honored to be part of this first TEDx event at Trinity,” says Dan Román, associate professor of music at Trinity. “I’ve been following TED talks for a while, and I was really excited to learn that Trinity was establishing its own TEDx community.” Román’s presentation, “Rethink the Abyss,” explored ideas he’d been developing during the past years concerning how “contemporary music appears to be entering a new era in which the classical and the popular, the modern and the traditional engage in a powerful and flexible dialogue.” The event was kicked off by Trinity alumna Nell Gibbon Daly ’98, a successful New York-based psychotherapist who talked about rethinking the “Power of Intimacy.” Daly described her work with patients suffering from depression and anxiety and talked about how those who were able to become comfortable with the “uncomfortableness” and unpredictability of life often were happiest. Other speakers were Hartford resident Joshua Michtom, an assistant public defender, who talked about rethinking neighborhoods as a way to address a host of civic problems; Harvard Lecturer Aaron Pascal Mauck, a historian of science who spoke about rethinking therapeutics; Sandra Lopez-Leon, M.D., a scientist, author, and visual artist who explored the nutritional fallacies inherent in the adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away;” and Timothy Patrick McCarthy, director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, who talked about how apparent progress in human rights often masks lack of progress in other aspects of the same human rights issues. “I feel this was a great first event, and I want to congratulate the directors, organizers, and staff who made this possible,” says Román. “I’m looking forward to more TEDx talks at Trinity.”
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