The Power of Choice
Gregg Whitlock
Gregg is originally from Vancouver BC, Canada. He studied English Literature at Simon Fraser University and is currently doing his Master’s in TESOL at Manchester University. In 2007 he moved to Busan, South Korea where he works as a visiting English lecturer at Korea Maritime and Ocean University. He is also the President of Go-Getters Toastmasters, which is a public speaking and leadership club. Gregg enjoys reading, playing the mandolin, and camping.
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Where Learning Begins
Robin Abbott
Robin has a bachelor’s (Towson University-1997) and a Master’s (Virginia Commonwealth University – 2011) in occupational therapy, and is an occupational therapist with 17 years of experience, working with children with special needs and their families for almost 10 years. She is fascinated by the variety of ways the human brain processes information, particularly auditory and vestibular information. In her practice, she uses her knowledge of neurotypical sensory processing to help children who process sensations differently to better understand their world.
She has two unique and fascinating children of her own, ages 10 and 13, and is married to an officer in the US Army. |
You are Your Teacher. You are the Impossible. You Create Your World.
Matthew Mangione
Matthew “Chooch” Mangione is a simple man who prefers to not write about himself in the third person.
As a father, a husband, a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend, and most recently a teacher, I am just an everyday guy who enjoys finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, the happiness in daily life, and the beauty in simplicity. Although the path I have traveled has lead me to extraordinary places, from the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas to the sacred temple of Burning Man, the most significant place I have ever been is still here and now. More often than not, when two roads have diverged in the woods, I’ve taken the one more often traveled by, but I have learned to take the time to smell the roses that have always lined the way, and that has made all the difference. |
Beneath Your Skin
Jenni Hsing
My name is Jeni Hsing and I am15 years old. My mother is from Korea and my father is from Taiwan.
I currently attend Busan International Foreign School, and I have since my primary school years. Being in an international school has exposed me to people of different nationalities and backgrounds. It has allowed me to see so many types of appearances, which has brought to my attention the idea of ‘beauty standards’. In my country the girls have the same image of what they need to look like to be ‘attractive’, and even as a child I was constantly told things such as my short height, or my tan skin and I feel as if people that don’t fit those conditions are demoralized to dislike their features. I never had much experience with public speaking but I feel that speaking about a particular topic I have passion would be a good chance for a first time. |
Bringing Awareness to Racial and Gender-Based Stereotypes in an Effort to Inspire Change
Zwa Inyoni
My name is Zwa, I am 11 years of age and I am from Los Angeles, CA.
I love things that are related to language, art and sports. My family and I travel a lot so I only go to my birth-place over the holidays. I love the idea of being in a debate club because my sister participated in a debate and It was really interesting. I really like to get my point across when I speak and I enjoy trying to catch people's attention. I really like, and am influenced by, animation: when I saw the movie Ratatouille I wanted to go to France and after watching Rio I was also keen to travel to Brazil. Did I mention I like books? I think I want to be an author when I grow up. Some of my favorite authors are Michael Morpurgo, Richard Peck and Lemony Snicket. |
If I Were a Boy
Rachel Tustin
I am Rachel Tustin, a freshman at Busan International Foreign School. I have attended this school since the age of three.
At a young age, I developed an interest in public speaking. I found - and I still find - the prospect of being able to inspire people with my own words and ideas both exciting as well as fascinating. In Middle School, I joined a variety of different extracurricular activities such as Model United Nations and Debate that allowed me to hone my speech skills and discover various methods of expressing different viewpoints, even though mostly these views didn't match my own. These experiences fueled my passion for speech and I feel that TEDx is a good chance to further develop this enthusiasm as well an opportunity to speak about a topic that I am interested in. |
How Kids Can Help
Anna-Marie
My name is Anna-Marie Guenther and I am 11 years old. I am half German and half Korean and have lived in three different countries but have traveled to over 10. I enjoy sports and writing.
I want to talk on this event because this is my last school year here and I want to make my mark and leave this school knowing I did something important. This subject I am talking about is also something that I really care about. |
Is Life Made Up of Coincidences, or of One Destiny
Amelie Balivet
My name is Amelie Balivet. I am 15 years old and in 9th Grade. My native language and nationality is French, but I can speak fluent English as well. My hair is black, my eyes are black and my skin is in between white or tanned. I love spending time with my friends and family and I don’t seem to have issues with my social life for now. I also entertain myself with several different hobbies such as: practicing partitions with my flute; reading; singing; jogging, etc.
I have lived in Korea for my entire life. The school I go to is called “Busan International Foreign School”. The subjects in this school are usually similar to what other schools have, such as: maths, English, science, etc. My favorite subject in school is Music and English. English has become harder since my elementary years, but I am very self motivated to accomplish my grade goals. |
Living Lego
Kenta Barnett
I was born in Melbourne in Australia and lived there for 3 years. I visited Japan to see my grand-pa and grand-ma. I can also speak Japanese quite well too.
I lived in Rotorua New Zealand for 3 years and started school there. In New Zealand I started to know about a toy called LEGO and I liked it. I lived in Japan for one and a half years and went to a school called Tatsuno-dai elementary school. When I lived in Japan is when I really started to like LEGO and my dad would buy these big boxes of random LEGO blocks. I was in the big earthquake that struck Japan in 2011. I moved to Busan in Korea in 2011 and started to go to a school called BIFS. In Busan I started making Brickfilms, which started to become my hobby since I was 8. Now I have my own YouTube channel called Legoman and my dad and I make videos and put them on a channel called Minifilm333. |
Smile or Not
Priyanshu Saha and Chaeri Yoo
Hey, I’m Priyanshu, I am from India but was born in Korea. I have gone to 2 international schools, one in Ulsan and currently Busan. I can speak 3 languages and learning my 4th. English, Bengali, Hindi and learning Spanish. I like to play guitar and violin, but I also Love to design and build my own Robots. I’m fond of computer gaming and cricket. I like Math a lot. I really like to find out new information on science topics that hasn’t be researched a lot, hoping one day I will be able to contribute to the Medical World by creating nanotechnology cures. I hate english, one of the subjects I will never gain interest in. I think language is necessary for communication not for learning in school. I have a younger brother named Sid. I like watching movies at home and outside.
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Hello! I am Chaeri Yoo and I’m from Korea. I was born in Busan and I moved to Switzerland when I was 10 years old. I was nervous and excited in a way to hear the news that I had to move to Switzerland. But soon I got used to their culture, traditions, etc. After living there, I moved to Singapore. I’ve been to two different international schools, one in Singapore (German European School Singapore) and one, currently, in Korea (Busan Foreign International School).
I really enjoy studying here, in BIFS! I can speak Korean, English and German. I learned German in Switzerland, but I think I am slowly losing German because I haven’t spoken it for a long time. I learned horse riding in Switzerland as well and I think that was one of my favourite things to do when I lived there. I like to play piano and guitar. I basically like music. I love listening music, singing and playing songs using instruments! Math used to be my favourite subject, but I think now, I like most of the subjects equally. I find all the subjects interesting to learn. Nowadays, I am especially interested in learning about human rights in Social Studies class. Also I am very interested and looking forward to learning different things in the different subjects. |
School from a Student's Perspective
Alex Lang and Sung Woo Jho
I am Sung-Woo Jho, I was born in Chicago, and my parents are both Koreans. I am a student from the Busan International Foreign School, half way throughout year 8. I was in this school since playgroup and I am now a normal middle school student, going through procrastination every day.
I went through many years of school and suffered through many different situations such as getting bullied or playing games all day and night. At the very moment, I am balancing out my schedules of not only homework but relationships with teachers or students. I'm going through a very satisfying school life and am trying hard to achieve my goals and dreams. I have a hobby of playing instruments. I am quite skilled and could play a variety of instruments such as the guitar, cello, piano, etc. I participated in a lot of community services by playing the instruments for the orphans, EU (European Union), school, etc. I also achieved a lot of certificates from it as well. |
Hello everyone, my name is Alex Lang. I am 13 years old and I attend at Busan International Foreign School. This is my 2nd year in BIFS. Prior to moving to South Korea, I lived in Singapore for about 3 years. Some of my hobbies are playing the guitar (both electric and acoustic), playing sports, hanging out with friends and listening to music (preferably grunge). My all time favorite movie is Star Wars. One of my favorite books is a series called BSRK. So far, I’ve done some moving and have lived in many different countries; some of them were Singapore, Holland and Korea. My favorite drink is Ginger ale and I prefer homemade food to eating at a restaurant. Some of the most important things that I have are my Kurt Cobain Fender Mustang and my computer I don’t think I could live without them.
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What We Can Learn From Competition
Hrishikesh Srinivasan
My name is Hrishikesh Srinivasan and I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I attended elementary school in Houston before moving to South Korea in the summer of 2011.
I have participated in numerous academic competitions including Spelling Bees and Model United Nations conferences. In the spring of 2012 I participated in the South Korean Scripp’s National Spelling Bee as a representative of BIFS, but sadly I lost. The next year I participated again and won, and I returned to the USA to compete in the Scripp’s National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. and clinched 43rd place out of 281 participants. In my spare time I like to challenge myself by learning new and advanced things in subjects like Math and Science, and I also like to read, and ride my bike. |
An Open-Minded Journey
Beatriz Carvalho
Ideas girl, fashion-lover bookworm and fact machine, Beatriz Carvalho - or better I say Bia - is a traveler with a brain full of curiosities and ideas. Bia started liking to be creative and informed when she went to live in Singapore at age 7. She is actually from Brazil but her dad works for an oil company and that’s how she came to South Korea.
Bia has 98 stuffed animals but manages to keep them clean and safe, somehow, from her dog. She also has a super stressed but extremely hilarious older sister. She loves to talk about her past experiences and making her listeners laugh a lot. She has gone to many countries and enjoys learning about their histories and culture to get every new piece of information she can. And if she starts talking, make sure you have time because I can tell you, you will be hanging on her every word! |