The TEDxFIU Club hosted a TEDxFIU Watch Party for all FIU students on Thursday, November 13 during the TEDxFIU event. Students ate pizza and chips while watching FIU students, faculty, and alumni share their stories. There were moments of silence, laughter, and appreciation during the watch party as students reflected on each speaker’s story. Listening to the speakers, club members learned how to write a story, what person-centered aging looks like, how success can be measured by how much you give, and how failure after failure can add up to incredible success. The watch party brought together students from a wide range of disciplines, all sharing an interest in the art of storytelling and inspiring and connecting with others. Club president Gisela Valencia remarked: “The key word is ‘talk’; TED and TEDxFIU are not about lecturing or grandstanding. The best TED talks make you forget everything but the speaker and his or her story.”
TEDxFIU is a club for all FIU student communicators who want to develop their big ideas or just improve their public speaking skills within the format of a “TED talk.” Students can join with other students to share ideas, discuss their favorite TED videos, and examine what works – and what doesn’t – in a TED talk. The student organization is advised by Communication Arts faculty member, Nurhayat Bilge, who shares information on presentation and delivery techniques and arranges opportunities for students to practice on the big stage. Besides TEDxFIU talks, the club also engages in various activities, such as speech viewings and analysis, speech competitions, collaborations with other campus communicators, and practicing different types of speech, all of which help members become more effective public speakers and public speech consumers.
For more information, email tedxclub@fiu.edu or like us on Facebook.
Photo: L to R: Club members Daniel Gil, Gisela Valencia, Aisha Hassan, and Thomas Condon
