Nadav Gilboa, 13, is on a mission: to make adults listen to kids. In January, he recalls, he and some friends were sharing their thoughts about the Women's March on Washington and lamented that their “ideas were for nothing," because adults were not going to listen to them.
Pretty soon, he came up with an idea that came to fruition Sunday: a TEDx conference for and in large part by young people. The conference, TEDxBlueSlidePark, featured six youth speakers, on topics ranging from CRISPR gene editing to living with missing limbs, and four adult speakers. There were also a couple of pre-recorded video TED talks, including a pep talk from the Youtube personality "Kid President."
The oldest youth speakers were college speakers, but others were as young as Nadav, who is in 8th grade. One youth speaker, Peyton Klein, a sophomore at Taylor Allderdice high school, spoke about her work connecting English as a Second Language speakers with native English speakers, through a student group she founded called Global Minds. Global Minds has spread to other schools around the country, in Canada and in Hong kong.
The adult speakers, such as the author and public speaker Cindy Pierce, focused mostly on topics relevant to kids. Ms. Pierce spoke about "social courage," which she said involved speaking up about beliefs. Directing her message at the youth audience, she called on them to call out cyberbullying on social media.
The event took place at the Repair the World workshop in East liberty, and was filled nearly to its 100-attendee capacity. Funding came from ticket sales, donations, and grants from nonprofit sponsors.
TED is a nonprofit which hosts speaking conferences and posts videos of the talks online, with the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading." They license the TED brand for independently-organized TEDx talks, like Nadav's.
Nadav received his license from TED in April, and spent almost half a year putting it together. His mother, Debi Gilboa, is a prominent physician who has appeared on the Today Show, so she was able to help find speakers, said Nadav.
“This was Nadav’s idea, but I’m the driver’s license and credit card,” said Ms. Gilboa.
Alongside the speakers, the event also featured a group of youth entrepreneurs, including one who founded a reptile rescue center and several cosmetics and apparel entrepreneurs.
Three of the entrepreneurs had started their businesses through HOPE for Tomorrow, a youth development organization in the West End. K'aijha Gomez, 15, of Pittsburgh CAPA middle school, founded "K'aijha's Caribbean Kreations" through the program's business program. She sells Caribbean food and drink and teaches Caribbean line dancing.
"I've made money with the line-dancing class," she said. "I've learned that once you've put your mind to something, you have got to keep at it."
Nadav's commitment to organizing the conference came from a belief that young people are an untapped and unfairly disparaged source of ideas. He analogized his mission to civil rights and feminism, explaining that there was a time when "the only people whose ideas were valued were rich, straight, Christian men. As history went along, society began to accept people of other races, genders, religions, sexualities. But adults still don't listen to children."
"I'm not saying kids only have good ideas--I've had plenty of bad ideas--but kids have lots of solutions they think about that adults don't listen to," he explained.
Ms. Gilboa said, "Most TEDx conferences do not include the entrepreneur showcase. He wanted to show what kids can do."
"Nothing in society has an immediate change," said Nadav. "But what I'm hoping is that the entrepreneurs and the speakers will get this opportunity and see it and think, maybe I should help other kids speak up, and maybe I should believe in myself more."
"It's enlightening for adults to see that kids should be listened to," he added.
Christopher Huffaker: 412-263-1724, chuffaker@post-gazette.com, or on twitter @huffakingit
First Published: November 21, 2017, 2:19 a.m.
