BILLINGS— Ten Billings high school students spoke in the first TEDxBillingsYouth event Friday afternoon at the Lincoln Center.
There were 13 speakers at the event overall. Three were guest speakers who traveled from California, Michigan and New York.
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Billings Skyview High School senior Frankie Struck said preparing for the event took hours of work.
“It was hard figuring out like a topic, like what did I really want to study, what did I really want to talk about, what did I really want to tell the world?” said Struck.
Related: Billings students get chance to share their stories at first TEDxYouth event
Struck settled on a topic important to her: expressing your authentic self.
“When I was younger, I got sick with Crohn's disease,” she said. “I finally reached remission and have since then started to really embrace myself and accept myself no matter how different I may be from others.”
Struck said she was a little nervous but mostly excited before speaking.
“I'm so excited. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I cannot wait,” she said an hour before walking on stage.
Struck’s peers also spoke on topics personal to their lives.
“Primarily it was about me walking between my two worlds of being Indigenous, but also being an urban Indigenous girl. And I did struggle a lot in the beginning of my school years, but as I got older, I learned how to balance my worlds and find my people,” said Brooklyn Eaglefeathers, a Billings West High School senior.
“I'm going to be talking about breaking barriers and how everyone could be a leader in their own way,” said Whitney Robinson, a Billings Skyview High School senior. “I just want to hopefully make an impact and show youth that they can also be a leader.”
“My topic is about mispronunciation of names. This is a very big topic because I kind of do have an ethnic name,” said Jomanh Sharif, a Billings West High School sophomore. “I took mine into more of… identity and self-acceptance and being an advocate for yourself.”
“My topic is about how dressing up can impact your mood, confidence and how people perceive you. And I did it kind of because people don't fully understand the length of how dressing up can impact you,” said Makenzy Tracy, a Billings Senior High School junior.
The support among the speakers was strong backstage.
“I am now really good friends with everyone,” said Eaglefeathers.
Akvilina Rieger, a TEDxBillings executive team member, said she was impressed with the students as she worked with them leading up to the event.
“They have the confidence. And not just confidence, you know, for themselves, but confidence to better everybody's else's lives. And for the community and for their own future. And so, I think that's very impressive,” said Rieger.
“There was such a pleasant surprise of the participation and involvement,” she added.
TEDxBillingsYouth organizers say they will post the full speeches online in June.
