The annual TEDxGCSU event, held on Oct. 17, centered on the theme “Spark” and celebrated how an idea can blossom into something worth sharing and ignite larger change. The project was curated locally by Georgia Colleges Leadership Program and featured a mix of faculty, alumni, published researchers and most notably student speakers who brought forward their personalized stories of inward reflection and future application.
Many students have felt this spark in their own way because having powerful student speakers at an event like TEDx can often create ripples of inspiration for others who want to project their ideas.
“I went to the TEDx last year, and in that moment, I felt the goosebumps,” said Eowyn Aullo, a junior history major. “And I did feel that spark, maybe I can be up there.”
Among this year’s roster of student speakers were seniors Paige Blakemore and Carly Walker and junior history student Chloe Melton. These three student voices represented both intellectual curiosity and personal conviction towards an idea that they believed would be the spark for future change.
Blakemore, a senior mass communications major, used the stage to challenge misconceptions about rural America. Drawing from her experience growing up in a small southern town, she used her spotlight to explore how local journalism can reconnect people who often feel overshadowed by national conversation.
“I think what’s really interesting about the three of us student speakers is that the root of all of our talks was deeply personal,” Blakemore said. “We all had something that was very impactful to our lives. But it also stemmed into our career aspirations and what we study now.”
This personalized and intimate nature of the student’s talks distinguished TEDxGeorgiaCollege from its larger counterparts. Allowing students to draw upon their own lived experiences creates an extremely profound understanding within the audience, offering intellectual ideas bonded by the ambition of youthful voices and the passion behind their stories.
One of such ideas was Carly Walker’s, a senior psychology student, who framed her message around daily interpersonal relationships and how small moments of empathy can shift someone’s week. Hers was an intimate personal reflection that drew an emotional response through a collective understanding of mental health issues.
“It was originally about having better language around OCD,” Walker said. “But then it turned into having better conversations about mental health and how to talk to each other. So it’s just so much more of a deep and profound version of what I was originally talking about, which I love.”
Much like Walker, junior history major Chloe Melton found considerable difficulties when framing her idea; however, she soon came to realize that grounding her discussion in her experience at Georgia College assisted in exploring the misconceptions surrounding BMI.
“I thought it was very full circle and so beautiful that I ended up getting into a history lesson,” Melton said. “The importance of questioning what you believe and what you’re taking in, it applies to politics, it applies to our current world. So it ended up being really great. I didn’t discover my love for history until I got to college. So if I hadn’t recovered, I never would have even known that I loved history. It was very cool.”
Each of these talks reflected TEDx’s central purpose of ‘ideas worth spreading’ but with the distinct accent of personalized stories from undergrads at a small, rural liberal arts school like GCSU.
At first glance, a regional rural school like GCSU might seem an unlikely venue for an event that echos the global renown of TED. But that is exactly what makes TEDxGCSU so special. In an academic culture that is often dominated by large-scale institutional research, smaller schools like GCSU can often provide the intimacy, mentorship and community that allows students’ ideas to emerge with authenticity.
Melton reflected on the connections and networking she experienced throughout this process. She referenced the Dean of the Honors College who mentioned her to a textbook writer and landed her this opportunity at TEDxGCSU.
“My idea started as a passion paper for honors credit,” Melton said. “And I don’t say that to minimize the work that I put in, but it’s just things like that don’t happen at places that aren’t Georgia College.”
For the students involved, the TEDx process itself was as formative as the performances. Over months of preparation, they refined their arguments, worked with ‘thought-partners’ and speech coaches to develop their ideas into products of personal reflection and intellectual integrity.
By combining academic insight with personal reflection, TEDxGCSU illustrated how a liberal arts environment can translate classroom learning into a deeper connection.
In an era where national attention tends to favor major universities, this event at this scale offered a reminder that smaller campuses will continue to produce strong, original voices.