Braden Zhao-Upton

Foodie, Photographer, Student, World traveler

Hi, I'm Braden! I like to call myself a 'third-culture' aspiring medic. With an English dad and a Chinese mum, grew up in Shanghai, and am now in Wales, what's never died is my everlasting passion for travelling and my thirst to learn more about other cultures. I speak both Mandarin and English proficiently as my first language and Shanghainese as my second. Having also studied Spanish for four years and now Cantonese, I am 'obsessed' with embracing multiculturalism with everything I do. From my leadership to my daily interactions with colleagues and friends, being accepting and treating everyone regardless of race, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation, has always been the fundamental principle I abide by. I also recognise learning as an everyday experience, leading me to disfavour hierarchal senses of power in my leadership. I tend to see myself as an equal entity to my coworkers and value all our interactions as an opportunity to learn from each other, hence I always try my best to establish a collaborative and equal environment when leading a team, where friends instead of foes are made; and where memories instead of torments are created.

Ever since the start of my education, the concept of learning from TED talks has always been deep-rooted throughout the course of my learning. In Year 8, I gained my chance for the first time to officially welcome public speaking to my life as I delivered a formal school talk on stage about the theme of stereotyping. I repeatedly and passionately referred to and quoted from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk 'The Danger of a Single Story' as a source to best demonstrate the power of stereotyping, presumptions, and wrongful judgments. In Year 9, I was eager to develop my presentational skills and confidence through more practice and direct experience and was selected as a speaker for TEDxYouth@WCIS 2021. Delivering a talk on 'Dealing with Fear', I dissected the social and psychological aspects of anxiety whilst providing scientific solutions for it backed by research and evidence. In Year 10, I decided to take one step further and became the organiser and licensee of TEDxYouth@WCIS 2023 after a rigorous application process. With the main goal of inheriting the legacies of leadership and team spirit whilst embodying the values of TED, I was dedicated to establishing a TEDxYouth@WCIS stage committed to a brand-new appearance with a familiar team culture. On 20th June 2023, after recruiting a team of 13 people and 5 speakers, TEDxYouth@WCIS was brought back to the Wellington community again, yet this time, with new energy and new people. Myself, the co-organiser, and the former organiser of the event (2021) collectively decided on the theme 'Under Scrutiny'. With it embracing all aspects of society according to differing creative interpretations, TEDxYouth@WCIS 2023 proudly presented the Wellington community with themes ranging from the manipulation through music to the ethical debates of Cas9 (alongside CRISPR); from social anxiety and discrimination to a narrative of feminism through the reflection of history. Yet, my TED story doesn't just stop here. It is to be continued with increasing passion, more ambitious aims, and at a heightened scale in the future...