TEDxOrangeCountySchoolOfTheArts

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

• Ada Chen

  Student

  Ada Chen is a freshman in the Design and Media Conservatory. She hopes to become a museum curator one day, creating spaces to share her passion for art and carry forward its beauty and history. Through her work, she hopes to make art education more accessible and meaningful within her community. She believes art is something everyone should be able to experience, and she hopes her talk inspires people to explore it for themselves. Outside of school, Ada spends her time visiting new exhibitions whenever she can, getting lost in classical Russian literature, and expressing her journeys in the form of poetry.

• Charlie Patmon

  Student

  Charlie Patmon is a junior in Acting. Her talk, "The American Experiment", examines how without acknowledging the dark truths of our country's past, we create a cycle of repeating history, especially our mistakes. By committing ourselves to change, only then can we, as Americans, legitimately proclaim ourselves to be "exceptional". When she's not acting or dancing, Charlie dedicates herself to advocacy and action in her community, committing herself to uplifting others' voices. She hopes to pursue political science and journalism and continue to champion justice and speak up for what she believes in.

• Chloesse Chang

  Student

  Chloesse Chang, a sophomore in the Creative Writing Conservatory at Orange County School of the Arts, knows what it’s like to find home in a fandom. In her TEDx talk, she explores how K-pop fandoms have reshaped modern marketing and redefined the meaning of community in the digital age. Drawing from her own experiences as a longtime fan, Chloesse examines how shared passion can evolve into powerful collective action, and why belonging, not just branding, fuels today’s most influential movements. Outside of school, Chloesse is the founder and president of the nonprofit Youth Empowerment in STEM and spends her weekends competing in robotics and following Formula 1.

• David Zhang

  Student

  David Zhang is a junior in the Ballroom Dance conservatory. Passionate about the power of dance on one’s identity, David founded a ballroom dance club to provide children with an inclusive space to explore dance without fear or stigma. He hopes his talk encourages others to embrace their authentic interests and to approach identity with honesty and courage.

• Emeline Tran

  Student

  Emeline Tran is a freshman in Acting. She hopes that throughout her speech and her life she challenges others to be open and willing. Emeline lives by the mantra YOLO. She loves to take on hobbies in her downtime, including sports and random activities.

• Grant Herman

  Student

  Grant Herman is a junior in the Acting Conservatory, as well as a creative writer and avid reader (particularly of historical fiction), with an underlying commitment to providing arts exposure to youth across the world. With his work, he hopes to promote self expression, inspiring the next generation to authentically embrace their creativity.

• Hadley Merritt

  Student

  Hadley Merritt is a senior in the Production and Design Conservatory. Passionate about justice and reform, she hopes to one day become an attorney and potentially pursue a career in politics to help fix the broken systems she has spent years witnessing firsthand. Through her TED Talk, Hadley encourages young people to reject complacency, overcome their fear of rejection, and speak boldly about what they believe in. She believes that silence and indifference will cost her generation in the long run, and that meaningful change begins with courageous voices. When she’s not advocating for change, Hadley can be found snowboarding down some pow or curating hyper-specific Spotify playlists for every possible mood and life moment.

• Hillary Kim

  Student

  Hillary Kim is a sophomore in Creative Writing. With a passion for international relations and legislation as well as a love of asking odd questions, she is a strong proponent of using humor and easily accessible language to bring attention to greater ideas. In her talk, "The Trolley Problem, But It Starts Getting Weird," she takes the concept of the Trolley Problem and adjusts it so it addresses one of the greatest human flaws in history: implicit bias. When she isn't giving TEDx talks or link hopping on Wikipedia, Hillary writes short-form screenplays or buys new trinkets to add to her ever-growing collection.

• Joshua Noh

  Student

  Joshua Noh is a sophomore in Creative Writing, who has done Tae Kwon Do, Ju-Jitsu, and Boxing at various points in his life. When he graduates, he hopes to write stories for a living, whether it's movies, TV, or even video games. Joshua has been in really good places, as well as really bad ones, and he hopes that his speech will be able to reach people who have felt the same way he has, and help them out of whatever they are stuck in.

• Kira Efimenko

  Student

  Kira Efimenko is a senior in Visual Arts with a passion for both biology and creative exploration. She plans to pursue medicine and is deeply interested in challenging systems that misunderstand neurodiversity. Through research, storytelling, and art, she hopes to advocate for more inclusive environments where students are valued not for compliance, but for who they truly are. In her downtime, Kira loves sewing and experimenting with different art mediums while rewatching some of her favorite movies (ranging from classics like the Dead Poets Society to iconic recent films like The Substance).

• Lana Lee

  Student

  Lana Lee is a senior in Integrated Arts. Growing up in a generation defined by constant connectivity, she has witnessed firsthand how attention has become the world's most valuable, and most exploited, currency. After deleting and re-downloading Instagram multiple times, Lana became fascinated by the psychology behind why we can't seem to put our phones down, even when we know we should. Through her research, she discovered the parallels between social media algorithms and casino gambling, both designed to hijack our dopamine systems and keep us hooked. In her talk, Lana explores the trillion-dollar attention economy, the neuroscience of scrolling, and practical strategies for reclaiming control in a world engineered to steal our focus. When she's not battling her own screen time, Lana enjoys reading classic English literature or dystopian novels and writing spoken word poems about everything from her current obsessions to the state of the world.

• Norhanna Lancanlale

  Student

  Norhanna Liza Lacanlale is a junior in the Jazz conservatory who hopes to follow in the footsteps of her Lola, her grandmother, who was a radiologist. While Norhanna loves to play music, she also believes in the power of storytelling. She hopes to pair these two passions—narrative and medicine—into being a strong advocate for health education and medically informed decisions.

• Sophie Sukendro

  Student

  Sophie Sukendro is a senior in the piano conservatory. She loves reading, music, animals, travel, concerts, Model UN, and meeting new people. She is passionate about advocating for others—from advancing human rights and educational equity to promoting disability inclusion and cross-cultural understanding—and is always the biggest cheerleader for those around her. In her talk, Sophie explores how everyday spaces like grocery stores and shared language reveal deeper patterns of belonging and exclusion in multicultural societies. Drawing from her experience growing up across three continents, she reflects on living between cultures and invites us to reconsider hybridity not as confusion, but as proof that we all inhabit a borrowed world.

• Yaphet Chen

  Student

  Yaphet Chen is a sophomore in Acting. His dream is not to live as a bum, but to know what he is living for. Yaphet hopes to inspire other teenagers to reflect on who they truly are and to help them find their purpose. Yaphet believes that being capable of deep thinking is necessary to be successful. In his free time, Yaphet enjoys watching YouTube videos about human psychology and doing robotics.