Xixi Wang

Since 2014, thousands of student groups across the globe have been developing and sharing their ideas using our free TED-Ed Student Talks resources. To celebrate 10 years of TED-Ed Student Talks, we have been collecting stories of impact from the program’s facilitators as part of our “10 for 10 years” series.

For this installment of the series, we are highlighting Priyanka Behl, an educator at the Empower Kids Personality School.

Here, she speaks with TED-Ed’s Programs Manager, Sasha Rudenko, about integrating Student Talks into their after-school programs, the impact the program has had on their community, and how they used TEDx to host their speaker events to reach wider online audiences:

Sasha Rudenko (SR): Tell us about your school, your role, and your students.    

Priyanka Behl (PB): Empower Kids Personality School is a community school that brings together children from across 36 schools to work together in after-school programs. We also support NGO schools with the Each One Teach One program, where our students spend one weekend educating those who don’t have formal school education and are studying as part of an NGO. The whole idea is to bring resourcefulness to the resourceless, and that’s how Empower Kids has been working — more like a community initiative. TED-Ed has helped us bring this community even closer.

SR: How did you implement the Student Talks program into your school? How did it fit into what you were already doing there?

PB: We use TED-Ed as part of our skill-building after-school program. We have volunteers who help the underprivileged children who don’t have access to formal education and therefore will lack opportunities later in life, such as getting better jobs. We try to help them hone their communication skills, and I try to help them bridge the education gap so they are more employable and can potentially be pulled above the poverty line. While working with the Student Talks program, we realized that beyond communication skills, there were other gaps and things missing in their education. Gender inclusivity was missing; we realized how the younger children were vulnerable and unsure of who to talk to. We saw there were also gaps in knowledge about caste issues, socialism, racism and bias, which we had never talked about. We started with just a small group, and it was a great forum to listen, share their voices, and create an impact in the community by talking about these issues.

“It’s about you finding the voice that can change the narrative. It’s finding ideas that can create impact in your local community.”

SR: If you were to pick one standout moment from your time leading Student Talks, what would you highlight?

PB: We had birthday parties which had a lot of balloons, party poppers,  plastic plates, and all those kinds of things being used. Then, one of the students shared a talk about how unsustainable this is and the impact it has. So, we started using wheat cutlery instead of plastic. And this was largely implemented in all of the students’ 36 schools. Imagine the impact of that! They stopped using plastic cutlery and plates, and replaced it with wheat cutlery. At our events, as well, we use wheat cutlery every time. Outside of school, a big impact of this was in the landfills. Cows in India were dying because they would eat all the plastic out of the landfill that had leftover food on it. But with it being made from wheat, it was harmless for them to eat. And in our community, the cow is a holy animal, and we were able to impact the health of cows through one talk shared. I felt this was truly remarkable.

A student speaks at the TEDx event

SR: What skills have you observed improving the most as your students go through the Student Talks activities?

PB: The number one skill that they learned was leadership. Not only were they willing to be adaptable themselves, but they stepped up and helped others in the group and in the community. The number two skill would be research. When they started researching their topics, we started to see the understanding of how important it was across the board. It gave them a lot of experience finding studies, documents, and research papers, and really helped broaden their horizons for finding information. And the number three skill would have to be communication. They learned great oratory, presentation, and self-expression skills. And the workbook journal helped teach how to give better feedback and constructive feedback that really helped them improve their communication.

SR: As a facilitator, what has been the most challenging part about implementing Student Talks? And how did you overcome it?

PB: Our first challenge was to plan the first event. When you have an event, you have to think of everything from the technical list like cameras and soundproofing, and then logistically how do we get the funds to host the [TEDxYouth] event. I found it challenging for the first event to deal with the cost, and not knowing how to sell tickets or who to reach out to for a guest list. We didn’t know how to bring the right resources to the right place. But then we got a lot of great support from the TED team, and after that our second event ran much more smoothly. And we continue to learn with each event; everyone involved can teach you so much and help you evolve as a person. I’ve seen a transition in myself through building these events, and it’s related to accountability. It feels like you have been given something with a lot of trust, and you are accountable to bring forth these young voices who don’t usually have a platform to share. So I’ve evolved as a person as well.

[Editor’s note: Priyanka holds a TEDx license to host her school events. TED-Ed Student Showcases do not require tickets or funding].

A student speaks at the TEDx event

SR: So, hosting an event was your goal and something you wanted to do for your community, and you even applied for a TEDx license to host it. How did you find that it helped your mission to focus on hosting a culminating speaker event?

PB: Given that our event would be just for young people— the students— we were thinking of the potential audience for them. We wanted their talks to be seen by the change-makers, the decision-makers, and these young voices would not reach those people unless their videos were put out on a bigger forum. The TED-Ed Student Talk video selection process can take a long time, and so with hosting a TEDx event, the YouTube video links come faster. So their videos would reach more people sooner. We were thinking not only of the physical audience at the event but those online who can just listen and connect with it. I felt that TEDx gave us more access to reach a larger audience, and much sooner after the event.

“[Student Talks] is for anyone who is willing to help young voices who feel they have no forum, feel small, or that they have no impact. TED-Ed can lend you that.”

SR: What words of wisdom would you share with somebody who is thinking of becoming a Student Talks facilitator?

PB: This journey can be overwhelming, [but] if you are passionate about ideas, I think this is for you. I’ve been watching TED videos for years, and they turned out to be a perspective-shifter. So I’ve had that passion for ideas from the beginning. If you have that passion, and you want to bring ideas forward and create impact, I think this is a great forum for you. It’s not about you being a hero, it’s about you finding the voice that can change the narrative. It’s finding ideas that can create impact in your local community. It’s for anyone who is willing to help young voices who feel they have no forum, feel small, or that they have no impact, TED-Ed can lend you that. It’s a whole exploration of self-realization that comes with the idea journey. The self-exploration of why their idea matters, what impact is it going to create, how can it change the narrative— it’s something that connects and bridges the gap.

SR: Are there any tips you have after working with your students through the activities about helping them find their idea, their writing, or their research?

PB: I think the best thing that I find is giving them the space to explore. The first task we give them is to create a list of the things that they love. And on the other side, a list of things that they hate. Then we start with talking about one of the things that they hate and why. From there, they usually pick a topic from their “things they hate” list, because if you don’t like something that is happening in your community or life, then you want to talk about it and how to change it. That’s how our idea exploration begins. And it starts with a small group who don’t know each other, but eventually come to be helping each other explore their ideas, and sharing their thoughts. I think it helps them build a little community where they can be more vocal about how they truly feel. As a facilitator, seeing how much they have to share makes me feel like a student again. The ideas sometimes just blow my mind. They have such new perspectives to share, and while we think we’re facilitating, we’re actually learning in that process too.

TEDxYouth event

Interested in learning more about TED-Ed Student Talks? Check out our Student Talks page here to find out how the program works and how you can get involved.

Check out the other pieces in the 10 for 10 years series here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.