TEDxYouth@Shepherdstown

Many American youth are growing up with little connection to nature, with concomitant declines in their health and well-being. Leaders from a variety of disciplines – the life and social sciences, visual and written arts, media and green commerce are bridging that nature-deficit gap in a wide-range of activities directed at engaging youth, their families, and teachers in environmental awareness, healthy outdoor pursuits, land conservation and stewardship. Our TEDxYouth@Shepherdstown event is designed to inspire and empower youth to engage directly with nature, to educate themselves about environmental issues and to consider a active personal and professional lifestyle devoted to enjoying and conserving nature. Live speakers will include conservation writer, Tom Butler, and physician and distance runner Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, with their presentations augmented with existing TED video talks by a science writer, a nature photographer and others. Talks were chosen to provoke and inspire young people to connect with nature. What is TEDx? In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is TEDxYouth@Shepherdstown, where x=independently organized event. At our TEDxYouth@Shepherdstown event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion snd connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized. About TED TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani,Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world, and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities. Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at facebook.com/TED