TEDxQDHS Youth

Speakers

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

• Anne Meredith

  Anne Meredith is the Director of College Counseling at Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School. She loves working with students and has accumulated a wealth of experience in the Chinese education industry. Starting in 2015, she began working in Shanghai as an education consultant and used the opportunity to develop a strong working knowledge of Shanghai’s top high schools while serving as a partner and counseling director in two major college consulting firms. Anne also has experience designing and managing study abroad programs in collaboration with US universities and has taught in France and China. She holds an MA degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in English and French literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, as well as college counseling graduate certificates from UPenn and UCLA. She is fluent in Mandarin and enjoys using her language skills to communicate with members of the QD parent community.

• Brian Xiong

  I am Brian, a high school student who grew up in Shanghai but whose parents are from Sichuan and Guangxi. Despite being raised in Shanghai, I don’t speak the local dialect, and though I live in China, I am preparing to study abroad. In spite of all those contradictions, I consider myself a person of "moderation." I love the atmosphere of the late-night hours, yet I’ve never stayed up for a whole night. I enjoy sleeping in, but I’ve only woken up past 11:00 AM once in my life. I like gaming, but I’ve never spent an entire day playing, and even with my greatest passion—movies—I’ve never watched more than two in a single day. If I had to name the activities I’ve spent more than “moderate” time on, zoning out, or daydreaming, would certainly be one of them. Whether I’m on a bus, or even in the middle of class, I’ll suddenly find myself drifting into thoughts entirely detached from the present.

• Carrigan/Alice Ma/Wang

  We are students Wenlai Hokmah Innovation Section. I'm Alice, a passionate, optimistic, and talkative twelve-year-old girl who loves reading, acting, and watching movies. I'm Carrigan, an eleven-year-old girl. I like dancing, playing the violin, singing, and chatting. Since we joined the Wenlai Hokmah big family, we have participated in many English competitions and improved our English skills at a rapid pace. We won the Learning Trait Award for "Daring to Dream." We also attended TEDx WHIS Youth together, and we successfully advanced to the final round, winning the "Most Creative Expression" and "Best Stage Performance" awards. During the Scholarship Award Ceremony, we represented the sixth-grade students and gave a speech about "Transformation." Public speaking makes us more confident and we feel free to express ourselves on a big stage. Public speaking also teaches us that our voices are powerful, so we look forward to using our voices to spread kindness and courage to everyone.

• Catherine Zhu

  I'm Catherine, a girl who loves dancing and also loves her family very much. Some people say that there is a sense of contrast in me - strong, but also tender. On the stage, I can freely express myself and convey my emotions through my body language. But in life, I am a person with delicate emotions, a bit sensitive, and even secretly sheds tears when leaving home. My love for home has accompanied me for many years. Every time I go abroad, this feeling becomes extremely intense. For this reason, this year I chose to stand on the TEDx stage to share my two past experiences abroad, which have now become footnotes to my growth. I hope through this speech, I can tell everyone that I am constantly learning to become a person who can fully feel everything, call home when needed, and keep stepping ahead on my own path.

• Emma Shi

  My name is Ziyue Shi Emma, who was also the volunteer last year in TEDx. As a child, Ted talks have been a great source for me to learn English, so it was a dream for me to participate in Ted talks. As an art student, who’s spent over a decade chasing the echo of violin strings. From concert halls to street corners, playing music has taught me to listen to the world’s responses, but more importantly, to the quiet echo of my own passions and persistence. This journey of chasing melodies and discovering my own echo is what I’m excited to share.

• Gary Lu

  I’m Gary Lu, a language enthusiast. From the moment when I commenced learning English, I found out I was doing mitosis and developing another self... I hear echos bouncing off from multiple cultural surfaces through different languages, where I evolve into various versions of Garys based on the language I speak. But in this ever-changing world with advancing translation technologies, the comprehension of foreign languages seems no longer mandatory and becomes even meaningless to some extent. Is language merely a communication scaffold, or an aesthetic color palette, or even the key to others’ hearts? In my talk, I aim to employ the experiences of learning foreign languages from the lens of a clumsy multilingual to reinforce the values learning languages brings to us in contemporary cases. Only by feeling the joy of language learning can we build the perspective of being a global citizen while constructing an understanding and inclusive environment on this planet.

• Helena Zhang

  I’m Helena, a September-born ISFP and a Grade 11 student. I enjoy playing the piano, listening to music, and sometimes spending long moments simply lost in thought. I tend to be observant of people’s emotions, and I have a sensitive and rich inner world. In the complex social environment of high school, I have come to realize that it is not only me—many people around us live behind social masks. Surrounded by the voices and echoes of others, they gradually lose touch with their inner voice and even forget what their true selves look like. Having experienced the pain of overthinking and self-doubt, I hope that by sharing my own experiences and stories, I can inspire those who feel lost in these echoes to accept the changes in relationships and circumstances, and to find the courage to be their authentic selves.

• Jayden Wei

  Regrets don’t just stay with us, they echo in our minds. We make regrettable decisions constantly; for me, participating in TED while juggling two IA deadlines has become my recent regret. Although we’re often taught to live without regret, it seems regrets have already settled in our minds, bouncing around every night. We deny regret, bewilder ourselves, punish ourselves, and preserve it endlessly. Maybe, It's time to start listening to our regrets, and hear what they have to tell us… Hi, I’m Jayden Wei. Some of you may know me as the Economics Ator tutor. Regret is an interesting topic in behavioral economics, it influences the decisions we make every day, often more than we realize. From small choices, like which delivery to buy, to life-changing decisions, regret would always come along. The real question is: how should we face regret, acceptance or denial? I’m grateful for the opportunity to explore the echo of regret at TEDx 2026.

• Junjie Xu

  Master's degree in Applied Statistics from the University of Michigan. He loves mathematics and is passionate about sharing his understanding of mathematics with students. He is approachable and conscientious, caring and loving every student. He is willing to lead students to learn in joy, grow in learning, and gain in growth. He aspires to be a teacher that students love and parents feel relieved.

• Lisa Zhou

  My name is Lisa Zhou, and I’m a high school student who loves observing fashion and culture. I’ve noticed that from casual conversations with friends about outfits to the latest displays in store windows, every trend seems to echo from one person to another, shaping our choices and tastes without us even realizing it. Over time, I realized that my wardrobe isn’t just a collection of clothes, but instead a mirror of echoes, reflecting the desires and societal pressures that influence each of us. In a world where trends and information spread faster than ever, fashion seems like a tool for self-expression, but it also quietly traps us in endless cycles of overconsumption. This makes me wonder if the motivation of fashion is self-expression or to keep up with the echo. In my speech, I hope to show, from a student’s perspective, how fast fashion echoes influence our decisions, and to explore whether creativity and redesign can replace endless consumption.