Austin College hosted the second annual TEDxAustinCollege event in September 2017, featuring members of the Austin College community as speakers:
 Rob Kelso ’77 NASA shuttle flight director for 37 years; “Paving the Way to Planetary Settlement”
Mankind will becoming a multi-planet species with settlements on the Moon and Mars. It is not a question of “IF” but rather “WHEN.” This TED Talk will explore why we will soon establish an outpost beyond the Earth, how it might differ from man’s mission to the Moon during Apollo in 1969, new discoveries about the Moon that make settlement more likely, and finally, some problems that might arise in shipping hardware to create such settlements. |
 Sierra Salser ’20 International relations major; “First Glances and First Words”
Is our identity defined solely on the basis of our culture and racial ethnicity? How we approach one another is often built on superficial images generated by society. Are you aware of your approach? And does this matter? |
 David Savage ’07 M.D./Ph.D. candidate, UTHealth McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas; “International Refugees in Texas: How They Get Here and What Happens Next”
More than 70,000 refugees from 78 countries now call Houston home, making the city the largest refugee resettlement site in Texas and one of the largest in the U.S. Most of our refugees coming from Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Syria. Many of these people escaped life-threatening situations in their motherlands and lived in refugee camps for years before getting the lucky opportunity to resettle to the United States. |
 Peter Schulze Austin College professor of biology and environmental studies, director of the College’s Center for Environmental Studies; “We Aren’t Going to Mars”
If we can’t keep Earth livable, we can’t make a dead rock in outer space livable and keep it that way. Thus, we’ve nowhere else to go. We must take care of this planet, but we aren’t. Why? We are using the wrong criteria for deciding when to act. |
 Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan Austin College associate professor of religious studies; “Paradigm Shift Toward Universal Compassion”
A perspectives paradigm shift from conditional relationships to unconditional compassion, which can be found in the Buddhist tradition, promotes a more balanced world. We can empower our future generations to end the cycle of selfishness, inequality, and greed. |
 Aaron White ’04 Associate minister, First Unitarian Church of Dallas; Harvard Divinity School; “What Part of You Will Live Forever?”
What if your memories live on after you die? As humans, we seem hardwired to ask if our lives make a difference, and recent science suggests that, like magic, our experiences impact generations of people we will never meet. What part of you will live forever? |
 Asil Yassine ’12 Educator; M.A., Harvard University; “Literacy: The Great American Theft”
Literacy is so foundational to innumerable aspects of our lives that it is difficult to navigate the world without it. It is precisely this that has made literacy a potent tool for racial oppression. The argument here is simple but transformative for our nation: literacy must be considered a civil right. |
See the videos of the 2017 talks and nominate speakers for 2018.