On Feb. 25, 2023, Wellesley College proudly hosted its third official TEDx event featuring Anne Jiang ’23 (student), E. B. Bartels ’10 (Senior Editorial Writer in the Wellesley College Communications & Public Affairs Office), Eleanor Dunne ’25 (student), Isabel Flessas ’24 (student), Jasmine Lunia ’26 (student), Kellie Carter Jackson (Michael and Denise Kellen ’68, Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College), Liseli Fitzpatrick (Lecturer in the Department of Africana Studies at Wellesley College), Lucy Goldberg ’25 (student), and Sarah Wells-Moran ’22 (glaciologist). The theme was coalescence, chosen by the event’s primary student organizer Jaime Tracewell ’23.
Seeing that many in-person events have had fewer in-person attendees, whether that be because an online component is available or people are simply more comfortable with attending events virtually, Tracewell said: “We also noticed an increase in incidents where people are just afraid to talk to each other for fear of hurting others’ feelings or not knowing how to say difficult things.”
“We wanted to have an event that encourages people to have sometimes difficult but still meaningful and ‘well worth it’ discussions,” Tracewell said.
Originally a friend’s idea, Tracewell began devising a plan to host a TEDx event at the College during the fall semester of the 2021-22 academic year.
“Unfortunately, it takes you a couple of months to get the license to do the event, and by the time [Tracewell’s friend] thought of hosting an event, she didn’t have enough time to get the license,” said Tracewell. “She and I did a pilot event called ‘Bloom at Wellesley’ last year, and it was kind of a ‘Wellesley take’ on what could be a TEDx event without the official license. I just moved forward with that and got the license from TED last summer and went from there.”
Tracewell worked with the Office of Residential Life and Housing, which sponsored the event. She also worked with Wellesley College Events Manager Sarah Willis and Instructional Media Director Jarlath Waldron, who helped with space reservations and other logistical arrangements. Tracewell, Vivien Yin ’25 and Emma Andrew ’25 sat on the selection committee.
“We wanted people who could give a really wide range of topics. We primarily looked for speakers who had strong thesis statements on ideas that were already pretty well developed. We also wanted to select a range of speakers who come from a different range of backgrounds and have different experiences of public speaking. Pretty much every speaker was someone who had a unique experience or a unique take on something that, looking at them, you wouldn’t think to ask them about,” Tracewell said.
Jin Ryu ’25 attended the TEDx event, initially only because she wanted to attend more events at the College, but ended up being “pleasantly surprised” and thoroughly enjoyed her experience. Ryu emphasized the vastly different topics, from a speaker’s struggle with an eating disorder to another’s experiences with pet deaths, as contributing to her enjoyment. From the varied range of topics and speakers from different backgrounds to a diverse audience filled with professors and students, the entire Wellesley College community was brought together at the event.
“I really did like that there were so many speakers, and that they all spoke about diverse topics — things that you wouldn’t normally hear being talked about,” said Ryu. “I think that it was a very good and engaging community event for everyone. Even if you don’t know everyone directly or interact with them, you get to see how they act and how they talk.”
Wellesley College has previously hosted two TEDx events. Tracewell mentioned that her experience as the primary student organizer for this year’s TEDx Wellesley College event was “definitely a lift and stressful at times.” However, she had overwhelming support from people all over campus and encouraged fellow sibs to be excited about future TEDx talks or similar events.
“The goal is that this becomes a student organization and is held annually, which would be possible since anyone can hold the TEDx license,” said Tracewell. “Becoming a student organization would also help with funding since we could get funding through SOFC as opposed to hoping a department sponsors us. I have high hopes that people get excited about this event and want it to continue.”
As someone who is “goal-oriented and long depended on the academic structure of college as a source of confidence,” Tracewell said that organizing the TEDx event was such a huge confidence booster now knowing that she can do things that they are passionate about outside of the confines of an academic institution. Tracewell urged anyone who is interested in helping to make TEDx events a regular occurrence at Wellesley College to reach out to them at [email protected].
