Pupils opine on life’s challenges

Shamsa Al Mansoori, 18, reads Arabic poetry she wrote to honour her mother and people who shaped her life. Courtesy Al Yasmina Academy

ABU DHABI // A group of high school pupils presented a series of provocative talks about issues facing society as part of the Tedx Al Yasmina Academy event on Saturday.

How do we sift through an overload of information to find the truth? What effect will machines have on the jobs of the future? Does growing old really have to be so scary?

These were just some of the questions the teenagers tackled before an audience of about 100 family members and friends at Al Forsan International Sports Resort.

The Tedx event was modelled after the TED conference, an annual event started in the 1980s that gives speakers a platform to present short, punchy talks on technology, entertainment and design.

The students organised the Tedx event to send a message, said Yara Alfawares, the host of the event with the theme of “There is more to us than meets the eye”.

“I feel like our parents sometimes think that we are still children, we still need help, we still need to be taken care of, but I just wanted to convince them that that’s no longer the case,” said Ms Alfawares, 19, who presented the idea of Tedx to her peers and managed the event.

“We have grown up and we do grown-up things.”

The 13 pupils who chose to take part in the Tedx event are in their final two years at high school.

“To say that we organised something like this collectively and worked on it during our A-Levels, which are supposed to be the hardest years of our academic career, is just mind-blowing,” said Ms Alfawares, who plans to study computer engineering.

The pupils replicated the hallmarks of a TED talk, featuring a minimalist stage with a red Tedx Al Yasmina Academy prop, a large screen for computer presentations and microphone headsets.

Some talks, such as Shamsa Al Mansoori’s, were short and to the point. The Year 13 Emirati student, 18, recited Arabic poetry she had composed in honour of her mother and others who have shaped her life.

“I recently started to express my feelings and my thoughts by writing poems about the people who are around me,” she said. “Words are really powerful.”

Daniella Pretorius delivered an animated and humorous discussion about people’s fears of growing old and being -mediocre, while Shahzain Khan discussed the merits of the fine arts.

Tamara Batty, 18, spoke of the power of music, "one of the two languages I speak", and concluded the event with a moving performance of Disillusioned, a song she composed on her acoustic guitar.

Nilay Ozral, chief executive of Aldar Academies, said the Tedx talk was part of the Academy of Excellence, a new initiative at Al Yasmina Academy. The initiative is an extracurricular honours programme, which will soon be introduced at other Aldar schools.

“It gives our students an opportunity to express their thoughts, to show their presentation skills and confidence in life,” Ms Ozral said. “It complements everything that we’re trying to do with teaching and learning in our schools.”