In March, Luther hosted a campus first: TEDxLutherCollege. The daylong event brought together hundreds of people who heard six speakers share stories about everything from climate change to higher education to overcoming distractions. By all measures, it was a huge success.

The speakers were, no doubt, inspiring, but equally inspiring is the fact that the event was entirely student-led, student-run, and student-driven, organized and staged by a team of 25 student volunteers and their ambitious, time-generous leader.

A mission to spread ideas—and give back

Massi Faqiri ’20 had a mission: to give the Luther community a reliable way to share its messages with the larger world. “There are thousands of great ideas all around us,” he says. “In a place like Luther College, we have a strong need for a platform that can reach millions of people. We don’t want any of these great ideas to die; we want them to connect with the larger world.”
So passionately did he feel about connecting his community to a global network of thought that—not for class credit, work study, or any other compensation—he took it upon himself to bring TEDx to Luther.

A Davis United World Colleges Scholar from Afghanistan who came to Luther by way of the UWC Adriatic, Faqiri had helped organize a TEDx event at his high school in Duino, Italy. The familiarity gave him confidence, and he feels a lot of gratitude toward Luther: “I thought, that’s something I can contribute here at Luther—why not?”

It’s a plan that’s been three years in the making. “In terms of creating a blueprint, I started my freshman year,” he says. He’s reluctant to complain, but it’s clear that the undertaking was major. Luckily, so was his help.

Passionate volunteers

Faqiri assembled a group of about 25 volunteers whom he organized into six groups: web management, communications and marketing, production, curation, design, and event management. Almost half of the volunteers are international students, and Faqiri is proud of having assembled such a diverse team “from all class years, from different states and countries and religions. Sometimes at a meeting when all of us are there, we call it a family,” he says.

The students volunteered for a variety of reasons, including feeling inspired by talks they’ve seen. Event manager Iju Regmi ’20, an international studies and economics major from Nepal, says, “I believe that change starts from one person and one thought. . . . There are a lot of talks that have inspired me, and a few that actually have altered my mindset.”

Curator Carson Schulte ’21 from West Des Moines, Iowa, says she volunteered “because I believe that the ability to simply listen and open up to a new idea or perspective is a powerful tool in healing communities and mediating conflict.”

Communications studies major Annika Johnson ’20, who worked on the communications team, says, “I think TED and TEDx events always attract a community of people who love to discuss ideas and stimulate great conversation, and those are the people I like to surround myself with.”

Some volunteers were able to combine their love of TEDx with their field of study, like Sneha Verma ’22, a computer science and economics major who noted that, as the TEDxLutherCollege website manager, “I can pursue my interest in computer science and, in a small manner, make an impact.”

After Faqiri applied and interviewed for a TEDx license and started securing funding, mostly through Luther SAC Impact, the volunteer teams got to work finding speakers, locating a venue, starting a website, planning advertising and production, and a million other tasks that accompany an event of this magnitude.

Jaime Herman ’18, Luther global learning intern and TEDxLutherCollege speaker, says, “This first event not only demonstrated the powerful ideas that are bubbling in our Luther community, but also our power to execute a professional, well-run, smooth, and inspiring event, all at the hands of student volunteers. Now that says something.”

A message worth sharing

Like the volunteers, TEDxLutherCollege speakers participated for various reasons—but with the same high level of enthusiasm. Maddy Lomprey ’21, who spoke on poetry and peace, says, “I decided to apply as a speaker because it has always been a dream of mine to give a TEDx talk. . . . Giving individuals a platform to share ideas that can’t always be communicated in a classroom, or in a research project or senior paper, is imperative to a fruitful education.”

Jack Jagielski ’19, who wanted to share observations from his lived experience, says, “I applied to be a speaker because I viewed TEDx as a great opportunity to take ownership and stand behind how my experience with ADHD has shaped how I think about attention and how to overcome distractions.”

Herman, who spoke on higher education, says, “My time at Luther has been defined by conversations with friends and professors trying to work through my thoughts about Luther and materializing theories from my experience. . . . I always felt like more people needed to hear about the future of higher ed and what I had discovered. I talk about the liberal arts with anyone who will listen, so I figured this would be the ideal platform for amplifying those conversations within Luther and, hopefully, to the wider world.”

Other speakers included Anila Bano ’20, with a talk titled “When It Hits Home: Climate Change and Isolated Communities”; Anita Tamang ’22 on “What Defines a Good Life?”; and Decorah community member Allen Manning, who spoke about Navajo culture.

Faqiri says, “We wanted to make TEDx an experience or a journey to change yourself and get sparked by all these inspirational talks.”

Although it required an immense amount of time and energy, Faqiri plans to organize the event next year. A junior, he spent his spring break developing a leadership-transition plan so that TEDxLutherCollege can continue even after he graduates.

And that’s a very good thing—for the world of ideas and for Luther College. As Herman says, “TEDx is a platform not only to show people within Luther what people at this place have to say, but to give those ideas and arguments room to grow and spread in the world.”

Look for a link to videos soon at luther.edu/tedx.