TEDx Talk – Setback to Come Back

Recently a TEDx talk by Diya from Grade 11, “A Model for Setback to Comeback: Inspiring Stories from STEM” was delivered and well received. Along with her in the TEDx talk were speakers who were Nupur Basu, award winning senior journalist and documentary filmmaker; Dr Lakshmi Rangarajan, Faculty at LSE, UK; and Ms Marwaha Puja, CEO of CRY - Child Rights and You. We reached out to Diya to find out more about the TEDx talk delivered and potential plans it inspires her for in the future.  

This experience allowed me to have a positive impact on people and gave me more confidence – Diya, Grade 11 

During Diya’s TEDx presentation she spoke about the main factors that allowed eight successful people in STEM to face adversities in their lives and create a success model based on the factors common to these individuals. “Since the theme of the TEDx event I spoke at was 'Setback to come back', I chose this topic as it gives a clear guide to the audience on facing challenges”, says Diya, also allows viewers to incorporate the learnings from the stories of successful individuals into their own lives. 

As she presented how people can overcome setbacks, she herself faced a few challenges during the preparation process. “My biggest challenge was in the initial stage of coming up with a topic that was relevant and appealed to all age groups”, says Diya, who still managed to formulate the topic through research, following her interest and delivered by seeking feedback from others. 

As her topic was about STEM, Diya followed her interest and merged it with her ambition of participating in public speaking. “This experience inspired me to seek more public speaking opportunities. In the future, I hope to pursue a career in mathematics and inspire more people to gain a love for learning”, explains Diya, whose involvement and experience allowed her to have a positive impact on people and gave herself in return more confidence. “I greatly benefited by challenging myself, and I would encourage everyone to go out of their comfort zone and seek new opportunities.” 

Diya’s talk has been posted on TEDx Talk's YouTube. 
To explore the all the TEDx talks that happened, visit the TED website.