TEDx Speakers Talk Big Ideas With LMSD Students

With the school year over, more than 100 students and staff of Lower Merion School District still found a few hours Monday for an ambitious discussion of social activism. 

The TEDxLMSD event brought a variety of speakers, including some district alumni, to Lower Merion High School’s Black Box Theater to share their experiences of trying to improve the world and society. It was organized independently of but patterned after the seminars of the internationally prominent nonprofit think tank TED.

One of the early speakers was Dave Spandorfer, a 2007 graduate of LMHS whose Janji running-apparel company helps humanitarian efforts such as delivering water and medicine to impoverished families around the world.

Janji products will be available at the  beginning Thursday, Spandorfer said: "We wanted to find a way for runners to give back each and every time they run."

Spandorfer, who attended Washington University of St. Louis, told students, "I'm sorry if your parents hate me for saying this, but you don't need a fancy college degree" to be successful in entrepreneurship and social activism. What you do need, he added, is to be naive, resilient and flexible, among other things.

LMHS Class of 2002 graduate Sarah Lowe also spoke, about her nonprofit effort, Kujali International, to build and run a free secondary school in Africa.

The six-year-old school is solar-powered now and is run by a staff of 15, Lowe said, but for the first few years it had no power and presented challenges frequently.

The experience has ultimately been rewarding, Lowe said, as "we have 100 kids that never would have been in secondary school otherwise."

Professional trumpeter and educator Stanford Thompson's "Play On, Philly!" program bolsters music education for urban students.

Plenty of disadvantaged students, Thompson said, are or will become "people that think the world has nothing to offer them and they have nothing to offer the world. And that type of feeling will cause anybody to shut down. We'll lose them before they're 14, 15."

Addressing the LMSD students, Thompson added, "You all are the product of having the best opportunities. I hope you realize that."

The school district website's TEDxLMSD page has more information on all the speakers and the origin of the program.