The Assignment that Changed Everything!
Raahim Waqas ‘27
My journey with TEDx began long before the 2025 conference hosted at Bard. It started in high school, as an assignment given from my model UN coach who asked us to watch Ted Talks as a way to analyse and adopt effective public speaking skills. The purpose of this task was purely technical, observing pace, dialogue, delivery etc. But as I worked my way through the assignment something unexpected happened.
I found myself captivated not just by the speakers' speaking ability but by the ideas themselves. The talks were effective not just because of the way they were speaking but because their ideas (as simple as they may be) were extraordinary; a new perspective every single time. Each talk pulled me into a space of reflection, where my thoughts were challenged. It was so educational that after a while my research for debate tournaments started with listening to Ted Talks on that topic before turning to Google.
After years of listening to hundreds of talks, a question started forming: if ever given a platform like TEDx what would I have to share with the world? How could I contribute to the ecosystem of ideas that had been so influential to me?
Frankly I never knew the answer to that until I got an email from a professor (shoutout Carla Stephens) encouraging me to apply to speak at Tedx Bard. It immediately clicked. It's not about the greatest idea, it's about the one that matters. The one that feels urgent and necessary.
As I started flushing out my ideas, I realized that urgency was already in my life. It was in my experience as a Pakistani international student, in the quiet pressure to represent, to translate not just language but culture in the unknown America. That daily act of navigating between identities shaped how I understood conflict, misunderstanding, and difference.
Eventually, my talk became about Gen Z advocacy, because, if you think about it, the tension between Gen Z, Millennials, and Boomers is not just age. It is about identity, values, norms, and lived experience. Each generation is shaped by different crises, technologies, economies, and cultural moments. What older generations read as impatience or radicalism, we experience as urgency. What they call disruption, we call necessary change. This gap became more prevalent as I continued my research and laid out the foundation of my talk, “Why Us, Why Now?: Gen Z’s Call for Change,” which explored how intergenerational understanding and collective responsibility are essential to meaningful progress.
Preparing my talk required translating lived experiences, as an immigrant, activist and young adult in a complex political moment, into something intentional and meaningful for myself and others around me. Standing on that stage was one of the most surreal and grounding experiences; I was no longer a listener but a contributing member to the world of TED and my community at Bard and in Pakistan.
In the end, our fight is not just about the challenges we face, it’s about the legacy we leave behind. It’s about ensuring that when the next generation looks back on us, they don’t see a group of young people who were overwhelmed by the weight of the world, rather a generation who stood up, fought back, and refused to accept a broken status quo. – Why Us, Why Now?: Gen Z’s Call for Change, Raahim Waqas
Experiencing TEDx from the speaker’s perspective showed me not only the immense care and collaboration behind the platform, but also a desire to help build and sustain spaces like that. The experience highlighted how an intentional community and behind the scenes work create the conditions for the ideas to resonate. That realization is what led me to join the organizing team for the 2027 TEDx Bard. The theme, Changing the Narrative, resonated deeply because it’s about challenging assumptions, redefining familiar conversations and amplifying unheard voices. If my journey with TEDx began by studying how others spoke, it has evolved into helping create the conditions for more voices to be heard.
From listener, to speaker, to organizer, my relationship with TEDx has come full circle. I once watched TED Talks to learn how to speak better. Now, I work to help build the stage itself, and I could not be more grateful or more excited for what lies ahead. I hope future me reads this and remembers the feeling of standing at the beginning of something deeply meaningful to college me.
Post Date: 05-01-2026