A virtual TEDx event at Palo Alto College will strive to inspire hope amid a pandemic.
TEDxPaloAltoCollege 2020 will be live-streamed at 2-4 p.m. Sept. 26 on Facebook and YouTube. There will be five speakers and three performances centered on the theme of “Hope Rising”:
- Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, music artist, poet and writer
- Christina Jovanna Olivarez, award-winning social media strategist, founder & CEO of The Social Butterfly Gal and Co-Founder of Hustle + Socialize
- Eliot Marshall, four-time Pan-American Jiu Jitsu champion and co-owner of Easton Training Center
- Erika Ball, founder and director of “We Are Those People” (WATP) a nonprofit organization
- Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, president and chief executive officer of San Antonio Economic Development Foundation
- James Harris, professional speaker, writer and event producer
- Jose Antonio Guerrero Ortiz, musician and composer
- Juan B. Ortiz, mariachi instructor and co-founder of the first International Mariachi Festival in San Antonio, co-founder of the Texas Association of Mariachi Educators (TAME) and co-founder of Mariachi Campanas de America. Ortiz also taught at Palo Alto from 1994 to 2020, according to the event’s website.
Tony Longoria, lead organizer of the TEDx events at Palo Alto, said “Hope Rising” is a fitting theme during a pandemic. Organizers brainstormed the idea with Dr. Robert Garza, Palo Alto College president.
“He suggested that the theme would have something to do with hope, because he believes, as well as I, that people need a little bit of hope right now with this situation we are in, with the pandemic and all the things that are happening in current society and the world,” said Longoria, who teaches speech communication at Palo Alto.
“The theme ‘Hope Rising’ was centered on knowing that there is light at the end of the tunnel, there’s a silver lining and we think that there’s good times coming and we just want to inspire some hope for everyone in the community and everybody in the world.”
This is the third annual TEDxPaloAlto, according to an online press release.
For more information,email Longoria at pac-tedx@alamo.edu or visit the website at https://tedxpaloaltocollege.org/.
