Name: Bella Carlos
Year: Junior
Hometown: Pembroke Pines, FL
Major: Exercise Physiology
Her Campus (HC): Which organizations are you involved in at Florida State University?
Bella Carlos (BC): I am currently involved with University Housing, University Health Services and TEDxFSU.
HC: Tell me a little more about your role in TEDxFSU.
BC: Within TEDxFSU, I have been the Speaker Chair for two years now. I have been lucky enough to help develop the speaker nomination and application processes, as well as host a speaker coach retreat. For the retreat, I work with our Speaker Liaison, Hayley Hartwell, to teach members of our general body about the speaker coaching role. Once our coaches have been trained, they choose a speaker to work with one-on-one to help those speakers develop their very own TED talk! I work to communicate with both speakers and their coaches as well as answer any questions they may have regarding the preparation process for our conference. I am also a speaker coach myself!
HC: What is the most rewarding part of this role?
BC: The most rewarding part about my role has to be seeing talks come to life from just a couple of sentences. There is something so remarkable about the TED technique that gives any idea the ability to be understood, heard and spread by individuals of all backgrounds and passions. It brings faces and personalities to these ideas and excites others about them –– specifically for those who may not have even known about them or understood them before. As I said, those ideas come to life on that stage, and to be a part of that process is unreal.
HC: What is the hardest part about it?
BC: The hardest part about it would sometimes be finding ways to help the speaker get “through” to their audience. Sometimes, we have to navigate through extremely detailed findings or research and produce them in ways that anyone (particularly not in that area of expertise) can understand! TEDxFSU is a platform for so many different ideas to be heard, but more importantly, understood. When complex ideas can be explained in ways that everyone can understand, it closes the gap between the expert and the novice, opening up the conversation to all.
HC: What can we expect at the TEDxFSU event next week?
BC: At TEDxFSU on April 12, we hope to open up those conversations. We have 9 incredible speakers lined up with passions that are unmatched. And the best part is the whole event is free! TEDxFSU is really about sharing ideas worth spreading, and we want our community here to have every opportunity they can to join us in doing that. We have multiple performances between talks, and we even have snacks. If you didn’t apply to attend, we are taking walk-ins the day of. Doors open at 12:15 p.m. Check out our website (tedxfsu.com) for more information regarding who our speakers are, when the event is and how to contact us!
HC: What are you looking forward to the most about the event?
BC: I’m ecstatic to see it all come together. All of us in the steering committee have worked so hard to make this event happen; we really are in it for our community and for our speakers. We just want to get everyone talking, discussing and discovering new ideas, new passions and hopefully start spreading them.
HC: What advice do you have for anyone interested in getting involved with TEDxFSU?
BC: Definitely come to our event! See what we’re about and join us in celebrating innovation and novel ideas. Follow us on Instagram (@tedxfsu), like us on Facebook (TEDxFSU), subscribe to our newsletter, check out our website… basically, subscribe to every possible notification you can for news about our General Body Meetings in the next semester. We won’t spam you, we promise!
All photos courtesy of Bella Carlos.