“Ideas Empowered”

By Jenny Cisneros

In keeping up with the theme of the class, I began exploring the TED.com website in hopes of finding a source of inspiration. Although I came across a number of valuable sources, I stumbled upon a wild idea. In May of 2009, TED.com held a TEDx event at the University of Southern California. At TEDxUSC, a number of educators, innovative thinkers and visionaries came together for a conference to explore the empowerment of sharing the wealth of knowledge. The pilot experimental conference consisted of nine different presenters. Some of the presenters included a UN goodwill Ambassador to a video gaming innovator. Each presenter was given no more than eighteen minutes to talk about their lives and how they have managed to make a difference in their communities. The thought provoking content of each speaker, left the audience with a sense of inspiration and ready to make an impact on the world. USC was the perfect setting for a conference of this kind. USC houses some of the most groundbreaking research and produces some of the most intelligent and talented individuals (including Dr. Singhal and my journalist brother, David!). 

After exploring the TEDxUSC event, I got to thinking about how as positive deviants we can create an event where ideas are “empowered” and exchanged with people from all walks of life. Last semester I was fortunate enough to attend to the Plexus Summit, hosted by the Positive Deviance Initiative. Although I had never attended anything quite like the summit, I definitely left with a better idea on the power of positive deviance.  Apart from learning more about the application of positive deviance and liberating structures in everyday life, the summit became a place where people were able to interact candidly with one another and share ideas. The best part of these personal interactions with complete strangers, were the ways in which each interaction took place. The interactions consisted of a simple one-on-one conversation, big or small group discussions and even better our very own words put into the lyrics of a song. Despite the structure of each interaction, the most meaningful aspect of the conference was to teach those in attendance the basic foundation of positive deviance, building trust.

As we move forward in learning to become positive deviants, I got to thinking on how we can take advantage of the resources available to us. A great way to end the semester would be to host our very own mini TEDxUTEP conference. Of course we do not have the time to host an actual TEDx event, but we can apply a similar structure but organize it around the notion of positive deviance. As a class we are already seeking out positive deviants in the community, perhaps if we found enough speakers, we could arrange a similar conference at our own university. Without the collective effort of the class and empowerment of ideas, the structure of our class would have been impossible. Perhaps if we applied a similar methodology to a small conference, there is no telling what we could achieve as a class in one semester!