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Luminaries of sports, business, education and more in lineup for Sage Hill’s first TEDx

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With the direction of fewer than 10 students, Sage Hill School in Newport Coast will hold its first TEDx event Friday, with two former Olympians and a professional wildlife photographer among the speakers.

The event is sanctioned by TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design), a nonprofit headquartered in New York City that presents short talks on topics from science to business to global issues.

Sage Hill seniors Cindy Choi and Kate Kim put their campus’ event in motion as part of the independent high school’s Service Learning Program, in which all students are required to perform a service project.

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“By junior or senior year, you’re expected to organize your own program at Sage,” Kate said. “During summer, Cindy and I talked about what we could do, and she remembered a friend of hers did a TEDx event at her high school.”

Cindy and Kate looked into the TEDx program, which enables organizations and individuals to hold their own TED-like presentations.

When applying, the two had to think of a theme for their event.

“We were rejected two times because our first two themes were just too broad,” Kate said. “Then our theme ‘The Big Picture’ came from this idea of senior year and preparing for college. When you’re preparing for college, you start to only care about the numbers — your GPA and your SAT or ACT scores. But you’re defined by more than just the numbers, and I think that’s something our speakers can relate to because they all took some unexpected turns to get to where they are.”

The scheduled speakers include Jim Abbott, a former Angels and U.S. Olympic pitcher who was born without a right hand.

Others include ex-Olympic hurdler Mark Crear; photographer Stuart Palley; Stanton Rowe, vice president for advanced technology and chief scientific officer at Edwards Lifesciences; Karina Hamilton, director of UC Irvine’s Dalai Lama Scholars Program, and Sage Hill students who are accomplished in music and athletics.

During the school year, six other Sage Hill students joined Cindy and Kate to organize and market the event.

“I’m really proud of our team members because everyone took their responsibilities seriously,” Cindy said. “Because Sage has such a diverse group of talented students, we want the community to have an opportunity to see what Sage has.”

The public is invited to attend the TEDx event at 6 p.m. Friday at Sage Hill School’s Black Box Theater, 20402 Newport Coast Drive.

The event will be recorded and saved in TED’s video archives.

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