VCU Medical Student
After being diagnosed with Lyme disease, Thérèse Weidenkopf worried that she had lost her future to a debilitating diagnosis. It was during this time she found comfort through theater and the study of body language. Tess is now a first year medical student merging the lessons of biology and acting to inspire physicians, clinicians, and even patients during the path to healing. She uses this talk to unite two different spheres art and medicine into a blend that acts as a vessel to better understand vulnerability and connections between humans.
Thérèse (Tess) Weidenkopf is currently a first-year medical student at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Roanoke College in 2022 with Honors in a Theatre Major and Biochemistry Major. She is deeply thankful for the physician who stood by her side during treatment, family, her theatre directors, and pre-med mentors who encouraged her in every light and dark moment she endured. She hopes this TEDx talk inspires all to take up a theatre class and begin to understand the complexities underlying all human stories.
VCU Graduate Student
As an animator, Leilei imagines that if she goes visually impaired, or blind, she may do sculptures, or do music, but the only thing she can’t do, is to make animations. Then, why not make a touchable animation? Why not use touch to deliver scenes and stories? Leilei did it, and found a whole new world of tactile art, which contains much more potential than people think.
Leilei Xia is an artist whose works involve animation, video, tactile theater, tactile objects, participatory art, community engagement and pedagogy. She was born in Guangzhou, China and has been studying art in the US. Her trajectory has been moving from illustration to animation, to video installation, and to tactile art and workshop experiences. She is always trying to walk on the boundaries of mediums and genres, and let them coexist in a project. Recently her research has been focusing on combining the process and the result of art to make art not as a noun, but as a verb.
VCU Masters Candidate
True desires for love and affection can manifest in many different ways, but society prioritizes one type of romantic relationship: the relationship between a man and a woman. In this talk, Alex explores the limitations of heteronormativity and compulsive heterosexuality and how coming out allowed for her to reconnect with herself. Coming out opened a world of authenticity that Alex couldn’t have imagined. The discoveries Alex has made since coming out have redefined her world – and helped her understand that it’s not coming out, it’s coming home.
Alex Smith-Scales is a first-year Master’s candidate at VCU Brandcenter studying Creative Brand Management. She is so excited about her experience with coming out and how the process restored a sense of authenticity that she didn’t know she was capable of. She is so thankful for her family and friends for their endless support. She would also like to thank her partner, Mellon, for giving her the adventure of being loved and cherished every day.
VCU Undergraduate Student
Amoney explores the complexity of human emotion through lyrical rap. She revels in the human ability to feel so many emotions at once: disappointed yet hopeful, or nervous yet excited. She takes her listeners on the journey of rage and anger with her first song titled "You Don't Know" to sensitivity and passion with the following song "Strength of Your Emotions." She finishes off the performance with a track titled "Loyalty" off her last album.
Amoney is a female Tunisian-American lyrical rapper. Her music carries meaning in every word and starts as poetry that expresses past hardships and emotions through rhyme and rhythm. Amoney started making music in the summer of 2020 with the rise of the Black Lives Matter protests. With every track, she experiments with different styles and genres and captivates her audience with catchy melodies and relatable lyrics. Her performance today features a combination of tracks from her most recent album: Came From Something, and newer singles from this year.
VCU Undergraduate Student
The way we build our cities needs to change. We have given up too much space to cars and this is causing problems, including high carbon emissions and financial burdens. It’s time to reevaluate our priorities. The benefits of walkable cities are immense, and there is no time like the present to start thinking about bettering our future. Car dependent infrastructure has to go.
Tyler Mitchell is a political science major at VCU who hopes to better his community by educating people about the benefits of people-centered city planning and infrastructure. Tyler wants to flip the public’s idea of what a city is on its head by presenting the benefits of pedestrian based infrastructure.
VCU Graduate Student
TikTok has influenced music in ways that the industry has never seen before. Its trending sounds of both new and older releases have the tendency to rank in the top US music charts, due to popular trends on the platform. Thousands of users use these different sounds, causing the song to go viral, and making it more publicly known. How do consumers feel about this change in the music industry? That is what I am here today - to explore and explain more about the consumer perceptions on TikTok reorganizing the music industry.
Padmini Simhan is a 23 year old graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, pursuing a Master’s of Science in Marketing Management. Her interests include creating narratives and marketing content, conducting market research, studying consumer behavior, dancing, singing and writing. Her love for music stems from her belief that it connects people, especially when expressing and sharing emotions, is the basis for her talk. Padmini hopes to pursue a career in creative marketing with a focus in consumer behavior, so she can continue to learn more about the psychology behind music and social marketing and how they all intertwine with each other.
VCU Faculty Member
Ever wonder what makes superheroes different? What makes them heroes is that they’re different, that they can still overcome odds and be the hero of the day. Neurodivergency is a superpower, and Garret Westlake shares his journey from becoming a superhero of his own to being a mentor to other superheroes. Garret walks through the limitations of the current education and career system through this talk as someone who is neurodivergent, and shares his stories of preservation and inspiration, with a call for change.
Dr. Garret Westlake is leading the transformation of Virginia Commonwealth University into one of the world’s leading universities for cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation. As VCU’s inaugural associate vice provost for Innovation and the executive director of the da Vinci Center for Innovation, Dr. Westlake advances university-wide design thinking and leads student innovation and entrepreneurship. He is also the co-founder of the SHIFT Retail Lab - a student innovation lab and storefront recognized by Fast Company as a 2022 World Changing Idea. He was also a successful technology entrepreneur - the CEO and founder of a social impact software company that employed individuals with autism. An advisor and consultant for Fortune 500 companies, Dr. Westlake is a facilitator of innovation, design thinking, and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®.
