A team of students put together a conference, BVRx, for the entire Beaver community to share ideas on youth activism, innovation, entrepreneurship, and social change.
Featuring six speakers—two students, one faculty member, two current parents, and one outside expert—the night was the vision of junior Jules Hollands ’20, who organized the event as part of her youth activism independent study. Jules said she was inspired by TEDx events and wanted the evening to spark conversations on a variety of topics in the Beaver community.
Despite facing a few challenges in the planning process such as unexpected weather delays, Jules said the event went better than her “extremely” high expectations.
I’m so grateful the Beaver community supports student ideas. I couldn’t have done this alone!
Jules Hollands '20
The lineup of BVRx speakers included the following:
- Lisa Tanzer P’16, president of the Life is Good company, explained how a close network is one of the keys to accomplishing personal and professional goals.
- Raphael Edwards ’19 compared blanket curriculums to ones that focus on student passions and asked the question “Is one better than the other?“
- Drew Zachry, Upper School science teacher, explored decision making, the variety of options we are presented with in life, and the struggle to know what is the “right” decision.
- Laura Gassner Otting P’23, P’21 talked about success, how it relates to happiness, and how to define your own success.
- Max Glenn ’19 discussed how, for young people, social media can contribute to pressure – but it can also lead to success.
- Bijan Sabet P’20, managing general partner at Spark Capital, spoke about why start-ups can sometimes change the world.
In addition to the speakers, there were two vocal performances: one by Dilce Oliveira ’20 and one by Christine Alcindor ’21.