In early October, Tinley Park hosted its first TEDx event, which included a speech by Maine West 11th grader Hadia Miriam. TED is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to discovering, debating and spreading ideas that spark conversation, deepen understanding and drive meaningful change. In the spirit of discovering and spreading ideas, TED has created TEDx, a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.
At the TEDx Tinley Park event, live speakers came together to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The result was a day filled with powerful stories, new perspectives, laughter, music, and community that reflected the event’s theme of “Come Together.”
Miriam was inspired to join this event after seeing a motivating TEDx Talk on YouTube. She became curious about whether or not a TEDx event could be found nearby and after conducting some research, Miriam found the TEDxTinley Park event. She reached out to one of the event organizers and with his encouragement, Miriam submitted a pitch on Intergenerational Connection—a topic that has fundamentally shaped her life.
A few weeks after submitting her pitch, Miriam was invited to participate in an in-person interview, which led to her being chosen as one of the 14 speakers who would speak on the TEDx stage.
“The topic that I selected for my speech was rooted in my personal experiences growing up in a cross-generational household and the inspiration I gained from these experiences,” explains Miriam. “I spoke about how growing up in my household has not always been easy, and has often come with difficulties. For much of my childhood, I could never understand why my family wasn’t like the rest of my friends.”
Miriam goes on to explain that this speech was also largely about realizing and appreciating that her older parents and family members are invaluable assets to her life. She also shared that her uncle was diagnosed with dementia, which led to a growing passion for trying to understand the why behind neurodegenerative diseases and if human connection could contribute to a solution.
Guided by this passion and with help from Maine West Math Teacher Karrie Kamai, Miriam created Generations Connect at Maine West, a club where high school students connect with local senior citizens in their community for meaningful exchange. The group hosted its first intergenerational event in late April 2026 in collaboration with Center for Concern and a second event is being planned for this fall. In addition, the group is launching a pen-pal program to keep these intergenerational friendships growing.
In leading up to the talk, Miriam attended speech rehearsals in Tinley Park and worked directly with a speech coach. In addition to her speech coach, Miriam also received support from several of her educators at Maine West, including Social Science Teaching Assistant Gizelle Alverio who listened to Miriam practice her speech during lunch, and Fine Arts Teacher David Harmon who provided expert advice and helped to push her speech to the next level.
“Hadia showed up to Speech 103 with strong skills so the question became, how can I further challenge this student to get even better?,” says Harmon. “One of the things we worked on is identifying the emotional journey we want audiences to take over the course of the speech. After considering this, Hadia leaned further into trying to elicit an emotional response at moments; attempting to get her audience to laugh at something, feel shock or embarrassment at other points and actually look to see their response. Hadia should be proud of the effort and growth she’s demonstrated this year!”
When asked what she learned from this experience and would like to share with others, Miriam explained the importance of never being afraid to do anything and that you never know where life will take you.