Sixteen students presented talks under Illuminate
TEDx Mercedes College Youth took place on Friday, 24 April 2026 at Mercedes College’s Performing Arts Centre, where 16 students delivered talks to a live audience of about 90 people.
The inaugural event used the theme Illuminate. Students explored disability equity in education, women in the workplace, artificial intelligence, bullying and political change.
Ten students presented individually, while six students spoke in pairs. The programme combined personal experience, social issues and new perspectives.
Recorded talks from 24 April 2026 are now available on the official TEDx platform. Their release closed a planning process that began after Miss Callie Stevens attended a TEDx event in Perth in early 2022.
Miss Callie Stevens coordinated TEDx
Miss Callie Stevens, Head of English at Mercedes College, coordinated the event after years of research, applications, licencing and school approvals. She has worked at Mercedes College since 2010 and helped establish the Philosophy Club and the ASPIRE Gifted programme.
After the Perth TEDx event in early 2022, Stevens developed the idea of putting Mercedes College students on that stage themselves. Four years later, that plan became the school’s first TEDx youth event.
Principal Dr Lucie McCrory said the event gave students “an exceptional opportunity for our students to express their voice and share their passion, recognising that ideas are the seeds that change everything.”
Grace Seeber People’s Choice Award
Year 10 student Grace Seeber received the People’s Choice Award for her speech on equity in education. She drew on her lived experience of Autism and called for greater inclusion.
Seeber’s talk focused on barriers that students with Autism face in education. Audience members selected her presentation from 16 talks.
Deputy Principal Kirsty Murphy said it was “incredibly moving to see students who do not always seek the spotlight step forward and share such diverse, thoughtful” ideas.
The 24 April 2026 event aimed to empower young women to think critically and use their voices. As a result, 16 students shared ideas at a globally recognised TEDx event hosted on campus.
