TEDxMountain Ave tickets are now on sale! TEDxMountain Ave 2025 will be held Wednesday, April 30, at Poudre High School in Fort Collins. Doors open at 5 p.m. with the first speaker beginning at 5:50 p.m.
This event is free for all PSD students--just register using your student ID number. General admission is $10. A small number of VIP seats are available for $50 each. By purchasing a general admission or VIP ticket, you are helping keep this event free for students. VIP tickets include a separate, and expedited, check-in and a special gift.
A reception will follow the talks where audience members can discuss the ideas they heard and meet the speakers. Light refreshments and snacks prepared by Poudre High School catering students, will be available.
This unique TEDx event is hosted, organized, and operated by current and former PSD students and staff - the only student-empowered group of its kind. From leadership to production to speaking, student’s roles in this event allow them to be the leaders of today and the change-makers of tomorrow..
This year’s theme is Beyond Barriers and features seven amazing speakers, including three from the PSD family, who want to share their ideas with our community.
- Aloha Arceo Apitz is a Venezuelan immigrant who has experience as a psychologist, school teacher, university professor, and co-founder/co-owner of “Chiquillos” a tutoring/summer camp company in Venezuela. Her talk will focus on creating inclusive and equitable access to education by helping non-English speaking students and their families.
- Brian Bauer is a Certified Addiction Specialist and reasoned recovery advocate, who founded the Abundance Foundation in 2020 to address the growing need for accessible addiction treatment services for underserved populations. His talk hopes to help erase the stigma of addiction by filling in the gaps of a broken system.
- Dr. Scott Ellner is a healthcare strategist and Senior Advisor of Major Futures with a proven track record of building a solid physician engagement culture that drives successful results. He plans to share his expertise in strategic planning, operational optimization, healthcare law and compliance, patient safety, and financial sustainability to ultimately foster a welcoming environment for healthcare professionals, ensure physician well-being, and significantly elevate patient outcomes.
- Hannah Barquero is a junior at Rocky Mountain High School with many interests including reading, writing, and pottery, and music. At the age of 11, she was diagnosed with Leukemia and forced to undergo years of treatment. Her goal is to use her unique experience to educate and share her ideas with the world, and to inspire others to adopt positive mindsets in order to get through hard times.
- Richard Bistrong is a contributing writer for Fast Company and the CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery, a consultancy focusing on real-world anti-bribery, ethics, and compliance challenges. His expertise is in Ethics & Compliance, Ethical Decision Making, Anti-Bribery & Corruption and Commercial Pressures, and he hopes to share the benefits of ethical business practices.
- Scott Donnell is the best-selling author of Value Creation Kid: The Healthy Struggles Your Children Need to Succeed. Scott is an integral part of bringing Children’s Business Fairs to families nationwide and is the founder of Dinner Table. With over 6 million families served, Scott will focus on helping parents teach their kids good money skills.
- Sophia Imark is a student at Rocky Mountain High School who’s involved in Math Honor Society, National Honor Society, Science Olympiad, and the Computer and Technology Student Association. She is also proud to be the founder and president of her school’s Asian American and Pacific Islanders Club, where she works to encourage connection and cultural awareness. She plans to share her own experiences with the value of resilience and the danger of perfectionism.
For more information or to connect with us, please visit the TEDxMountain Ave. website.
TEDxMountain Ave is independently operated by a collaboration of students and educators in Poudre School District and the Fort Collins area. TEDxMountain Ave promotes workforce skills development, relationship building and hands-on leadership experience with a focus on youth empowerment.
.png)
About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED Conferences, intimate TED Salons and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world. Videos of these talks are made available, free, on TED.com and other platforms. Audio versions of TED Talks are published to TED Talks Daily, available on all podcast platforms.