Summer Achievements: Belinda Tang

While many of us probably spent our summers vacationing or working on our extended essays, some students were busy with more monumental things. One student who did something great over the summer is current sophomore, Belinda Tang. Belinda was one of the Ignite Keynote Speakers at the ITSE conference and expo in San Antonio, Texas over the summer.

What exactly is the ISTE conference and expo? According to Belinda, “ISTE stands for the International Society for Technology in Education. It serves as one of the most comprehensive and well-known platform for educators and learners to gather and get hands-on-experience with some of the newest tech for teaching, interact with like-minded individuals and network. The event gets about 18,000 attendees every year and that includes, teachers, students, technology experts, industry leaders and administrators.”

In the ISTE conference, Belinda was not only a presenter, but also an Ignite Keynote Speaker. According to her, she had to give two speeches in the span of two days. Belinda, being one of the Ignite Keynote Speaker, had to give a speech in front of about 3,000 people. “It felt great to have done what I did at ISTE. It was intimidating and stressful for me, but it was totally worth all the mental pain it caused me…I was able to get over my anxiety and everything from there on went successfully making me feel really happy about what I did…”

In her speech, Belinda the group that she started called Studio 1NE. Belinda created Studio 1NE about a year ago. They first made short films and then transitioned into creating films for the school, community service groups, such as the Connect 4 Cancer, and NGO, such as The Blue Sky Rescue Team.” At the presentation, she mainly talked about “how I started Studio 1NE and how the group has developed and evolved over time. What we did in our early days and the challenges we faced along the way. The lessons we learned from our failures. For example, we learned that in order for a up-and-coming group to be successful, each and every member of the group not only needs to be committed, but competent as well. It’s not easy to find someone like that, but we are always on the lookout for people we think would be a great addition to Studio 1NE.”

During Belinda’s free time at the conference, she was able to roam around the vendor’s hall where “brands such as Microsoft, Parrot, Huawei, Google, Scholastic, etc would have booths full of cool stuff on display.” In those booths, people could interact with the presenters and sometimes play with the displays. Her experiences at the booth “was a very hands-on experience, at the Microsoft booth I was able to build a simple piece of tech that looks somewhat like a glove. It would track the movement of my fingers and transfer the data to a mechanical hand that would mimic the movement of my fingers.”

A great part of the ISTE conference, besides amazing exhibitions of technology and innovation, was the people. The people there, according to Belinda, were great. “There are so many interesting individuals there that it’s almost impossible for someone not to find someone who shares the same interests as you. I met someone who volunteers at a studio in Portland, Oregon. Also, while I was backstage during the Ignite session I talked to the other kids who were also going on stage, even the 8-year-old. An 8-year-old spoke in front of 3,000 people!”

The whole experience for Belinda was amazing, but how did she became a presenter and an Ignite Keynote Speaker there? Belinda said that she first heard about ISTE from Mr. Navis, who has attended ISTE conferences before. She said, “Mr. Navis…told me that I should go there and do a couple of presentations on the group I’m running named Studio 1NE.” And as for becoming an Ignite Keynote Speaker, she said, “I was told that one of their main highlights every year are the Ignite Sessions. Apparently, it’s hard to land a spot as part of the group speaking and with that in mind I thought: why not give it a try. Then a few weeks later I received word, via Mr. Navis, that my application has been accepted and that I’m going to be a student speaker among other young people and teachers.”

When asked about would she recommend ISTE to other people, Belinda replied, “I would definitely recommend this experience to others. Where else could a high schooler speak in front of 3,000 people about something they are passionate about? Not only that, but the chance to get to experience some of the newest tech major industry players are developing for educational purposes. It really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I don’t regret signing up to do that big presentation, and to join that conference, one bit.”

If you would like to read more about our student’s achievements over the summer, click here.