'Why I Don’t Use A Smart Phone' by Ann Makosinski (2016.2)
Ann Makosinski is an 18 year-old student, innovator and entrepreneur. Her first toy was a box of transistors. From there, her interest in science and creating arose. One of her friends in the Philippines got a failing grade because she didn't have any electricity or light to study with at night. As a potential solution, Ann invented a flashlight that ran off the heat of the human hand - the Hollow Flashlight. The invention won her age category at the 2013 Google Science Fair, as well as numerous awards at the Intel Science and Engineering Fair. She appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and was named one of TIMES 30 Under 30. Ann hopes to manufacture her flashlight, bringing the invention to developing countries and including them in emergency kits. Ann also invented the eDrink - a coffee mug that harvests the excess heat of your hot drink and converts it into electricity to charge a phone. Ann debuted the eDrink this October on her second appearance on the Tonight Show.
'What makes you special?' by Mariana Atencio (2017.2)
NBC News journalist Mariana Atencio has traveled the world from Haiti to Hong Kong. In her TEDx talk, Mariana tells us how the people she's met along the way and her own immigrant experience have taught her that the only thing we all have in common is being human. Get ready to 'get human' and embrace what makes you different! Take a stand to defend your race: the human race!
Mariana Atencio is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, currently a national correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. The Huffington Post called her ‘our Latina Christiane Amanpour’ and Jorge Ramos wrote: ‘Mariana is the next-gen voice for Latinos breaking all barriers.’ Mariana is known for combining in-studio work and high profile interviews like Pope Francis, with tenacious field reporting all over the world, covering youth-led protests in places like Ferguson, Mexico, Haiti and Hong Kong.
