Jennifer Gurecki is passionate about poverty. Specifically, helping women in Kenya get out of poverty. In 2013, the Truckee local founded Zawadisha, which provides microloans to rural Kenyan women to help finance their livelihoods. (Read more about Gurecki on p. 18.) With her work in the African country, and by pursuing a Ph.D. in sustainability education, Gurecki has collected data about poverty and will share her findings and perspective as part of the TEDx University of Nevada program Jan. 23.
Gurecki, who hopes to challenge the way we define and address poverty, is one of 25 presenters during the all-day event. TEDx was created by the original creators of TED in the spirit of its mission, “ideas worth spreading,” and allows independent organizers to create a TED-like event in their own community. The day will also include talks by another local, Sherry McConkey, as well as National Geographic’s Monster Fish host Zeb Hogan and a host of others. But to get the audience to walk away with thought-provoking ideas, each presenter had to go through a series of rehearsals and critiques to perfect their deliveries, each 10 to 12 minutes in length.
“For me, what is quite challenging is to present these big ideas,” Gurecki said. “I talk about this stuff all the time, but it’s the first time I am speaking about it in front of a large audience. There is a lot of responsibility because I am representing Kenyan women.”
Now in its fourth year, curator Bret Simmons contends this will be the strongest University of Nevada TEDx talk yet. Simmons said the three-person committee who chose the presenters wanted to focus on entertainers as well, so there are six performances, including musical acts and a magician. Also new this year is the venue. For the last three years, the event was at a venue on the UNR campus that held 220 people. Now at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, that capacity number is up to 1,400 people. But, tickets are selling fast and no more tickets will be sold after Jan. 16.
“We want an event that fires every portion of the brain,” said Simmons, who is also a professor in the MBA program at UNR. “The audience will be physically and emotionally spent at the end of the day. It’s worth the money; it’s worth the day. There is nothing else like it.”
