Olin student to speak at TEDx WUSTL

Cary Cheng, BSBA’17, is one of the featured speakers at TEDx WUSTL, Friday, March 3 at 5:30 p.m. in the Clark-Fox Forum, Hillman Hall. Tickets are FREE! Ticket PICK UP in Bauer from February 27 – March 3 at 11.30 a.m. – 2.30 p.m.

Cary agreed to share a sneak peek of his talk with the Olin Blog:

The topic of my talk focuses on the intersection between food and culture. Specifically, Chinese food in American Culture. I am particularly fascinated with how Chinese food has evolved since its introduction into American society in the mid-1800s. As someone who was born in California but grew up in Beijing, I feel that I have had an unusual amount of exposure to the cuisines of the two cultures, and I am passionate about the way through which the two affect each other; I strongly believe that food is an important ingredient (pun intended!) in helping us achieve multiculturalism in the modern American society.

Here’s the lineup for TEDx WUSTL:

Ilyse Hogue is an expert in organizing and mobilizing grassroots support around social-justice issues, including human rights, media reform and representation, and reproductive freedom. She has been president of NARAL Pro-Choice America since 2013 and during her tenure she has pushed the national conversation around abortion access to be one of fundamental human rights and self-determination for women. At the Democratic National Convention in 2016, Ilyse made history by sharing her own abortion story on the national stage, explaining that “it’s not as simple as bad girls get abortions and good girls have families. We are the same women at different times in our lives – each making decisions that are the best for us.”

Erin O’Flaherty is the reigning Miss Missouri 2016. Devoting her time to philanthropic and social causes, she focuses on suicide prevention efforts in conjunction with The Trevor Project and The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Last September, she was heralded as a trailblazer in the LGBTQ community, making history as the first openly lesbian woman to compete on the Miss America stage. She has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, and in The New York Times, among others. Erin holds a Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies from the University of Central Florida and currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 2006, Rick Erwin became the Executive Director of the St. Louis City Museum, a 600,000-square foot space that is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of the late internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 and helped spark a renovation of downtown St. Louis. With an annual attendance over 843,000, City Museum is consistently ranked a must see attraction both nationally and internationally. Rick is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago MAAA program.

Cary Cheng is a senior at the Olin Business School majoring in Operations/Supply Chain Management with a second major in Philosophy. In his free time, he enjoys watching movies, playing music and buying books that he never ends up reading. Cary is also passionate about everything food and cannot wait to share on the interconnections between food and culture — with Cary Cheng.

 

Joel Anderson  is a first year undergrad at WUSTL. Anderson is a freshman from Tacoma, WA, planning to major in Global Health and the Environment and minor in Spanish. On campus, he is an Ervin scholar, a City Faces mentor, and a member of Timmy Global Health. At TEDxWUSTL, he is incredibly excited to share the lessons he’s learned through his father’s battle with a rare, terminal illness. — with Joel Anderson.

TEDxWUSTL is a student organization at Washington University in St. Louis. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events, based on the not-for-profit TED foundation, whose mission is to bring people together to share ideas worth spreading. It is our hope that our event sparks deep discussion and fosters connections among the community.