TEDxYouth@EHSHoustonPostOakSchool: Presenters from The Post Oak School

Shiraz Ghauri, John Mellinger & Alex Donnenberg | Harmful Effects of Gasoline Powered Automoblies

The Post Oak School

Shiraz Ghauri was born in Garden Grove, California on February 28. After Kindergarten Shiraz, and his family moved to Karachi, Pakistan. There he pursued his education at the Karachi American School, which is one of the three International schools in Pakistan. Because of his father being a politician he was able to discuss phenomena’s like globalization with family and other experienced leaders. After completing 9th grade, his father decided to move him to Houston, Texas where he is further pursuing his education at the Post Oak High School.

John Mellinger is a junior at the Post Oak High School. He is a state-champion cyclist and is currently training to compete in an Ironman Triathlon. John has grown up in Houston where his active hobbies have intermingled with the metropolitan infrastructure. Because of this, he has always been fascinated by transportation. His fascination has led him to start a school club devoted to converting gasoline-powered cars into electric vehicles. John enjoys mathematics and he thinking of pursuing a career in business or engineering.

Alex Donnenberg: I was born in Houston, Texas on August 21, 1998 to an American mother and Austrian father. I grew up in The Woodlands before moving to Houston in 4th grade. I attended the Regis School of the Sacred Heart from 4-8th grade. Now I attend Post Oak High School, which I think is a great fit for me.

Alyssa Kapusta | Animal Assisted Therapy

The Post Oak School

Alyssa Kapusta is 14 years old and is currently in the eighth grade. She loves to read and loves to interact with animals. She lives in Houston, TX with her little brother, her mom, and her dad. Her life consists of fangirling with her friends, reading, drawing, painting, sleeping, and running. She has family all over the world and meets with them every year or so.

Alyssa Kapusta | Reflection

Once upon a time there was an Iraq war veteran named Andrew. That was how my presentation began. I can still remember the speech and I don’t even have to look at it. I know it from memory. That took weeks and weeks of hard earned work to master my speech. I can hardly remember why I took on this task because it feels like it was years ago that I started TEDx, but it was all worth it.

When I walked on stage, my time that I had used to prepare my presentation swept through my head. I remembered every second of it. I remember working on it, getting frustrated at a single piece of paper, and also loving every second of it. Even though my talk was 7 minutes, I flew through my speech, and it felt like only 2 minutes. When I walked off, in my head I was like ‘Wow,I have accomplished something amazing in my life!’

I never messed up because I practiced. I never messed up because I was enjoying talking about therapy animals. I finally came true to my speech. I got my rats. Finally. I really do hope the other part of my speech will ring true, the part about others taking on the task of being a therapy team with their animal. Thank you so much, those people who were in the audience, for being there and supporting me and my accomplishment. I loved it and I can’t wait till next year.

Isabella Neblett | Think Again: The Role of Teenagers in the Society

The Post Oak School

My name is Isabella Neblett, and I am currently a sophomore at the Post Oak High School. During my hours of freedom, I read too much Psychology Today, collect cheesy quotes, and think about philosophy. I'm a professional procrastinator, and a passionate writer. I'm a lot of things, but the main ones are that I am 15, human, and count myself as being one of the future forty percent of American adults who have stage fright according to NBC. However, I have been learning to conqueror this fear since my first experience with Montessori Model United Nations when I had to deliver a speech in front of hundreds of fellow teenagers. While this was utterly terrifying, it also made me realize something about myself that I had never realized before. I really love people, and I want to help them all.

MeghaNeelapu | Lead the Way

The Post Oak School

My name is Megha Neelapu, I am twelve years old, and go to The Post Oak School. Recently, I have become very interested in climate change: the biggest problem of the century. Instead of sitting around and worrying about it, I decided to fix it. I know that many kids are, or will be very interested in the topic of climate change, and they want to do something about it, but they don’t know how. That is why I am giving a talk at this TEDx event. My hope is that after I give my talk, kids will now be able to make our earth a better place.