Meet the Board
Co-Directors
Arhana Aatresh
CO-DIRECTOR
Arhana Aatresh is a senior at Saint Francis High School, where she is an officer of ASB, an editor-in-chief for newspaper, and an accompanist for String Ensemble. She loves hiking and biking in nature and is a devoted plant mom. Arhana is passionate about neuroscience and enjoys learning about other people’s stories. In addition, she can always be found listening to music and cooking something new. She firmly believes in the power that well-communicated ideas hold and is excited to play a role in this process in her third and final year on the TEDxSFHS board!
Andrew Adkison
CO-DIRECTOR
Andrew Adkison, a senior at Saint Francis High School, takes pride in learning about the world and living a life of faith. He spends much of his time playing sports and loves to relax with his family, read books, and go to the beach. His balanced lifestyle enables him to partake in a variety of events and experiences. Andrew enjoys working with his team and friends on TEDxSaintFrancisHS and is encouraged by the long-lasting impact that TEDx fosters for the community. Looking into the future, he himself hopes to make a difference in the world, wherever it might be.
Claire Luo
CO-DIRECTOR
Claire is a senior at Saint Francis High School. In addition to being in TEDxSaintFrancisHS, she is also involved in the Girls Who Code, AI for Social Good, and Entrepreneurship clubs at school. She loves conversations and discussions with other people, constantly broadening her worldview. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, drawing, and spending time with family and friends. Claire loves both hearing and helping share diverse student stories. She is so excited for her third year on the TEDx board and hopes to empower student voices through creating an inspirational, conversation-sparking event.
Mini-Directors
Olivia Vinckier
MINI-DIRECTOR
Olivia is a junior at Saint Francis High School. Her hobbies include traveling, spending time with friends and family, hiking and listening to Taylor Swift. Through her involvement with philanthropy, she has developed a passion for helping others locally and beyond. She is passionate about multiracial identity development and has worked on a research project and a TEDx Talk over the last two years. Olivia is extremely excited to help others in sharing their stories through TEDx.
Directors of Speakers
Alex Chang
DIRECTOR OF SPEAKERS
Alexander is a senior at Saint Francis High School where he is the captain of the speech and debate team and a section editor for the newspaper. Last year, Alexander presented a talk on his personal experiences as a caregiver as well as how we should all reorient our perspective of the elderly. In his free time, he has a passion for cooking, skateboarding, and spending time with family. Alexander is incredibly excited to work with the next generation of speakers and is eager to bring forth even more insightful and impactful stories to the greater community.
Trisha Menon
DIRECTOR OF SPEAKERS
Trisha is a senior at Saint Francis High School, where she is also an immersion leader, and part of numerous clubs. She got involved with TEDx two years ago when she gave her own talk about the impact of scars. This year she is thrilled to be able to lead and help speakers share their unique stories.
Speaker Board
Marisa Lewetzon
SPEAKER BOARD
Marisa Lewetzon is a junior at Saint Francis high school. In her free time, she loves to read novels, watch movies, play softball, and listen to music. Over this past summer she worked for her city's parks and recreation program being a camp counselor and member of the youth center staff. She plans to travel the world and hopes that her talk inspired people to stop living in their own fearful world of what ifs. She is excited to be on the speaker board for this year!
Ritika Arora
SPEAKER BOARD
Ritika Arora is a junior at Saint Francis High School. As a previous speaker at the 2022 event, Ritika hopes to share her experiences with the new speakers and help them create talks they are proud of. Outside of TEDxSaintFrancisHS, Ritika is part of the varsity school golf team and has learned and competed in many styles of dance for over ten years. She also enjoys cooking, traveling, advocating for pediatric cancer, and spending time with family and friends. Ritika is looking forward to an amazing event!
Anika Bastin
SPEAKER BOARD
Anika Bastin is a senior at Saint Francis High School. In addition to TEDxSaintFrancisHS, she is a co-captain of the Debate team, an editor for the newspaper, and a student leader for the intersectional feminist student association. Last year, she gave a talk on the importance of intersectionality in feminism. This year, she is excited to use her experience to help speakers share their stories!
Nitish Gourishetty
SPEAKER BOARD
Nitish Gourishetty is a senior at Saint Francis High School. Inspired by his family who are involved in technology and medicine, he is drawn to opening a world of new possibilities, while immersing himself in a realm of engineering and biotechnology. In his free time he loves doing Robotics, reading books, playing the guitar and spending time with family and friends. Last year he gave a talk about exploring his own identity, and with his experiences, he hopes to inspire others to find their own identities and explore their passions.
Nitya Kuppireddy
SPEAKER BOARD
Nitya Kuppireddy is a senior at Saint Francis High School, where she is involved in TEDxSaintFrancisHS and Girls Who Code. Outside of school, she is a Girl Scout and teaches weekly classes at the non-profit Donum Visi. In her free time, she enjoys dancing and spending time with her friends. Nitya is excited to hear the personal perspectives, passions, and stories of each speaker.
Hospitality
Andrew Carrasquillo
DIRECTOR OF HOSPITALITY
Andrew Carrasquillo is a senior at Saint Francis High School. He plays football and runs track and field, and participates in IGNITE and BRIC Brothers alongside TEDx. He joined TEDx last year after discovering a group of leaders that would help him grow as a person, run a major program at Saint Francis, and have some fun. He was a part of hospitality board last year and is now the director of hospitality.
Tenley Flahavan
HOSPITALITY BOARD
Tenley Flahavan is a sophomore at Saint Francis High School. In addition to her position on the hospitality board of TEDx, Tenley is involved in other activities on campus including the field hockey team, track team, Shadow Hosts Club, Ignite, Paintbox Club, and Sophomore Student Council. Her goal is to develop meaningful friendships with her TEDx family and cultivate a supportive environment for the team to bond as a whole. Tenley is excited to follow in her older sister’s footsteps by being an active member of TEDx Saint Francis!
Publicity
Elsa Ying
DIRECTOR OF PUBLICITY
Elsa Ying is a senior at Saint Francis High School. She is a band co-president and plays the oboe and piano. She was also a part of the spring musical pit orchestra for Mamma Mia (in 2020 and 2022). As a board member for Mindframes, she co-hosts Cafe Mots, the monthly poetry cafe on campus, as well as edits the annual literary magazine. This is her first year in TEDx, and after watching the past two years' events, she's very excited to join the team.
Sean Reynolds
PUBLICITY BOARD
Sean Reynolds is a sophomore at Saint Francis High School. He did cross country and track freshman year and does diving. Because he is very passionate about leadership, he has been a part of student government since he was eleven years old. His hobbies are listening to music, hanging out with friends, photography, and going out in nature. His goal for this year includes getting to get to know all of the people working with TEDx as well as to learn new things about this program.
Tech/Crew
Divya Moorthy
DIRECTOR OF TECH/CREW
Divya is a junior at Saint Francis High School. Outside of TEDxSaintFrancisHS, she is a part of the LancerRobotics FRC Team, a Girls Who Code ambassador, and is on the Track and Field Team. In her free time she enjoys listening to music and spending time with her dog. Divya seeks to enhance TedxSaintFrancisHS this year in anway she can and build lifelong friendships along the way. She hopes to inspire women in STEM and welcome everyone into the Lancer family!
Anna Fazioli
TECH/CREW BOARD
Anna Fazioli is a sophomore at Saint Francis High School. Outside of TEDxSaintFrancisHS she is a part of the water polo team, swim team, and Environmental Club. In her free time, she enjoys painting, organizing, and spending time with her friends and family. Joining the TEDx family this year, Anna wants to create friendships with the club members and work together with them to make this year’s event the best it can be. She hopes that TEDxSaintFrancisHS will inspire the audience to engage in meaningful conversations and is so proud of everyone’s hard work
Media Manager
Grace Coyle
General Media and Content Manager
Grace Coyle is a sophomore at Saint Francis High School. She is a member of the Lancer Live, Lancer Productions, Women of BRIC, and plays basketball. She enjoys running, hiking, watching movies, surfing, and hanging out with her friends.