Alessaia Morosini
Student
Alessia was born in Sliven, Bulgaria. At a very young age she moved to Italy, where she lived until the age of 15, when she moved back to Bulgaria, this time living in Sofia, the capital city. Alessia speaks 4 languages: Italian, English, Spanish, and Bulgarian. I am passionate about the topic of my talk as I witnessed in first person the importance of caring for the community and how this can make you a better global citizen.
Alina Sharaf
Student
Alina was born in Fairfax, Virginia to a Syrian father and Syrian American mother. She has lived in Virginia, Texas, and Syria before finally moving to Sofia, Bulgaria. She speaks English fluently and is currently learning French and Arabic. Alina came up with her ted talk while reflected on the first lie she remembers telling and when she realized it was all because she was too scared that her reason would be labelled an "excuse".
Elitsa Kostova
Guest Speaker
Elitsa Kostova born in Bulgaria, lived in Sofia and Havana, speaks English and Spanish. Elitsa is a visionary, successful coach, and international business consultant. She is also an author of award-winning training programs.
Elitsa's life is been about caring - from teaching students, mentoring unprivileged kids and youngsters, delivering career success programs to over 3,200 young people with the Edu Compass Foundation.
As an expert in human behaviour and neuroscience, Elitsa can shed light on the evolutionary and psychological aspect of caring.
Ema Kostova
Student
Born and raised in Bulgaria, Ema has never been confined to her home country and has travelled throughout Europe, visiting hundreds of cities, towns, villages, and natural destinations, learning about various cultures and studying several languages including Bulgarian, English, Italian, and Spanish to gain a better understanding of the world around her. Throughout the last 9 years spent balancing academics and her passion for music, writing, photography, and travel, she has captured tens of thousands of photos and videos. Stored in countless devices and flash drives, these accumulating photographs have encouraged her to reflect on the effect of her habit to capture every moment, why her and the majority of the people around her seek digital recordings of their lives, and how to balance photography with living life to the fullest.
Gabriella Weinshenker
Student
Gabriella Weinshenker is an 8th grade student, born in Silver Spring, Maryland. When she was 3 years old she moved to Quito, Ecuador, and when she was 6 she moved back to Silver Spring. By the age of 11 she moved to Sofia, Bulgaria. Living in these countries has allowed Gabby to be a native English speaker, fluent in Spanish, and understand some Bulgarian. While growing into adolescence, decision-making became very difficult for her, so she started to look deeper into ways she could overcome her indecisiveness.
Ivan Arnaudov
Guest Speaker
Ivan Arnaudov was born in Sofia. From 26 years he lives in small village named Musachevo. He speaks Bulgarian and English. Ivan is interested in helping people overcome their struggles , fears and most importantly to live a fulfilled and.happy life . He's passionate about this topic because he can talk trough his experience which is the most important thing.
Katia Rahn
Student
Katia Rahn was born is Berkeley, CA and has lived in noumerous countries since such as Tamarindo, Costa Rica and Sofia, Bulgaria with her sister, Bulgarian mother, and American father. She speaks Spanish, English and Bulgarian fluently. Katia came up with her topic when she missed the feeling of being "awe-struck" and begin to reminisce about that feeling that is often lacking in daily life.
Martin Dimov
Student
Martin was born in Athens, Greece, but has lived in his hometown of Sofia, Bulgaria since he was 6. He speaks Bulgarian, English, Spanish and is learning Greek. He has noticed that a lot of people don’t seem to notice when they’re surrounded by fake friends, and decided to help.
Melanie Corby
Student
She was born in Virginia. She moved to Bulgaria two years ago. Sports have been a constant way of making friends and enjoying herself. Especially with moving it helps her stay connected to different people.
Nikolay Grigorov
Student
Nikolay Grigorov is a citizen of the world, mainly Bulgarian, and . He is 13 years old and in 7th grade. He likes to travel across the world, and likes to be with his friends, and loves to discover new things and learn them. Some other passions include music, science, sport, debating, history, and engineering.
Nina Chadikovska
Student
Nina was born in Skopje, Macedonia to a Macedonian family. She speaks Macedonian, Spanish, and English fluently and is trying to learn Serbian and Croatian. As an eleventh grader in her last years of school, she has noticed that the teenage experience no longer means what she grew up thinking. Young people are constantly changing and this may be causing permanent changes within our culture. Is the preteen really dead, or is it possible to revive them?
Tamar Shabat
Student
Tamar Shabat was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, but she is originally from Israel. She speaks English and Hebrew fluently. For the past few months Tamar has gained interest in Psychology which surrounded her since a young age. This sparked her desire to learn more about human nature, greed and power dynamics between people.
Zara Chauldry
Student
Zara Chaudhry was born in Algiers, Algeria. She has lived in Islamabad, Canberra, Copenhagen, Belgrade and Sofia. She speaks English, Urdu, some Danish and French. She is interested in the idea of karma and how it affects both individual deeds and the community psyche, in addition to how it contributes to the development of a more compassionate and caring community.