TEDxBU Salon: Saving Ourselves with Service

TEDxBU Salons are smaller community gatherings to discuss ideas worth spreading. Come hear incredible stories from our speakers that challenge our preconceived notions of community, belonging, and culture. Speakers: Megan Balani Program Manager at Department of Physical Therapy, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and Grad Student at Metropolitan College Reiki: A Practitioner’s Reflections on Intuition, Healing, and Service As a certified Reiki practitioner, I’ve discovered that even in a world where we often feel stuck, overwhelmed, or at a loss for how to help, there is always a way to be of service. Through working with people in person and remotely across the nation and globe, I’ve witnessed how energy work can create a deep sense of ease - clearing mental fog and allowing individuals to safely reflect, release, and reconnect with themselves. From supporting those experiencing pregnancy, surgery recovery, or emotional distress to offering care in spaces like yoga studios, churches, and everyday moments, I’ve seen how healing can happen anywhere. This talk explores how Reiki has expanded my intuitive awareness, teaching me to better sense what others need while honoring consent and energetic boundaries. I’ll share how this practice has shaped my understanding of grounding, emotional release, and protecting one’s energy. More than anything, it reveals how healing isn’t about fixing - but about offering space for people to feel seen, safe, and empowered to thrive. Catherine Ritz Wheelock College of Education & Human Development More Than Words: Why America Needs a Multilingual Mindset In a time of deep division and global uncertainty, the ability to understand one another has never been more urgent. Yet in the United States, where millions of people speak more than one language, multilingualism is often undervalued or overlooked. This talk explores why learning another language is about far more than vocabulary and grammar—it’s about building empathy. Drawing on data about how many Americans speak multiple languages, where and how they learned them, and why others don’t, this talk reveals a surprising gap between the linguistic diversity we have and the potential we’re not yet realizing. Through personal insight and reflection, we’ll examine how language learning shapes the way we see others—and ourselves. More importantly, we’ll explore what we can do to foster a more multilingual, empathetic society: from rethinking education to embracing the languages already around us. Antonio Toliver III Graduate Student, Master of Divinity & Master of Social Work, Boston University- HTC Culture Council Graduate Assistant The Room I Needed: Why Healing Requires Space In many communities, strength is celebrated, but emotional honesty is often neglected. This is especially true for Black men, who are frequently expected to carry pain without ever being given space to process it. This talk explores the concept of “the room we needed but never had”, a space where vulnerability, faith, and mental health are not in conflict, but in conversation. Through personal insight and cultural reflection, Antonio challenges us to consider what healing actually requires, and what becomes possible when we finally create space for ourselves and others. Eirene Luturmas Graduate student at Wheelock School of Education and Human Development and Graduate assistant at the Newbury Center The Both-And Life For much of my life, I interpreted myself through extremes: if I succeeded, I felt secure; if I made a mistake, I questioned my worth. As a first-generation, international student shaped by responsibility, ambition, and perfectionism, I know how easy it is to let one difficult moment speak louder than an entire journey. In this talk, I reflect on how either-or thinking quietly shapes the way many of us understand failure, identity, and belonging. I share how embracing a both-and paradigm has transformed the way I live: I can be capable and still growing, grateful and still struggling, ambitious and still in need of rest. Rather than letting mistakes define me, I am learning to hold the fuller truth of who I am. Through this personal reflection, I invite the audience to reconsider the stories they tell themselves and to discover how growth, healing, and wholeness begin when we stop reducing our lives to extremes. Sophia Orr College of Communication ‘27 Small Changes, Big Picture: Why Practical Sustainability Starts With You During my first year of college, I found myself very frustrated by how little space there was in my dorm room, barely enough for the two people supposed to live there. The bulky laundry detergent and personal care products took up almost all of my shelf space. I started researching more compact, college-friendly products and stumbled upon the sustainable alternatives. Throughout this, I discovered alarming statistics about plastic pollution and overconsumption that I could no longer ignore, especially when seeing the effects on my campus. Over the next four years, I’ve worked to swap out my everyday products for the sustainable version, discovering that not only did I save space in my dorm room, but was also saving myself money. I wanted to teach people about my research, my changed perspective and how even the smaller everyday choices we make, have a big impact. In the U.S, overconsumption is a big part of our culture and the detrimental environmental effects are often overlooked, even if it is directly impacting our health and society as a whole. In this talk, I want to teach people about the importance of the small, practical, sustainable swaps, shifting towards a more reusable and circular mindset. Brenda Gonzalez Multimedia Journalist/BU Alum The Politics of Being Alone The immigrant community shows us time and time again how difficult it is to live in America. For them, assimilation feels like betrayal and legal status a target on their backs. My family came here with nothing, yet I watched them build fruitful lives based in community. Children of immigrants, particularly those in higher education, face a different challenge: trying to make all of those sacrifices worthwhile. We leave our homes, go to college and networking events, and we do it all alone. Phone calls to home become shorter, the more we climb the less relatability we have to those who raised us. This is what fuels modern assimilation. It’s not the erasure of language or history like those before us experienced, but the politics of being alone.

Register by: 4/15/2026
When 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm on 15 April 2026
Building The Howard Thurman Center
Room The Commons (2nd Floor)
Contact Name Danielle DeCourcey
Phone 5082457776
Contact Email ddecour@bu.edu
Contact Organization The Howard Thurman Center
Fees free
Open To public