TEDxUConn - Courage to Persist
Nutmeg Publishing interviewed Serena Riback, a seventh-semester computer science major and president of TEDxUConn, and Sumeet Kadian, a fifth-semester molecular and cell biology major, about the TEDxUConnSalon “Courage to Persist” event on Sept. 25.
Nutmeg Publishing: How and why did you get involved with TEDx?
Serena Riback: I was really involved with technical theater [in high school], and our auditorium coordinator would stage-manage TEDx events in the state. He brought me along to one of them as sort of an apprentice assistant stage manager. I really enjoyed it, and when I was walking the club fair here at UConn, I saw the TEDx letters and thought, “Oh, this would be a fun club to join, I would get to do some more [technical theater stuff].” I started off with the design committee, running their website, and worked my way up.
Nutmeg Publishing spoke with Kadian further about his talk for the event.
NP: Why did you decide to do a TED Talk?
Sumeet Kadian: I’ve watched TED Talks since I was a young kid. What I found interesting was how they memorized a 17-minute talk, how diverse the topics were, how nuanced they were, yet how detailed they got and how passionate the speakers were when they presented. When I saw that Serena and her team were putting together a UConn TEDx event, specifically on the “Courage to Persist” and how it related to COVID-19, I thought, “Huh, my experience as a healthcare worker ties pretty well into this based on what I’ve seen.” [I wanted] to convey something that I’m very passionate about, which is mental health in medicine, to a broader audience.
NP: How did the TEDx committee decide on “Courage to Persist” as this year’s theme?
SR: All of our themes are kind of decided by group brainstorms [where we write down ideas] and decide which ones we like best. Picking the theme is always interesting because you have to pick something that’s specific enough where you’ll get people who relate to it, but broad enough where you can get a lot of different speakers that still correlate to the theme.
NP: So what does “Courage to Persist” mean to you?
SR: One of the reasons that I liked the “Courage to Persist” theme was because we were going through the pandemic, and it was uncharted territory for everybody. It was amazing to see classes, other clubs, and our organization make things happen even in the online environment. I thought that [it] would be a really good talk for the UConn community after going through that and coming back to campus for the first time.
NP: What was your takeaway from the three talks that were given on this topic?
SR: I think that the main takeaway for everyone was just remembering our mental health, taking care of ourselves in challenging times, and listening to others’ perspectives and keeping an open mind about certain things. Pauline [Batista] spoke first about the importance of diversity and inclusion, then Sumeet [Kadian] talked about the importance of mental health in the medical industry, and finally, Tamika Blackburn spoke about both of those things at once.
NP: What does the theme “Courage to Persist” mean to you, especially in relation to mental health?
SK: When I hear “the courage to persist,” I think it means that, especially during the [COVID-19] pandemic, people are faced with a ton of hardships. We saw people’s mental health completely plummet. [I wondered], “How do people in conditions they have never experienced before keep moving forward?” [I] talked to some of the people I work with, and the people who seemed to [cope] the best were those that first cared for themselves. How well can you expect to care for other people without caring for yourself first?
NP: Why did you join Medical Minds Matter?
SK: My first two years at UConn were brutal: I took a lot of credits and maxed myself out because I thought that was the norm, and I almost burnt out. I thought that [Medical Minds Matter] was addressing a problem that’s so prevalent in [the medical field]. I joined because I could stand by their mission, and I thought it resonated well with me based on my experiences in the past.
“When I hear “the courage to persist,” I think it means that, especially during the [COVID-19] pandemic, people are faced with a ton of hardships. We saw people’s mental health completely plummet. [I wondered], “How do people in conditions they have never experienced before keep moving forward?””
— Sumeet Kadian
NP: Does your membership in Medical Minds Matter inform how you approach your studies and your career? How did joining the organization change your approach?
SK: When I first started out in pre-med, I would ask my friends, “Hey, what can I do to stand out to admissions committees?” They would say, “Oh, you have to do [these things], join these clubs, take this many credits.” So I did all that, and [it was a lot, but] everyone said that [it was normal]...I don’t think it should be this way. So I cut down on things I was involved in, really focused on some things I was passionate about, and learned to prioritize myself first. [If you] do what you’re passionate about, the rest will come to you naturally.
NP: Do you have any ideas for changing the way mental health is approached in the medical field?
SK: Yeah. Undergrads have this notion that you need to be doing a hundred different things just to please the admissions committee. At the medical school level, it’s just the amount of stress and the workload. You have to tell [these students] that it’s okay not to know everything. It’s okay to be stressed, it’s okay to be worried. You have to make mental health a priority. At the residency level and beyond, [it’s] addressing the really long work weeks and stress that residents have . . . So normalizing these conversations and making admissions committees understand that it’s normal and okay to have problems, [and then providing the resources to deal with these problems,] that’s critical.
Photos by Meira Tompkins Written by Eileen Sholomicky