The Power of Empathy | Audrey Moore | TEDxYouth@SHC

Summary

In this TEDx Youth talk, Audrey shares her journey of discovering empathy's power to unite and inspire compassion. From creating her own camp to experience life in a wheelchair to launching Project Empathy, she shows how stepping into others' shoes can change perspectives and promote understanding. Audrey's initiatives in schools demonstrate empathy's ripple effect, leading to acts of kindness and global unity, proving that empathy is the catalyst for peace and tolerance.

Takeaways

• 😊 Empathy has the power to bring people together and motivate compassionate behavior.
• 🎒 The speaker's journey began in the summer of 2014 when they created a camp for random experiences after failing to sign up for an organized camp.
• 🚶‍♂️ One experience involved using a wheelchair for a day, which revealed the challenges and discrimination faced by people with disabilities.
• 🌍 A service trip to the Dominican Republic deepened the speaker's empathy by exposing them to real hardship and scarcity.
• 👟 Inspired by these experiences, the speaker created 'Project Empathy,' a camp to help kids walk in other people's shoes and develop empathy.
• 🕶 Activities included simulating visual impairment, working for low wages, and experiencing life in drought-stricken areas.
• 📊 Campers reflected on their expectations versus their actual feelings, gaining insights into the lives of others.
• 🧒 A camper named Alvaro summarized the project's purpose: 'Empathy gives you a reason to help others.'
• 🏫 The project expanded to local middle schools, where older students taught younger ones to run their own empathy workshops.
• 🌏 The speaker believes empathy can lead to universal tolerance and compassion, helping to address global issues like division and hate.

Q & A

What is the main theme of the TEDx talk given by Audrey?

The main theme of the TEDx talk is empathy and its power to unite people and foster compassion.

Why did Audrey decide to create her own camp during the summer of 2014?

Audrey decided to create her own camp because she missed signing up for a regular camp and her mom encouraged her to find something productive to do.

What was the purpose of Audrey's 'Camp for Random Experiences'?

The purpose was to offer unique and random experiences that were fun or adventurous, promoting learning and personal growth through unusual activities.

How did Audrey's experience in a wheelchair at the mall change her perspective on empathy?

Audrey realized the difficulty of being treated as a disability rather than as a person, which motivated her to never treat anyone the way she had been treated.

What was the impact of Audrey's service trip to the Dominican Republic on her understanding of empathy?

The service trip exposed Audrey to real hardship and helped her understand what it's like to not have enough, significantly growing her empathy for others.

Can you explain the concept of 'Project Empathy' that Audrey initiated?

'Project Empathy' is an experiential learning camp created by Audrey to promote empathy among children by having them walk in other people's shoes through various simulations.

What activities did Audrey include in 'Project Empathy' to help children understand different life experiences?

Activities included wearing eye patches to simulate visual impairment, working for pitiful wages to understand poverty, and carrying water to experience life in a drought-stricken area.

How did the children's perceptions change after participating in the activities of 'Project Empathy'?

The children's perceptions changed as they realized the difference between their expected feelings and their actual experiences, leading to a deeper understanding and empathy for others.

What was the final task Audrey assigned to the campers in 'Project Empathy'?

The final task was for the campers to give a PowerPoint presentation to their families and friends, summarizing their experiences and insights from the camp.

How did Audrey expand 'Project Empathy' beyond the initial camp?

Audrey expanded 'Project Empathy' by introducing it to the local middle school, where she and her high school peers ran experiential learning stations and taught students to conduct their own workshops.

What is the ultimate goal Audrey envisions for 'Project Empathy' and its impact on society?

The ultimate goal is to create a snowball effect of empathy, inspiring individuals to treat others with compassion, leading to universal tolerance, fewer conflicts, and a more peaceful society.

Outlines

00:00

🌟 Empathy and Compassion: The Power to Unite

The speaker begins by drawing a parallel between empathy and compassion, using the scenario of a long sitting and the subsequent invitation to stand up. Empathy is defined as the ability to identify with others' feelings, which in turn motivates compassion. The speaker shares a personal story from the summer of 2014, where they created their own 'camp for random experiences' after missing out on a traditional camp. This led to an eye-opening experience of life in a wheelchair, which exposed the speaker to the dehumanizing treatment often faced by people with disabilities. This experience sparked a commitment to never treat anyone in such a manner and set the stage for the development of 'Project Empathy'.

05:01

🌱 Project Empathy: Fostering Understanding Through Experience

Building on the previous summer's self-run camp and a service trip to the Dominican Republic, the speaker launched 'Project Empathy' in 2016. This experiential learning camp aimed to help children understand different life perspectives by simulating various challenges, such as visual impairment and living in poverty. The campers were encouraged to reflect on their anticipated and actual feelings after each activity, revealing a significant shift in their understanding and empathy. The project culminated in a PowerPoint presentation by the campers, which showcased their insights and personal growth. One camper, Alvaro, encapsulated the essence of the project by stating that empathy provides a reason to help others. The speaker then expanded the project to a local middle school, demonstrating the potential for empathy to create a ripple effect of compassion and understanding.

Keywords

💡Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It is central to the video's theme as it illustrates the power of empathy to unite people and motivate compassionate behavior. The video's speaker uses her experience in a wheelchair to demonstrate how empathy can lead to a deeper understanding and more respectful treatment of others, as she realized the challenges faced by those with disabilities.

💡Compassion

Compassion is the feeling of wanting to help others, often motivated by empathy. In the video, compassion is shown as a direct outcome of empathy, where the speaker's experiences led her to vow never to treat anyone the way she had been treated, and to create a project that teaches empathy to children, fostering a generation that is more inclined to help others.

💡TEDx Youth

TEDx Youth is a program of local, self-organized events that bring the spirit of TED to communities around the world. The video script is from a TEDx Youth event, indicating that the speaker is a young individual sharing her story and ideas with an audience, aiming to inspire change and provoke thought on the topic of empathy and compassion.

💡Camp for Random Experiences

The 'Camp for Random Experiences' was an initiative by the speaker to create her own summer camp when she couldn't attend one. This concept is key as it led to a variety of experiences that broadened her perspective and ultimately inspired the creation of 'Project Empathy'. The camp's activities, such as eating only carrots or going barefoot, provided the speaker with insights into different lifestyles and challenges.

💡Project Empathy

Project Empathy is an experiential learning camp created by the speaker to promote empathy among children. It is a direct application of the video's theme, teaching kids to 'walk in other people's shoes' through activities that simulate different life challenges. The project's success is evident in the children's presentations and their newfound understanding of the importance of empathy.

💡Wheelchair Experience

The wheelchair experience refers to the day the speaker decided to live life in a wheelchair to understand the challenges faced by those with mobility impairments. This experience was pivotal as it opened her eyes to the way people with disabilities are often treated, and it underscored the importance of empathy in seeing people for who they are, not just their disabilities.

💡Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is mentioned as the location of a service trip the speaker went on, which significantly expanded her empathy for others. This experience is relevant as it exposed her to real hardship and the lack of resources, deepening her understanding of different living conditions and reinforcing the video's message about the importance of empathy.

💡Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is a method of education where participants learn through direct experience. In the context of the video, experiential learning is the core methodology of Project Empathy, where children engage in activities that simulate different life situations to foster empathy, understanding, and compassion.

💡Volunteering

Volunteering is the act of offering one's time and effort for free to help others. The video mentions volunteering at a homeless shelter as an example of an act of compassion driven by empathy. It illustrates how empathy can motivate individuals to take action and contribute positively to their communities.

💡Universal March

The Universal March is an event mentioned in the video where people, including men showing solidarity, marched to support women. This serves as an example of how empathy can transcend individual and community boundaries, leading to collective actions that promote tolerance and understanding on a global scale.

💡Productive

The term 'productive' is used by the speaker's mother to encourage her to find activities that are meaningful and constructive during the summer. It is a driving force behind the creation of the 'Camp for Random Experiences' and 'Project Empathy', emphasizing the importance of using one's time to make a positive impact.

Highlights

Empathy's power to bring people together and motivate compassionate behavior.

The speaker's personal experience of creating a 'camp for random experiences'.

An account of spending a day in a wheelchair to understand the challenges faced by those with mobility issues.

The realization of how people in wheelchairs are often seen for their disability rather than as individuals.

The vow to never treat anyone the way the speaker was treated while in a wheelchair.

A service trip to the Dominican Republic that expanded the speaker's empathy.

The inception of 'Project Empathy', an experiential learning camp for children.

Details of the camp's activities, such as wearing eye patches to simulate visual impairment.

The impact of the camp on children's understanding of different life experiences.

The campers' reflections on their experiences and the growth in empathy.

A PowerPoint presentation by campers summarizing their insights and experiences.

Alvaro's quote on empathy giving a reason to help others.

The expansion of 'Project Empathy' into local middle schools and high schools.

Teaching students to run empathy workshops and the ripple effect of empathy.

The potential of empathy to create change and acts of compassion in communities.

The global impact of empathy, as demonstrated by the Women's March.

The speaker's commitment to continue promoting empathy and making a difference.

A call to action for the audience to embrace empathy and contribute to a more compassionate world.

Transcripts

[Applause]

tell your story change the conversation

organized by students TEDx youth at shc

if I said to you boy I bet your butts

are sore from sitting so long that's

empathy and if I invited you to stand up

and stretch out your legs for a bit

that's compassion I get excited about

empathy because it has the power to

bring us together empathy is the ability

to identify with what someone else might

be feeling and that connection is what

motivates us to treat others the way we

want to be treated it motivates us to be

compassionate

which means empathy has the power to

change the world

now to understand why I say that we have

to go back to the summer of 2014

every summer I would usually go to camp

to have fun or to learn something new

but that summer I hadn't signed up in

time so my plan was to just veg out for

three months well unfortunately my mom

said Audrey vegging is not an activity

you'd better find something productive

to do so I decided if I couldn't go to

camp I create my own camp I'd be the

camp director the program director and

all of the campers now the program

offered unique and random experiences

that would be fun or adventurous to try

my camp for random experiences lasted 30

days and each day was different like one

day I decided to eat only carrots

another day I decided to go barefoot

well barefoot day happened to coincide

with the day my family and I went to

visit a goat farm and let me tell you

trudging through that muck let's just

say since that experience I have never

appreciated shoes more so in August I

plan an experience designed to show me

what it's like to go

life in a wheelchair I needed help with

this one so I went to my mom again and I

said hey mom can I have a wheelchair so

I can go to the mall and get some stuff

and she had said yes to my crazy

requests all summer so when I asked her

for a wheelchair all she said was you

wanna what

okay I'll see if we can borrow one and

when I finally convinced my cousin to

push me around at the mall all day we

were set and I was super excited until

we rolled through the mall doors and

something terrible happened I completely

disappeared suddenly people were talking

slowly or loudly to me as if I had a

hearing problem salespeople talked over

me to my cousin assuming I couldn't make

my own decisions

I thought is this how all people in

wheelchairs feel like like others see

them for their disability and not for

who they are as a person I never would

have known how hard it is to go through

life treated that way if I hadn't put

myself in a wheelchair and that day I

vowed I'd never treat anyone the way I

had been treated the next summer I went

to the Dominican Republic on a service

trip where I experienced real hardship

and that summer my empathy for others

grew exponentially as I learned what

it's like to not have enough so the

third summer the summer of 2016 was

shaping up to be really boring but this

time I thought okay I have one crazy

self run camp and a little real world

experience what if I combine those into

some sort of camp where kids could walk

in other people's shoes and that's how

project empathy started so I contacted

all of my little sister's friends

parents and said hey I'm running this

awesome experiential learning camp to

promote empathy and youth would you like

to sign your kids up and I quickly got

15 campers most

around 11 years old so within a few

weeks project empathy was off and

running the camp was four days long with

a four to five hour block on each day

that concentrated on one specific

experience for example one day the group

put on eye patches so they couldn't see

another day

I put the campers to work for pitiful

wages the day that probably made the

biggest impression on kids was the day

they learn what it's like to live in a

drought stricken area so at the

beginning of each of these days

I told kids to write down how they

thought they would feel as they did the

activity and then at the end of the

simulation they'd write down how they

actually felt on visual impairment day

Anna thought she would feel helpless but

she actually trusted her guide and

didn't feel lonely on poverty day Sophia

thought she probably wouldn't have

enough money to buy everything she

wanted at the store but she wrote how

hard it was to choose just the things

she needed on drought day Mira thought

she feel the same after lugging two

gallons of water home but she wrote I

felt like my arms were going to rip off

it was remarkable to see how much these

kids grew as they walked in someone

else's shoes so on the last day of camp

I asked campers to give a PowerPoint

presentation to their families and

friends and their presentations

summarized their experiences at camp

their insights inspired everyone and my

personal favorite came from a boy named

Alvaro who said I think empathy is

important because it gives you a reason

to help others I mean how cool is that

this 11 year old boy was able to

summarize why my entire project exists

because empathy gives you a reason to

help others it helps you develop the

compassion to help others so that was

last summer fall in spring of my junior

year this year

i expanded project empathy into the

local middle school my high school peers

and I from the Campo Lindo interact club

ran Experian

learning stations for the eighth-grade

leadership class and then we taught them

how to run their own workshops for the

entire sixth grade even with these small

steps I've taken I can see how empathy

has a snowball effect one person can

have empathy for many people inspiring

many more to be empathetic those people

in turn spread empathy until there are

enough empathetic people to have an

impact when people recognize the common

humanity between others in their own

communities they can create small-scale

change acts of compassion like

volunteering at a homeless shelter

participating in a canned food drive

when there's a greater swell of empathy

people recognize the common humanity

between others that can extend beyond

just communities to around the globe

during the universal March to support

women in January among their ranks were

men they marched to show solidarity and

that was an act of compassion driven by

empathy we live in a time of division

and rapidly growing hate where acts of

terrorism and closing of boundaries are

real threats when we become aware of the

lives and the feelings of others our

embassy grows we're inspired to treat

others with compassion compassion that

can extend beyond summer camps beyond

classrooms more empathy can lead to

universal tolerance no more walls fewer

Wars former President Obama said

learning to stand in someone else's

shoes to see through their eyes that's

how peace begins and it's up to you to

make that happen four years ago

when my mom told me to find something

productive to do I came up with my camp

for random experiences today I'm

bringing empathy workshops into schools

and there's nothing random about that

and in these past four years I've

learned a lot

empathy and how it has the power to

unite us and make us more compassionate

I have more to learn and more to do and

I don't know where my empathy workshops

will lead me but wherever they take me I

promise you and my mom I'll find

something productive to do thank you