On March 14, 16 talented speakers from across the Midlands will take the stage for the inaugural TEDxCongaree Vista. Among them is University of South Carolina’s own Christina Jones.
Jones, who has worked as a licensed counselor for USC’s Counseling and Psychology Services (CAPS) for over 11 years, is part of the “Building Belonging” session for the event. That’s just one of four groups of speakers scheduled to take the stage during the event at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
The program is spearheaded by a group of USC students, including senior Shyam Ganesh Babu. Ganesh Babu applied during summer 2025 to stage a TEDx event in Columbia this spring more than 10 years after the most recent edition in the Midlands.
“When I saw that TED was coming, I was like, you know what? Let me just put my name in the hat,” Jones says. “I actually attended the last TED Talk that they had here about ten years ago as an audience member. I just wanted to go. I love TED Talks.”
Independent TEDx programs have been staged around the country since 2009, with annual events in Charleston and Greenville, in addition to the larger TED Talks that began in 1984. After getting approval for an event of their own, Ganesh Babu and a team of fellow USC students planned their event around the theme of change makers, with sessions titled “Laying the Groundwork,” “Challenging the Status Quo" and “Staying Aligned with Your Mission,” in addition to Jones’ session. Each of the four sessions will include four speakers, ranging from local leaders and nonprofit founders to educators, doctors and beyond.
“It’s important that our speakers highlight their ideas and accomplishments but also the ideas that are in Columbia,” USC junior Luke Jannazzo says. “That’s the idea behind the theme of change makers — that people in Columbia have the ideas and energy and innovation to build things that work. And, hopefully, that inspires the next change maker who listens to the TEDxCongaree Vista talks.”
Getting involved
Once Jones found out about the student group bringing TEDx back to Columbia and made the decision to apply, she says it was a long process to ultimately make the 16-speaker program.
It started with a lengthy application, which asked about her background and previous public speaking experience. From there, organizers whittled over 260 applications down to a pool of 40 for virtual panel interviews, which focused more specifically on the speakers’ proposed topics.
Jones says she developed a sort-of rough draft elevator pitch for that interview, not that different from previous presentations she has done for conferences and professional meetings. But once she was selected, refining the speech and making it easy to memorize was a new challenge.
“They have you write down the big pieces and then they have you formulate it into basically an essay. And then you rehearse it and you edit. And we've had mentors throughout the process. I'm not a writer, so this was the first time I actually had to be like, 'How would I say this?' Speaking something is different from reading it or having slides. But it's a good challenge,” she says.
Presenters will be allowed to have some cue cards and display graphic elements for the audience, but in typical TEDx style, they will not have a full script to lean on during their eight to 12 minute talk.
Building belonging
Jones was among the first speakers unveiled by TEDxCongaree Vista in November, joined by the rest of the “Building Belonging” lineup: Alvin King – Founder and Executive Director, Range Fore Hope Foundation; Risdon Nichols Slate – Professor Emeritus of Criminology, Florida Southern College; and Majd Abdallah – Founder, Foster Friendz.
Her talk specifically will focus on building understanding and consideration for people with sensory sensitivities. Identifying as neurodivergent herself, Jones says she wants to take her time on the stage to help people identify and better comprehend how small things that seem mundane to some can affect and even derail people who are more sensitive to them.
“I have a hyperactive nervous system, meaning like all those things that other people can tune out, they come in at the same volume for me,” Jones says. “For a lot of our students, they struggle with that, too. And so I want to shine light on the fact that we can make a lot of assumptions about people, but it is an invisible situation.”
Jones says that there are things to avoid — heating up pungent food in a shared kitchen, making noise outside offices and telling people to smile more, for example — but she wants her presentation to focus on what people can do to help and to encourage belonging.
“A lot of my clients hate overhead lighting. I don't turn them on on. I use lamps. It's an easy fix. Or make sure that you have a comfortable chair. So some of this is like kind of common sense, right? But I think from a sensory standpoint, we don't understand how important it is. We just kind of look at it as like a nice thing to do, but sometimes it's a needed thing to do,” she says.
Jones and her team at CAPS, part of USC’s Student Health and Well-Being unit, have programs designed to build belonging on campus regularly. She leads a skillbuilding group called Managing the Scattered Brain, which focuses on battling procrastination and staying organized. Other group programs focus on building connections and taking on anxiety. CAPS also offers one-on-one appointments with counselors embedded around campus.
“I want to highlight the respect that I have for the work that we do in the Center for Health and Well-Being, the respect I have for my clients. I tend to root for the underdogs, and I'm just excited that I get to be a spokesperson for an invisible diagnosis population,” Jones says. “I'm not doing it as much for me. I really want to shed light on things that people don't have to think about, and I want to help people feel more understood.”
Follow along
Jones says she is excited for her own talk, with family in the audience to watch, but also wants to engage with other speakers, including USC associate professor of civil and environmental engineering Fabio Matta, and learn from each person's expertise.
Though TEDxCongaree Vista is sold out for in-person seating, the event will be available to stream live on March 14 on its YouTube page. More information is available at tedxcongareevista.com.