Learning to be Heard Winner: Expanding Your Dreams

For Samya Gupta, the journey from a small town in Punjab to the global stage of the TED Ideas Competition was fueled by a singular, powerful conviction: geography is not destiny. As an A-level student with a keen interest in geopolitics and international relations, Samya has long refused to let “small-town expectations” shrink her ambitions.

Samya is no stranger to the spotlight. At her school, she served as a student coordinator for TEDx events and participated in the “Student Talks” series. Despite her experience in Model UN and inter-school anchoring, she admits that the road to her winning TED submission wasn’t without its hurdles. “I took around 10 to 15 takes,” she recalls, describing the challenge of condensing her message into a strict one-minute window. “One minute is a very small timing. You have to really concise it into just a single sentence.”

Her persistence paid off. When the email arrived announcing her as one of the top 11 winners out of over 2,000 global entries, Samya couldn’t contain her excitement. “I literally screamed,” she laughs. Her family and teachers shared in the joy, particularly as the scholarship paves the way for her to attend the TED Summer School in Singapore – a destination she chose to remain close to her family while engaging with the city’s world-class academic environment.

Looking ahead to the summer, Samya is most excited about meeting mentors and connecting with peers from across the globe. For those still hesitant to try public speaking, her advice is rooted in her own early nerves: “Until and unless you don’t go up there and you speak, there’s nothing to judge. What’s the worst that could happen? You could fumble. But at the end of the day, you’ll be happy that you tried.”

View Samya’s winning video here:

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About the author

Samya Gupta

Samya is an A-level student at Caledonian International School, Pathankot, Punjab, India, specializing in finance and political science. A seasoned public speaker and Model UN veteran, she aspires to a career in entrepreneurship and international relations, proving that coming from a small town shouldn’t limit the size of one’s dreams.

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