“I’m just really excited to be giving this talk and I feel like it’ll be a really good experience to get to put my story out there,” Lopez-Ramirez said.
Lopez-Ramirez’ talk is part of the annual TEDxDayton Youth event, which will feature 11 other youth speakers.
According to the organizers on Instagram, Lopez-Ramirez’s experiences have lent themselves to an interest in “both standard and non-standard forms of English.”
Lopez-Ramirez, who lives in Springfield, said being a speller gave her a “very technical understanding of English” while attending a rural school where slang with a southern rural influence is common.
“I’m talking about how I learned to navigate those different kinds of languages while also learning to accept informal language as a way to communicate better with people,” Lopez-Ramirez said.
She said she is particularly excited to talk about the “why” behind certain phrases or words.
Lopez-Ramirez was selected as a speaker in December following an audition process, and organizers have helped her and the other speakers prepare since then.
Preparation started with an outline of Lopez-Ramirez’s points to cover, then organizers helped speakers develop “story arcs.”
“(It’s) just developing that story progression for our talk, so it kind of keeps the audience captivated in your story,” Lopez-Ramirez said.
The junior revised her script so many times that memorization became natural, she said.
When Lopez-Ramirez told her family she would be doing a TEDx Talk, she said they responded, “It’s about spelling, right?” She said her family is very supportive of her passion for language.
Lopez-Ramirez’ passion for language and spelling is so strong that last year, she put on her own all-ages spelling bee. She aged out of national competition at 14 and decided to put on the first Champion City Spelling Bee in June, with prizes including scholarship dollars.
How to watch Lopez-Ramirez’s TEDx Talk
What: TEDxDayton Youth 2025
When: 7 p.m. today (doors open at 6:30 p.m.)
Where: The University of Dayton’s Roger Glass Center for the Arts, 29 Creative Way, Dayton
Cost: Free (registration required at https://bit.ly/TEDxDyt25)
More information: tedxdayton.com
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