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Ben Stull, junior, and treasurer of the Forensics team shares his award winning Forensics pecee, “Santaland Diaries” about the fictional life of a Macy’s Christmas elf.

As the spring trimester commences, the Homestead Forensics team and SHIFT club collaborated to bring back an annual tradition of personal narratives and performances mimicking the style of “TED talks”

HomesTED talks was an annual event before 2020 when COVID-19 took this event away.

“It was an event I attended freshman year and remember really really enjoying,” Blair Martin, senior and Forensics team president said.,“It’s public speaking based, and we’re a competitive public speaking team, so it really made sense to bring this back under the Homestead calendar and revamp it.”

With featured students and beloved teachers sharing personal stories, research projects and inspiring advice, aa audience of about 40 gathered for the event.

“​​I loved hearing my peers speak passionately about a topic of their choice,” Sarah Matthews, senior, said. “There was such an incredible range of talks––every moment was interesting.”

SHIFT club members were able to hold a bake sale at the event, all profits going to their initiative to “help out foster teens in the area and provide them with materials that they otherwise don’t have access to and to help them kind of fit in in school and the community,” Zoe David, senior and Co-President of SHIFT Club, said.

In addition to the bake sale, the proceeds from this combined event will be split between the donations to SHIFT club’s mission and the Forensics team, providing financial assistance for competitors attending the national meet in April.