"What if...": Thomas Hughes at TEDxSanJuanCapistrano

Thomas Hughes
renaissance kid
Middle School Student

"Learning opens your eyes to a whole new world. From history to mathematics, learning makes you think deeper about the world around you. Knowledge makes you look at the world through augmented reality."

Thomas was born in Marin County, Calif., and is the youngest in a family of five. He moved to Orange County when he was three, and is now in the sixth grade at St. Margaret's Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano.

In second grade, he wrote a column called "Thomas' Corner" for the county-wide student newspaper in Marin. In this column, he wrote reviews of books he had read, and then rated them. In third grade, he wrote a 100-page novel on his favorite subject at the time: spies. He is also an avid reader with favorite authors such as James Patterson, John Grisham and Dan Brown.

Thomas' many hobbies include tennis and ping pong, which help develop his agility and keep him healthy. His favorite activity is to learn new things, especially in the areas of physics, math and language. In fact, he says that "finding the correspondence between my native language [English] and the language that is my objective is fascinating."

He loves watching Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) lectures involving simple questions that have complex answers; for example, those related to quantum mechanics and fundamental subatomic particles. The wonders of molecular structure fascinate him, and, to model his thoughts about it, he uses JavaScript and Python programming, which he taught himself.

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In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)