Life Without Plastic | Marie Therese Gumpert | TEDxStGilgenInternationalSchool

A Biology class and a challenge to produce less plastic waste helped to shine light on the consequences of our devastating consumption habits. Unfortunately, what many don't understand, is that living sustainably is both essential and achievable. Originally born in the small Republic of San Marino, Marie Therese grew up speaking two languages; German and Italian. Thus with an already present linguistic predisposition for romance languages, she begun studying Spanish in Italy, before leaving her republic for her first year abroad, aged 11. Being exposed to her mother’s diplomatic relations at a young age, Marie Therese soon developed an understanding for the importance of language and communication. Consequently, she dedicated the following years to expand in this field, focusing on learning English, whilst also investing her time into apprehending ancient Greek and Latin, to further understand the origins of most modern words and languages, as well as French and the American Sign Language, whilst studying in Austria. Now convinced, that the use of language and communication as a tool to not only educate but also help understand and connect people, had to be preserved and encouraged, she invested the last three years of her secondary education, to learn and practice how to speak not “at” but “with” larger crowds of people, and from those experiences, educate and grow as a community, as well as an individual. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx