Signature: Rashaud Red

Most students don’t enter the school science fair expecting to become sought-after public speakers afterward. But that’s what happened to Rashaud Red.

Red won his school’s science fair with “The Vulnerable ID,” a social experiment that surveyed 102 high school- and college-aged individuals at risk for different types of identity theft. A few months after witnessing Red’s impressive win at the science fair, LSU professor Maggie Edwards sent him an application to speak at TEDxLSU.

As the oldest of four children and the son of a single mother, Red says he has to stay strong, motivated and positive—a role model for his siblings. The Mentorship Academy student holds high expectations for himself and aspirations for his future. He’s thoughtful and intelligent beyond his 17 years. As he thought about the platform TEDxLSU would give him, Red began contemplating the recent news reports about police violence.

Red says the driving factor in his decision to speak at TEDxLSU was the constant discussion of violence in America—but never of possible solutions. He was trying to think bigger, beyond his high school science project. He began to dream up a program to close the communication gap between police and minority youth.

He named that program “I Am More” and presented his ideas to the TEDxLSU audience in February.

He opened his speech with a question. “What if George Zimmerman had known Trayvon Martin before that fateful day?” he asked. “What if the person who killed officers Ramos and Liu knew those officers as people?”

Red’s words were meant to reflect TED’s mantra of “ideas worth spreading.” If both police and minority youth got to know each other as human beings, he said, it could help end police brutality against teens and also end violence against police.

TEDxLSU’s youngest speaker moved the audience to its feet—the only speaker at the event who got a standing ovation.

In the months since his speech, Red says, his idea has spread through Baton Rouge. Local schools have approached him about having “I Am More” as a staple program.

While the programs are still in the planning stages, if implemented, they could include flag football games and game nights for police and teens in the area. Ride-alongs are also a possibility, he says. Teens would get the opportunity to spend an hour or two as a passenger with police, using that time to talk with and gain a new perspective on local officers.

The goal is to build a bridge of communication between two groups who commonly misunderstand each other, he says.

“We’re changing the conversation,” Red says. “I want this to be a consistent program nationwide. I want this to be in schools in every state, serving every minority.”

When he’s not trying to change the world or studying for his ACT, he spends most of his time with academic organizations like Beta Club and National Honor Society.

After he graduates high school, he plans to attend Morehouse College or Michigan State University.

“I want to get out of the state and bring ‘I Am More’ to other places and see it expand even more,” Red says.

He may already be on the way. Washington, D.C.-based film producer Ellen Carmichael and director Anna Hutchinson have approached Red about filming a documentary focusing on his initiative.

His concept is simple, he says—no one should feel afraid of the people who are meant to protect them.

Watch Red’s TEDxLSU speech: