

David Stovall
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL USA
"Think and create, and find a community of folks that you can think and create with."
Career Roadmap
David's work combines: Education, Politics, and Teaching / Mentoring
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Take Roadmap QuizSkills & Education
 Education
Advice for getting started
Appreciate the small things and always ask questions. Build community with the people who can answer those questions. Find a community of individuals that you can think and create with.
Here's the path I took:
- High School 
- Bachelor's Degree - History, General - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
- Graduate Degree - Education Policy Analysis - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
- Doctorate - Education Policy Analysis - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
- 1. - Says his driving force is, "What is that story that we don't talk about? What are the things that have gone missing?" 
- 2. - In kindergarten, he got the "bogus" Columbus story, couldn't understand how he "discovered" a place where people already lived. 
- 3. - Disinvested from school, thought it was feeding him lies; years later, a teacher told him he should work to prove the world's negative expectations of him wrong. 
- 4. - Says all forthright change comes from people who have "found their conditions intolerable and are working to change those conditions." 
- 5. - He knew he had to change the educational system's flaws from the inside. 
- 6. - Uses his free time off from teaching to work in classrooms in Chicago; takes those experiences back to his college students. 
- 7. - This allows him to speak confidently about what is going on in the communities he lectures about, rather than just "pontificating." 
- 8. - Says working in spaces of poverty, hypersegregation can be frustrating and toxic for some, but he's learned to find happiness in the little things. 
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
- THE NOISE - Messages from Myself: - All school is teaching me are lies. 
- How I responded: - I disinvested from school because of this, I just felt like I couldn't trust the institution; years later, a teacher told me that I should work to change the educational system's flaws from the inside.