if you haven't taken a class with me you probably wouldn't know I'm a big Japanese anime fan. My name is Darrick Smith, an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership here at the School of Education. I would say that the thing I like most is the honor and the opportunity and the responsibility of trying to prepare people to go back out into the community with skills to advance humanity forward. If you feel like there's impact happening there's such a joy and a fulfillment that you get out of it. So you know so I had spent 10 years you know running a educational program at the high school level at my alma mater in Oakland and now then became a principal in San Francisco so really what was motivating me was to really get back into the the classroom and I was able to do that here teaching graduate students. [On screen text: What kind of work do you do?] I have a high level of respect for folks in what we call the trenches because that's what I'm from you know I'm from working with students everyday or families every day in schools out of schools you know breaking up fights resolving conflicts you know getting threatened that's the type of stuff that you know I love to look into examining these disconnects between ideology and in practice right so what is it that we say that we want to do versus what is actually happening on the ground and why is there such a disconnect. [On screen text: What does leading mean to you?] It's a very important facet of discussing what it means to lead and what it means to enact social change but it can't just be you see that system there you see that institution there we're going to go we're going to change it. It has to be a question of how do I interact with individuals, how do I speak to people, how do I perceive the world of the individuals in it in the end in life on earth and how do I move each day each minute and so that's really important to me and I think we're going to continue to get better. [On screen text: What are you hoping to accomplish?] We want to produce people that can go out there and make a difference and be uncomfortable and maybe have a few scars and maybe get roughed up a bit in order to make that difference and I think that's what makes us a really you know powerful place right because we're not here to mislead you into thinking you're gonna do charity work right because social change work is not charity work it's a fight and so I think the best that a person could do who's interested in changing the world could do is go to a place where people train you how to fight that's what we try and do here.