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David Stovall
David Stovall
01:04

David Stovall

University of Illinois at Chicago

Chicago, IL US

"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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Day In The Life

Associate Professor

I am a professor focusing on the influence of race in urban education, and community development.

My Day to Day

As a professor of Educational Policy Studies and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I attend classes and prepare lectures twice a week. I spend the majority of my time volunteering and working within the communities I hope to influence in order to better tell their studies. I also write and do a lot of research.

Skills & Education

Advice for getting started

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.

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.