>> I think the place, the Smithsonian, has such a great brand and the fact that we're dealing
with curators who are experts in their field and then giving the opportunities to students.
I work with youth for a long time, since I was a student here at University of Maryland.
I used to be an intern at a group home.
So I worked with troubled youth before.
I also worked as a teacher in New York City and D.C. public schools.
I've worked as a club counselor, I done all kinds of different things.
I'm always around youth and I always like to encourage them to--
to do their best, to put their best foot forward.
So anything that I can combine those two--
those two loves of history and the love of youth is what I like to do.
What I always tell people is that, it's really not that different from teaching
in another area maybe like Montgomery County where I grew up.
When you're a teenager, people go through the same teenagery type things
that everybody else goes through.
Might be a slightly different environment, the resources certainly can be different,
but you're dealing with the same type of angst and anger and frustration a lot
of students go through coming up today.
And so, you know, and I was in New York City, I was in the South Bronx.
A lot of the students I had were kicked out of other schools and came to us.
We were an alternative school.
So I got to deal with students who were pretty much at their wits end.
They wanted to get their high school diploma,
and they wanted to-- to put their best foot forward.
So they knew it was only one strike.
So kind of created the safe environment because everybody knew as soon as you mess
up there wasn't even a question or argument.
You were gone.
And so that kind of provided a very neat and exciting learning opportunity for those students
that were there to be serious and get their diplomas and I really enjoyed it greatly.