How a Learning Disability Became His Greatest Strength

[0:16]  Welcome back to another episode here on the Heart and Hustle podcast. We got Mr. Lester. What's up, man? How you doing?

[0:21]  I'm doing well, doing well. Happy pleasures.

[0:23]  Where you virtually lo visiting us from, man?

[0:25]  I'm from San Francisco, University San Francisco campus.

[0:27]  Born and raised in San Francisco?

[0:30]  No way. from St. Louis, Missouri.

[0:32]  hi how you end up in San Francisco? Did you win a school out there or just a job opportunity?

[0:37]  Yeah, no man. I actually went to school in Chicago, Lake Forest College, and I came out here for grad school and sort of never left. About twenty-five years of been out here and enjoying every minute.

[0:51]  What do you go to school for?

[0:54]  I undergrad history. I was a history major in undergrad. In grad I was a communications major. I was studying public re public relations.

[0:58]  Yeah, I'm surprised recently I've been asking people like what was their favorite subject in school? And so many people say history, like which is

[1:06]  Yeah.

[1:06]  so crazy because I don't remember anything I learned in history. what what what got you it intrigued into just history?

[1:13]  man, it's because I had some great professors let alone. But a lot of it has to do with just me, just really loving to analyze sort of the world around me. I had some professors that really got me on to really understanding the black community in particular. Reconstruction era, investigating that, seeing myself and seeing my family's journey through the great migrate my great migration. Those sorts of things really got me excited about education. just professors, honestly, just Pouring into me, just wanting me to see myself in the work, is

[1:44]  Yeah.

[1:44]  where I was. I just, and I love the storytelling. That's where that's what got me hooked.

[1:50]  I love that you just mentioned people were pouring into you, really as how it happened, right? Like how important is that, man? Even like right now, Lester, the role that you're in, it's about people meeting people where they're at, people are meeting you at where they're at. How important is that for you and and for the work that is being done?

[2:05]  Honestly, is everything. I I I just can't imagine I can't imagine being where I'm today without people pouring into me from middle school on, to be honest. Just opportunity after opportunity. Saw something in me that I didn't see in myself that really got me motivated and keeps me motivated every day. this week is a tough week for us. We're getting that the enrollment's about to start. I mean the school year's about to start, and folks are just trying to figure out how am I gonna make it here from a financial standpoint. how we can get get find housing. And a lot of it is just having a one-on-one conversation with a student just saying, hey, look, one, you can do it. Two, we've got your back the best we can. And this is gonna be hard, but you're gonna get through it. Like those conversations. And really seeing them as people on their way, starting their journey off has been it's been it's it's awesome.

[2:52]  I love that, bro. And what is your current role right now with the school?

[2:56]  Yeah, so I'm assistant, sorry, I'm associate vice president for for students and dean of students. So AVP DINA students.

[3:04]  So what do you What is your day to day? What what does that look like?

[3:07]  day to day is different, man. Every day is different. So like right now, a lot of it's just troubleshooting for a student who may have had an issue with the housing department or there's concern about their financial aid bill, or we are deciding whether or not we're going to invest in an off-campus location. So it's it's it's meeting with students, of course, but it's also all the administrators behind the scenes. all the each day is just so different. Conduct cases. With university cases, if there's a a conduct situation, each day is just man, it's just it truly is I don't know what's gonna happen when the phone rings, somebody's gonna have a question or concern. They usually use the dean student's office as a place to catch all things. So

[3:51]  Yeah.

[3:52]  I'm I'm not sure where it goes, needs to go, but I'm gonna go to the dean student's office and they'll be able to direct me to the right place.

[3:57]  I love it, brother. And you said you meant you like twenty plus years. Clearly you love it. passion, purpose, I guess driven you know, job that you have. But what do you love about it? Like what keeps you going, man, so long. You set up twenty plus years now.

[4:13]  Yeah, yeah. that's a great question. So what gets me going? What keeps me in it? So a while back I had the opportunity to talk with a couple of students who that became friends of mine. So a student of mine a few years ago asked me, convinced me to help her start a charter school. So we tried we started a charter middle school in San Jose. all because we had coffee together, she was talking about her life's journey, she was talking about the work that she was doing. And she wanted to know if I wanted to be involved. Next thing I know, I'm board chair of this charter school. and then we're opening the school, dealing with all the city politics, dealing with the state politics, you know, trying to navigate all this stuff. And I just kept thinking about that's what I'm wanting to do. I wanted to be there to be behind the scenes and support someone with their dreams. Because I had people do that for me, but more importantly, because I know that we all need people behind us, holding us up, walking with us. To me it was a wild dream. I had never been a school administrator that way. I started a school, but we opened it. We opened a school. And it was one of my favorite memories. we're still in touch to this day. The school has since closed because because of COVID and the pandemic and those things that happened, I transitioned to San Francisco. But it it was a beautiful journey and it all started with the simple idea of I wanna walk with you, I wanna support you. And that's what I try to do with all the students I work with. The comp the conversations that we have might be minor. That was one that was more in depth. It just might be me helping you figure out, you know, how you're going to figure out tuition. Or today's conversation is, you know, you're going to have to figure this out on your own because you're you might be an independent student, but you got this. And I got confidence in you. If you need someone to talk to and remind you of who you are, I'm there for you. I think that's what it is. It's just been my desire to be a support.

[6:09]  Said a lot of good stuff there, man. I really want touch the the school closing, right? because what a great opportunity. I've been able to open businesses and close them. Clearly, that's exactly what's kind of happened in that space. But there's always that lesson to learn, right? That you're able to take and move forward with. What was the lesson you learned in that moment? Because I want people to know that failure is not a bad thing, right? It just depends on the mindset how you look at it. Because while we could look at it as all damn, we failed. We can also say, but look at everything I learned that I could now move on to the next chapter of my life. Lester looks like you probably learned a lot. But what was those learning lessons?

[6:50]  Well well, a lot. A lot of luck is it's hard to to to for me when it comes down to it is one, you gotta trust the people you work with, which I did, but more importantly, is that it can't just rely on the people you're with. You gotta have that finances behind you. Like we were a school that really worked well, right? But the challenge that we have is that we just didn't have that that that cushion for when it gets rainy, when that rainy day comes. you can only hustle for so long. if you don't have that cushion. And so what we needed to do was to pause, reset, rethink about who was on the board, think about how are we accessing external grants and funding. But we didn't we didn't have enough time to do that in a way that I think would have would have helped to survive. So if I were to do that again, I know that in my my bank account for that particular project has got to be even larger than I think it does because that rainy day will come. And

[7:41]  Yeah.

[7:41]  you just got to be able to support that. In this particular case also I'll say Strong leadership is key. And with strong leadership is it's about the vision. So what happened with the director that I started with, she was also stepping down because she wanted to she wanted to transition. We had been at this for over five years. we had been three successful classes came through. We graduated a group of eighth graders and we're on to my second group of eighth graders and she was just burned out. The next person we hired didn't have the same level of passion for the project that we did to begin with. And you

[8:17]  Yeah.

[8:18]  saw that in the results. That grind that you need, that hustle that you need, they didn't have it. And it's because they weren't bought in from the beginning. So that leadership and that succession planning are key. That's probably what I learned most is about succession planning. Is you can't be the one that holds the mission together all by yourself. You gotta have someone else also pouring into that mission who believes in it like you do and be ready to run when it's their time.

[8:42]  Leslie, you're dropping gems right now, man. And this is for like business

[8:45]  Amen. I'm just

[8:45]  owners. This is for like your everyday life. All of it lines up. Yeah.

[8:47]  That's what I do, man. That's what I do. Appreciate that man.

[8:51]  something else you mentioned was the how you could just be there for somebody, meet them where they're at. I think it's important, man. I think the reason that I gotten as far as I have is because I remember those conversations that people told me were hey man, you got this. You know, like You're a rock star. you know, someone that told me I was a leader before I even knew I was a leader. You know, even knew what a leader stood for, you know what I mean? So I I

[9:15]  yes. Sure, sure.

[9:16]  I I love that you're in this space. It seems like you are having too much fun. Does it ever feel like work?

[9:20]  Yesterday they Yes, it does. It does feel like work.

[9:25]  Ha ha.

[9:25]  And I think honestly, it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be easy all the time. And what it is is I think I'm also teaching people that struggle is okay. I teach my kids all this time. Doing hard things is okay. We can do hard things. I want to model that. I want to model that we can get on the other side of it. That's part of the struggle, the journey, that process. We focus on that. a job like this is hard because I have to say no to people. I have to tell someone that you may not be able to come to college because you can't afford it and I can't help you anymore. That is a hard conversation. But the same day, I try to do it with love, with care, with honesty, with dignity about where their journey is, and that I'm still gonna walk with you if you go somewhere else. I ain't let you go yet. You know, I want to know how you're doing. is that easier said than done? Of course. But is that still is that still the mission? Yeah. Yeah, I want to be

[10:17]  Yeah.

[10:17]  there. I want to be there.

[10:20]  How do the kids?

[10:22]  I got twins. My twins are fourteen or sorry, fifteen. Fifteen in September. they're first year in high school and that's been a while. It's just wild. Yeah, man.

[10:30]  I bet, man. You just tell me that I get scared, bro. I got little ones. I only got a a a two and a five, high school, that's a dangerous time right there.

[10:38]  It it is wild. We just got their first cell phone the other day. I know we late to the game on that. That was that was intentional.

[10:43]  That's good. Hey, no, that's good right there.

[10:46]  Right, right. so they got their first cell phone and took the the the transit by themselves to to and from school. So it's been amazing watch.

[10:55]  yeah, man. Well listen, I I I do truly appreciate just the leader that you are, man. And when you think about your kids that are fifteen years old, what do they what do you want them to say about dad when you think about who dad

[11:07]  No.

[11:07]  Lester is? What what what is that legacy that you're trying to leave for them? Because at the end of the you're sending the standard, man, as what a man may look like in in their lives, what a leader looks like in their lives.

[11:19]  Yeah, I I honestly I've been thinking a lot about that. And and for a long time I think about my my parents and a lot of it was about, you know, that we worked really hard and that we cared about our professions. And that's true. But I just want to know how much they're loved. I want to know at the end of the day that I showed up for them, everything that they did, I was there. they were a part of who I am and what I believe. it's just it's important to me that they know that, that that that they had a parent that showed up. And a parent that gave a lot to the world around. Like literally, that I try every day. I try every day with the people I work with, the community I'm part of, to be how would you say, to be with it, to be among it. I don't want to be separate from it. I don't want to have my headphones all the time and not be a part of the world. I want them to know that I'm paying attention. I am walking with each other, with people, with them. I'm here. I'm present.

[11:20]  I love that man. Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent.

[12:15]  Yeah, man, that's that's hard. And that's not easy to do, man. That's a lot of distractions. That's a lot of distractions. yeah. I just want to be

[12:20]  There is, there is. I distractions are real easy. That's just the enemy, right? My wife tells me all the time, that's just the enemy trying to, you know, get it it get into our lives. First say we gotta be strong. We gotta definitely prey on it. but when when you think about the work that you've done, man, I can imagine that you may be the person that's always on go just because of the environment, right? You gotta be on go. Do you look back and and see all the mountains that you were able to move with Just a mustard seed of faith. You think about that?

[12:49]  Mm. I do sometimes think about that. And I'm I was actually I just had to do a reference check for a student that reminded me of of how yeah, how we can overcome mountains. How how they overcame mountains to get to where they are.

[13:04]  Yeah.

[13:04]  just just just seeing that journey and watching someone else's is just so cool. It really is. even my own. It really has.

[13:09]  So what what is it what what is one of those mountains, man, that you didn't think you'll be able climb or or get past?

[13:18]  okay, yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. So for me, all right, so I went to a private high school. it was about a hundred students in the school, really small, in middle school too. So it was a seventh through twelfth grade. I showed up on the first day of seventh grade with all my like sixth grade report cards in my hand, my report cards in my hand from elementary school, asked to be admitted. they let me in. I had a fantastic experience. But I had some trouble with reading. So I did really well academically, because it was again college prep school, everybody did well, but I hid a secret. I didn't let them know that I had trouble at times reading. And my trouble was mostly because I had a learning disability. I found it out later. It wasn't until college that I had a professor who actually pulled me aside and said, Hey, yo, you gotta fix this. There's a problem here. Clearly, there's something going on with terms of how you're understanding material and your writing. And that was a wake-up call because I actually was doing quite poorly at the school at that point. And I had to call my mother and say, hey, mom, I don't know if college is for me. And so I had to look in within myself. I had to figure out what to do with it. And that's when I became to understand, instead of seeing it as a deficit, I saw what the learning, I mean the the strength was. Because of this writing thing, I had to memorize stuff. And so what I did for literally every class moving forward is I would memorize things I didn't need to memorize because that helped me. in presentations, it helped me give, you know, any reading that I had to do, I would just go and memorize it. So that let me test that I could write everything down verbatim, which helped me learn names, which helped me in my career, which helped me give speeches because I wasn't looking at my notes, I could connect with the audience, which then gave me confidence to then add do more talking and speaking, which was just such a benefit to me. And I had to let go of this perception of myself that I wasn't intelligent or smart that I couldn't do well academically to do that. Then to go

[15:17]  Yeah.

[15:18]  on to grad school to do that. and then to go back and help students who might be struggling and weren't able to talk about what disability they had. So that was a life there.

[15:28]  Yeah.

[15:29]  It was little mountains, but I for me it became big because I always had a lot of self-doubt of whether or not I could do what I was doing or was I that imposter syndrome thing. Now

[15:39]  Mm-hmm.

[15:39]  I'm a professor. So not only do I have a nine to five, but I also teach on the side. So there's there's there's just a lot to it, man. And it all comes down to one having faith in oneself, having someone see you and not just see your strengths, but your flaws,

[15:54]  Yeah.

[15:55]  pouring into you, and then moving forward from there.

[16:00]  That's a big mountain, man. Not little mind. You don't listen, no do not underestimate what you've done, Lester. Cause you know, the whole time you said that, I'm thinking

[16:13]  I would Yeah.

[19:19]  to myself, he is such a good speaker. I get it. You know, it's cause you you understood what your flaw was and you said that I would not let that hold me back. And you found how to actually move forward with it, man. And and I've run into people that have learned this ability and would easily just kinda make that the excuse of why this and the other, Lester. You said, Hell no. I I got places to be, man. I got I got Things to do.

[20:53]  Yeah, that's true. I mean and that my family was like that too. I actually haven't told and this is one I'm never told publicly. Like I haven't been I don't talk about this. And I don't talk about it because not because I don't I'm ashamed of it, but more or less because it's such a minor part of my story now. but it is still

[23:24]  Hmm.

[23:26]  a part of my story.

[25:43]  Yeah, that's a good it's a good man. When you think about our students as well, it kind of holds them back because of everything that you mentioned. Just that that the noise in your own head, 'cause you you don't you'll feel judged or all these different things.

[29:04]  Mm.

[29:06]  And I'll tell you, man, those are some of the experiences I had. And that's why I think it's so important to help our youth kind of come around some of these stories and share these stories publicly. Because in high school, those are the times where we're kind of almost into young adults and we we wanna, you know, kind of be the cool kid so we don't talk about a lot of our trauma or the things that are hurting us. Me, right,

[29:17]  Mm-hmm.

[29:17]  was a sexual abuse, the adoption things I really wasn't talking about. But realizing that I should have, right? And the importance of that to realize that there was people around me that were experiencing the same exact thing. And instead of feeling instead of someone feeling alone in this world, that they can say, man, look at Lester. Look at Ephraim. Like they're just like me, bro. Like I I need to surround myself with like minded people. People that I see are also moving the needle. who was it that you were surrounding yourself, Lester, that helped move the needle for you, bro? Because there's somebody in there that was kind of helping you navigate, right?

[29:34]  my gosh, so many people, man. family, my mother, my father, my mother particularly, because she knew early on that I struggled with with with with feeling alone. Like literally, I was around people all the time, but I felt alone in high school. And before I told anyone about this, before I even processed it myself, I was thinking of suicide. And so my mother took me on the drive. And she was like, Hey Lester, I just want you to know that you can do this, you're not alone, and I got you. And so that was all we said. She never said, Hey, I I know that you were thinking of harming yourself or those sorts of things. She knew that something was wrong and she needed to point to let me know that I was okay. and I hold on to that moment because when she passed. There literally was a billboard I was walking by that said, you're not alone. And I was like, man, that is my mother telling me, that is my mother.

[29:57]  Wow.

[29:57]  That's my mother telling me that I'm not alone. And I I am just I I gratitude for her. My

[30:00]  Yeah.

[30:00]  my dad is different though. My dad poured into me in this way. So what he taught me was around he had he could crew up drugs. So he was selling drugs throughout my my my my childhood, ended up being arrested. And when he came out, he had to find a new career. He had a friend who had a construction business. and then he decided he wanted to start his own. He got his first job by hustle, by simply by saying, hey, I can figure this out. he goes out to his car and pulls out a self-help book on how to make, do whatever that project was,

[30:00]  Yeah.

[30:00]  does the project and creates a career for himself on reading books and videos on construction. And I I just that that that perseverance that he had is what I it stays with me. It stays with me every day that one, we can do it. no matter what someone else says, you can overcome, you can figure this out. before he passed, he him and I were, he was a doctor. He was like, I'm gonna figure this out. I'm gonna figure out what this thing is. It's just a mindset of I got I gotta keep moving that that I carry with me too. And my own my kids to have that. 'Cause we we need that. We need to be able to know that there is no mountain we can overcome.

[30:00]  None, none at all, man. Which is why you know what's funny is when you mentioned a little offline how you were creating or you were building your office, right? I was with my neighbor yesterday and he's fixing his weed whacker, right? How to change the carburetor and all the other stuff. Did it in 20 minutes, man, you know, and it

[30:00]  Yeah.

[30:00]  cost him probably 15 bucks to get the whole set. And I'm like, yo, imagine what a man just paid to get that done. He's like, probably about 150 bucks. And

[30:00]  Yeah.

[30:00]  I said, The ability of just saying Let me try and fail and be okay with it, right? And and know that you could do it. I mean, we got resources like you mentioned books, YouTube, AI. People got to do more of just trying. Your dad said, I'ma try, I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna get back up, I'm gonna do it again. And and you know, kudos to your dad. I can imagine that's exactly where you took that from, Lester was like, yo, anytime that you felt like you failed, you got back up, tried it again, and and and succeeded because of it, right?

[30:00]  Yeah, or sometimes just failed and did something different. But that's okay too. But but yeah,

[30:00]  Okay, yeah, yeah.

[30:00]  yeah, but but yes, exactly. You have to be able to to be okay with failure. Like that's fail forward. I mean keep falling. It's okay. Get up every time. that's my thing with my kids too. And one of them what I want them to know is that it is okay to fail. You don't have to be perfect. what you can't

[30:00]  Yeah, yeah.

[30:00]  do is not try something that you're interested in. you can't let that be a barrier for

[30:00]  When you think about our students nowadays, man, in the college level, communication becoming probably one of those things that we all stay tapped into, right? We all wanna know what's next. How do we do this? Where do we go for this? How how are you guys at a school meeting people where they're at?

[30:00]  Well, a lot of that has to do with AI is involved in that. How we meet them where they are is it's a good question. You know, for me, what I what I would say is what I try to do is still make main time, make maintain our understanding of of where they are by talking with them. Like I spend most of my day, you know, one-on-one conversation with students. It's also like, so what do you think we should know as administrators? What should we know about the student experience? Paying attention to what's happening here. Show up to their events. Sometimes I just try to be a quiet person in the background, just listening to what they're talking about, what's on their minds. I'm asking my kids the same question, like what's on your minds right now? What's going on? And what a lot of I'm hearing is a lot of the things we talk about, terms of like the stress, the pace of things, the cost of education, those are some of the things that are on their mind. Am I gonna get a job after finishing? Will AI change everything? And also what I love about what students, at least USF students, are talking about is I don't know if I love this AI thing. I don't know if I really wanna invest in it the way that others have and us finding a way to how do we do that from an ethical standpoint? Where's the human perspective in this? That's kind

[30:00]  Mm-hmm.

[30:00]  of what we what we're up to right now is as much as we can learn online now, students will tell me, hey, I could pick that up on YouTube, no doubt. But what we can't pick up is the connection, that human human connection. You cannot necessarily get that still without contact, without conversation. AI can't provide that for us yet. And so we still need each other. We still need to bump into each other in some virtual ways and physical ways.

[30:00]  Yeah. The community aspect, man. You wanna be a you wanna feel like you're a part of something. Or yeah, yeah, yeah. You you can't be Yeah.

[30:00]  Exactly. Something real, something that I can something I can hold on to. I apologize. I just gotta say that 'cause it i it

[30:00]  No, you're good.

[30:00]  is, man. People people talk about I'm I'm a part of

[30:00]  Mm.

[30:00]  a online community. And I'm like, Yes, and how are you connecting with people?

[30:01]  Yeah,

[30:01]  Yeah.

[30:01]  I love it. yeah, man. I actually which is crazy. I've always known about community, but more than ever, I started I loved wrestling, right? I think I told you this probably, maybe not. But I love wrestling, I've been a fan of it up my whole life, and but I never really had a community or people to talk wrestling with, right? Like no one in my family, no one in my household loves wrestling. So one day I was falling asleep on the couch. I said, you what? I'm I'm in here, I already had this setup. Let me just go live, you know, with wrestling. So I

[30:01]  Yeah, yeah.

[30:01]  was watching this show, I was live, bro. Now, three years later, over a hundred thousand people right follow me. But also when I go live, I it is that virtual community, right? But then we take it past not just live. Now we're in the Discord. I mean, I just had one of the community members send me some stuff. Sometimes we're doing giveaways, but also realize that it's not just about wrestling, it's about human to human. There's days

[30:01]  Yes.

[30:01]  I show up, man. I say, Man, I really didn't want to be here, guys, but you know, I showed up anyway. Like the real

[30:01]  Yeah.

[30:01]  authentic me. Because I'm not just here because of wrestling. I'm here because I understand this is a part of us and it's an easy way to get to people, right? And make them kind of feel even playing playing ground, I would say. So yeah, it is true. You could have that online community, but it there has to be more to it. Not just because you love basketball, but because you're feeling like they're pouring into you and that there's something. And I always tell anyone that ever works with me or a part of anything that I do, if you feel like I'm not pouring into you, please stop coming. Or please stop asking me questions, right? Because I do truly want to feel like I'm pouring into someone.

[30:01]  That's right.

[30:01]  because that's what that's what gets me excited. And I can imagine Lester, that's what gets you excited, knowing that on the other end, someone is receiving what you've given them, right?

[30:01]  I hope I do hope so. I really honestly I hope so. Sometimes you never know those minor interactions. I see a student on the bus, you know, we just simply say, Hey, what's up? That might mean something to them. And it did did to me. but you never know what encounter will mean to someone else. That that opportunity for to pour into someone is not always a a deep conversation. Sometimes it's just I see you and it's a hello. that that matters. That matters.

[30:01]  That's it. Acknowledgement. Yeah. What what what do you what would you like to see out of out of your role, man? Like what do you see yourself doing in the next two, three years that you're wanting to accomplish?

[30:01]  Well, at at USF, we are really looking for continuing to grow and stabilize our population. That's what we're really trying to do is make sure that folks understand just how unique campus this is and how much we have to offer, both the city of San Francisco, but the students who choose to come here. There's a lot you can gain from a urban campus like this. For me personally, I'm all I'm always I'm I'm I am at a place where I am open to what's next. You know, I continue to love teaching. I absolutely love the work that I do. I want to continue to grow some of our programs in our mental health spaces. I think there's some more work we can do there in terms of how we catch students early before they I think everybody needs to go to counseling. one of the best experiences I had was a college school, was a college counselor. And I want to make sure that we can can support each other a little bit more so that we don't need to go to counseling if that makes sense. Like the issue isn't so bad that I that I can't can't function, that I wanna I wanna be able to have reach that pressure valve a little bit more, a little sooner. And so I'm I wanna build a better network for that.

[30:01]  And you said you're teaching part time, I'm guessing history.

[30:01]  No, student development theory. So I teach I teach other

[30:01]  okay.

[30:01]  yeah, I teach master's degree students around student development.

[30:01]  Okay. Well, I'll leave you with this right here, man. What is your favorite part of history to pass on a pass along to someone else? Pass along to the to the young

[30:01]  Favorite part of history.

[30:01]  folks.

[30:01]  Favorite part of history. I you know, it actually happened this summer. So I I got to go back to Mississippi to see where my my my parents or my father's family was from and to spend some time putting roots down, putting my feet in the ground of the of the land that they own still, and to see some grave sites of of relatives that that went back to early 1800s. And for me, what that talked about history was that one. That when you find your place, like literally, I felt like the ground, this is the place where my people came from. That

[30:01]  Mm-hmm.

[30:01]  I have a different connection to that environment than I did before. Alberdeen, Mississippi, I know that place now than I did before. And the history is not just in the past, it's alive with us. Like the stories that we told, the stories that we told with each other that while we were down there, the relatives I got to meet for the first time.

[30:01]  Yeah.

[30:01]  The history is alive. It isn't just something that's in the past. The connections to the past can be in the present. I talk about the great migration a lot. And I got to go to the Civil Rights Museum down there in Mississippi. Sorry, sorry, not in Mississippi, in Memphis, right where Martha King was shot. That

[30:01]  Okay.

[30:01]  you you see where you come from and the struggle continues, but yet that you've overcome so much and the joy that rests with that. So for me, when I look at history, I look at both the struggle and I look at the joy that was represented in the families and the faces of the people from the past that are just like the people in the present. that's just so much love and connection throughout through despite and because of the pain and trauma that they went through that I stand on their shoulders.

[30:02]  I love it, man. I I can tell you are a vibe as a professor. Like I'm I'm in, I'm tapped in. You know, a lot of professors,

[30:02]  Yeah. Amen.

[30:02]  man, they don't you've been in rooms, man, where the professor like, my God, they gotta hurry up. But I can tell you you tapped in, man. I I truly appreciate just listening to you.

[30:02]  I man, I love it, man. I absolutely love it. Our class starts in a week and I just can't wait to get started. Get started talking with folks.

[30:03]  That is so good. Well listen, man, where could people find more information about you? Maybe you're on LinkedIn, but also about the school.

[30:03]  Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn, so you can obviously see me. L Lester Dean's on LinkedIn. I'm easy there. And University of San Francisco in California. That's where we are. Opa ho out here in San Francisco. So feel free to look us up. University of San Francisco. USF.

[30:03]  I appreciate the conversation, man. May you continue to be successful at whatever it is that you your your life brings you. But it looks like you're not leaving the education space anytime soon. So

[30:03]  I ain't going nowhere, man. This is where I'm supposed to be, at least for right now.

[30:04]  I love it. Well, Lester, thank you so much. My name is Eve Frame. Make sure you guys like, subscribe, and comment. I'll catch you on the next one. Latest.

[30:04]  Thank you.