August 16, 2023 • 41 mins
It is the first day of school and we are back! In this episode, Mr. B interviews Alma High School senior Denver Kelly. In this podcast, Denver talks about being a GT student in high school and what that means. Denver lets you know about his plans for the future and how he took advantage of opportunities that were presented to him, no matter how big the challenge. He also lets us know about some of the people who helped him to succeed and gives some advice to younger students that are maybe hoping to follow in his footsteps. It is well worth your time. Thank you for listening, and don't forget to embrace your inner weirdo.
Contact: mbridges@almasd.net
Contact: mbridges@almasd.net
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Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
Well, you know what that soundmeans. School is back in session.
The very first day of the twentythree twenty four school year is upon us.
Summer went quick and we're back.Did one episode for you over the
summer, and I actually did anotherone yesterday which you're getting ready to hear
(00:35):
in just a moment, which wasthe day right before school started. So
special thanks to our guest Denver Kellyfor showing up the day before school started
to do a podcast. We aregreatly appreciative. My name is Michael Bridges
and I am the GTNAP coordinator hereat the Alma School District in Alma,
Arkansas, and we would like towelcome you to the number one GT podcast
(00:59):
in the state of ark Saw thepodcast. It has the audacity and the
unmitigated goal to just come right outand ask, hey, what is your
deal? I hope you guys hada great summer. We are back,
We're excited to be back. We'reready to get started. As I said
again, I've got an excellent guestfor you. We had an excellent conversation.
(01:19):
A bit longer podcasts this time,but it's well worth it, so
I would highly recommend you stick aroundfor all of what Denver Kelly has to
say. Before we get to thatpodcast, have a little bit of housekeeping
I'd kind of like to talk toyou about. Previously another podcast, I've
spoken about the two major gifted andtalented organizations in our state, which are
(01:40):
a GAGEA and aget A GAT.So I'd like to give you just a
little bit of information about these placesand give you a little bit of information
about what these programs have to offer. So AGIA is the Association of Gifted
Educational Administrators, so basically that's foryour supervisors and administrators, and it's a
(02:02):
great organization. I joined it myfirst year as a GT coordinator. They
provide mentoring, which is awesome,you know because as gifted coordinators, we
kind of kind of feel like we'reout on our own little island. We're
a little bit different than your averageeducational curriculum, so we have a tendency
to feel like we're out by ourselves, and I think a GIA does a
(02:23):
great job of making you feel connected. I've made a bunch of friends across
the state just through attending online events, going to their convention which is coming
up, which I'll tell you about. They offer scholarships if you're interested in
getting your masters and gifted and talented. So they do a lot of great
(02:45):
things and I serve as the Districtthree representative for them. So if you
want any information about that, youknow the My contact information is in the
podcast notes, so you can checkthat out, send me an email and
be more than happy to tell youabout them. And as over right now,
if you're a new GT coordinator outthere, you may be a little
overwhelmed. You may feel like nobodyout there is on your side and you're
(03:07):
kind of by yourself. So Agiaoffers a new GT Coordinator's workshop. I've
gone just about every year, eventhough I'm not a new GT coordinator,
just so I could be there forother people. It's a great, great
thing if you can attend, andit's just it's it's a four hour workshop.
It's going to be on September fourteenthin Little Rock. I believe it's
(03:29):
at the Solution Tree offices in LittleRock, which you are right there on
Capitol Avenue. And again that's Septemberfourteenth. I can't remember if that's a
Monday or Tuesday. I know it'searly in the week, but you can
go to the AAEA website and lookat affiliates and AGIA is in there and
you can check that out. Clickon their link and you know it'll give
(03:52):
you more information about that. Theyalso have their state conference which is coming
up in Benton, Arkansas on Octoberfourth. On October fifth, I don't
believe they've opened registration to that oneyet. New Coordinators Workshop is open.
You can register through esc works Forthose of you teachers out there, you
can register through your cooperatives and getsigned up for those. Again, highly
(04:15):
recommend it. Have any questions,send me any questions you may have.
And the other organization is Aggate andthat kind of deals with teachers, administrators
and even parents. That is thatis more for anybody that wants to join
basically and learn about the gifted community. They're great because they offer several different
(04:39):
online events like little workshops and thingslike that that you can attend webinars and
it's information for parents. You know, if you if you're having trouble dealing
with your gifted child, they'll giveyou things that you can do. They
they're really great about letting you knowabout opportunities in the state and it's it's
the best I remember, I thinkthe membership fee is anyw between twenty or
(05:00):
thirty dollars, can't remember exactly,but it's well worth it for all the
information you get. And again,it gives you that chance to be plugged
in and not feel like you're aloneand by yourself. And their conference will
be coming up February twenty first throughthe twenty third, and I believe that
one. I believe that one's inHot Springs. I think so. But
(05:21):
I'll be giving you more information here, you know, so stay tuned into
the podcast because I will update youin any information that's coming that way.
And now, without further ado,I would like to get you to our
guest because he's got a lot ofgreat things to say. He's the one
thing I got from talking to himis like it just reaffirmed why I love
(05:44):
teaching kids, because he's the olderend of the spectrum of what I usually
get. I teach fourth and fifthgrade, so I'm trying to develop them
into something like Denver has become.You know, that this person who who
Yeah, he may have those selfouts in everything, but he believes in
himself enough to where he puts himselfout there and he puts himself in these
situations to succeed, and sometimes he'sgoing to tell you he doesn't succeed,
(06:09):
but when he does succeed, itopens doors for him and has open doors
for him in his life. Icould sit here and continue going on and
talk about him for a couple moreminutes, but I think I'm just gonna
let mister Kelly tell you himself.All Right, everyone, we are here.
You know, normally I do thesepodcasts and I think I've got a
(06:30):
pretty good voice, and I don'tlike have to worry about somebody coming after
my job or something like that.But right now I am here with somebody
who can probably give me a runfor my money. And this is a
Alma senior High student that is alsoa GT student, and his name is
Denver. Kelly Denver, how areyou? I am doing great? Just
well, I mean for starters himto the middle school first. Yes,
(06:53):
that actually coming here, which isa total GT thing to do about.
They all go yeah. And thenI I was walking down the hallway.
I told him on the way andI was walking down the hallway thinking I
probably should have just, you know, just reaffirmed that, Hey, I'm
at the intermediates cool, say it'sokay whatever, which is good. I
didn't come to meet you because Iwould have gone to the high school.
(07:13):
Oh yea. So then we justbeen everywhere, every everywhere, everywhere.
So Denver, you know, we'vegot you on here. And Denver and
I really didn't know each other untillike last year, and I saw him.
It was really awesome. I sawhim in our production of Matilda,
and he was I get the trunchbowl, yes, okay, and mistress
(07:34):
and okay, look, I knowhe's one of our kids, he's hometown
boy. But he was absolutely incredible. And what was even more incredible was
that I found out what you'd onlyhad two weeks notice on there. I
had two weeks and that was overThanksgiving break to to actually get the think
figured out. So what happened wasMick Clausen, who was originally supposed to
(07:56):
play I got the trunch bowl,he got nodes. Yes, we talked
about if it's perfect, it's likeessentially your throat crystallizes. You can't speak
much less sing. So I wasapproached in the middle of my math class
and I was just here. Iwas just doing algebra, and then I
get a knock on the door andI see Hops and he's just like come
here. So I'm like, Hops, and what's up? Is everything okay?
(08:16):
Everything fine? And he's like,Mick can't play trunch bowl. We
have two weeks left. You needto learn a role, full choreography,
full songs, the like, allthe lines. You have two weeks and
we need to see you after schooland fitting. And when we say role
here, people need to understand theyhaven't seen this production. You weren't a
(08:37):
minor character. You had probably justas much as many lines as the lead.
Yeah, me and Matilda we actuallydid a scene. In comparison,
we have equal number of scenes.Wow. Yeah, so it was it
was not not great, but Iwouldn't trade it for the world. Actually
getting out there in front of theaudience and putting on a good show.
Yeah, it's a rush. It'sa rush, yeah, because doing doing
(09:01):
lead roles if it feels different becausewhen you're doing ensemble you have that safety
net, but when you're the lead, you are the safety net. You
can't you can't mess up, tobe frank. So, having two weeks
literally I'm talking like five am toten pm, like just constant, like
yeah, no, because it's awonder your voice didn't wear out. It
almost did. Actually I had togo and I had to get like this
(09:24):
esoteric. I had like teas andhoneys yes, because we were making sure
because it was just me or Mick, we were the only two that were
actually being thought of for trunch Bowl, and because he was a senior,
he got priority right. But sinceit fell on me, if I went
out, it would I mean,it'd be Kaputzi. No one else who
could actually feel the role. Soit was a little bit of pressure.
I was starting to feel that,like Hollywood rush. I was like okay,
(09:48):
because like I would be backstage andsomeone would talk to me back I
would just I'd explode at them becauseI mean I was. I was stressed.
Yeah, it was insane. WellI will I will tell you this
to keep yoursel props. I waswatching it with somebody else and they were
writing next to me, and bothof us could not tell that you were
like, oh this guy will wellthis it's obvious. This guy just picked
(10:09):
up throw you were. It wasone of those things where I couldn't see
anybody else doing what you did.No disrespect to Mick. Because mix mix
awesome, phenomenal. I've seen himin several things too, but I was
just like, I was like,I don't know who that is back there,
but they are phenomenal, and you, you really were, Denver.
You did an excellent job with that. So that was the goal, was
to make sure that no one couldtell that I wasn't that I wasn't the
(10:31):
first choice. Yeah. Well,and the good thing that I liked about
what you said there is you weren'ttotally cool with it. It wasn't just
like, oh yeah, yeah,I'll tackle this and do it. I
don't because I talked to my GTstudents, you know, my fourth and
fifth graders all the time about look, sometimes you just gotta you gotta be
brave. You just gotta get outthere. You gotta step out there.
And that's so hard for gifted peopleADHD people with you know, especially gifted
(10:56):
kids, because I know from experience, whenever I was like their age,
like fourth fifth grade, right,the thought of failure not an option.
It just wasn't. Ya. Sotaking on something where you very easily you
could fail, Yes, you havetwo weeks. Yeah you could mess up
on stage. I did mess upon stage several times. But you just
you have to take that on thechin. Yeah, for the team at
the end of the day. Well, and it makes you stronger and it
(11:18):
makes you better. If you constantlygo and never lose, you it does
nothing for your character. And thefirst time you fail, you're going to
flounder. Oh yeah, yeah yeah. Failure. Yeah, failure is totally
growth mindset stuff, and it issomething that GT kids. I was I
was talking to the parent of theGigi child this morning and we were both
comparing kids and being like, mykid just doesn't like to fail. If
they think they're gonna fail, theywon't even try something exactly, and that
(11:41):
that's that perfectionist aspect. So noteto all you kids out there, you
got Denver Kelly in here telling youyou know, sometimes you just got to
step out there and be willing tofail. So especially if you're going into
drama, because there's a say inthe professional world which is you get a
thousand knows and one yes, andthat's that's how it is. Because you
(12:01):
will fail, especially in something likemusic, drama, art, anything that's
creative. You are a small dropin the bucket. So you have to
understand that, like, there willbe times that you just you won't,
you won't make it. And sothat's why the times that you do make
it, you cherish those and youput everything into it. Yes, even
if you're going to fail, youhave to make sure that you put your
(12:22):
entire self into it. And howmany stories are there that, you know,
those superstars in Hollywood that they wentto call after call after calling,
got nothing, nothing, nothing,and then they got that one part and
they broke and it was huge forhim. Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt's the
biggest example he was. He wasan extra for so long until he eventually
(12:43):
I forget his breakout role Delman Louise. I think that's what it was.
That was a big one, Yeah, because before that he was like waiters.
He would try and sneak lines inand they would chastise it. You
get out of here. No,like Brad Pitt came from, Like he
was born in Shawnee, Oakland.Yeah, he's an Oklahoma boy. Yeah
yeah, and no one, noone thinks about that. And his education
he went to just University of Missourifor journalism, didn't even finish. Yeah.
(13:07):
So if Brad Pitt can do itall right, then I think we
all can that's true, that's true. But Brad Pitt is also a very
very pretty man. He's like sofree. I mean, I mean,
you know, I'm secure enough inmy masculinity to admit that is one good
looking man right there, A handsomefellow. Absolutely. I don't ever want
to stand in a picture next toBrad Pitt. Ever. It would like
(13:28):
if like you're a six and youstay next that you're a two. It's
it's a nice see I was gonnago three. I'm just gonna give us
at least the benefit of the doubt. It's my personality. I'm a three,
but I got a great personality.Yeah, yeah, Okay. So
because you stepped down there, becauseyou've gotten involved in theater, which I'm
a big proponent of, and we'vetalked about how the GT world in the
(13:52):
theater world definitely, you know,they intermix. You had You've had a
lot of chances for schooling and scholarshipsbecause it so could you talk about some
of those. So after Matilda,that's where I guess my professional journey really
began, because I was approached bythese talent agents and these people who actually
came to the public showing little scoutsWow, and that's where AMDA actually first
(14:16):
saw me, right, and AMDAis that is that the That is the
American Academy for the Dramatic Arts.They have campuses in LA and New York.
Yeah, so getting out there.Really my breakout role was trunch Bull
because that's what got me on theradar. And now I'm cementing myself with
these smaller roles. But really scholarshipsand the professional I guess coming together that
(14:39):
didn't really happen until this summer,with things like Governor School being the big
one because you would have colleges thatwould contact me because we're going into the
I guess you could say the recruitment, yes, of colleges. So yeah,
so talking about scholarships there, thebiggest thing if you're a performer and
you want to get a scholar hipis to talk to the colleges directly and
(15:03):
not go through the typical portals.Okay, you need to talk directly to
the like I guess you could saythe head of their theater departments respectively,
and I can set you up foran audition, so like not even admissions.
You need to go find the theaterperson to find you can find them
and set things up through them,because your admissions will go through like a
normal academic admission. But if youwant to get your audition and get like
(15:26):
priority for audition, you need tomake sure you get yourself out there.
And the best way to do thatand the best way to secure those performance
scholarships is to actually talk to theheads of these apartments directly, right.
And you did this yourself, right, you were You were the one picking
up the phone and being like,hey, my name is Denver Kelly,
and I'm interested in your program.Can yeah, Okay, it makes a
good impression too. Yeah. Onthese colleges if the like okay, this
kid wants to go here, right, that shows interest and that puts you
(15:50):
pretty high up there when they're offeringscholarships or if they're offering money to go
to your school as far as likenormal academic scholarships though, just things like
the cool Ridge scholarship, little thingsas they come here and there. And
what we have really good here atAlma, at least at the high school,
is we have the counselors. Theywill tell like all the kids about
(16:10):
these like big scholarships that are comingthrough. Yea, our counselors are really
really good at that. Awesome.That's one thing to any kids who are
listening to this right now, trustyour counselors, all right, because that's
something I wish I did when Iwas like younger, going into like my
freshman year of high school. Right, Trust your counselors and really tell them
what your plans are for the future, because they want to help you and
(16:30):
their workaholics, every single one ofthem, so like they will make sure
that you have what you need tobe successful. And when they tell you
to fill out paperwork and don't waittill the last minute, fill out the
paperwork and don't wait till the lastminute. And as yeah, as someone
who has ADHD and procrastination, I'ma procrastinate. Yeah, I put the
(16:52):
pro in procrastinate. Uh no,I heck even for AGS. I waited
down to the last week to getmy stuff put in. And it's a
miracle that I got in. Yes, it's It's not something that I take
lightly. Right. Oh yeah,So going back on the college side of
it, Yeah, so you hadyou had the one in LA and you
said you had there was another onein New York. There's one in New
(17:12):
York. There's the Atlantic in NewYork. Okay, NYCDA is also in
New York. There's University of Chicagoand Rockford up in Illinois. Yes,
right. I haven't put in anyaudition material for Yale, Harvard, any
of the IVY leagues. Okay,but you Chicago's up there as far I
knew you Chicago. I'd heard ofyou Chicago as far as stellar program.
(17:33):
So do Yale and Harvard have likeYale their theater program Harvard. Harvard has
kind of a lackluster theater program.A lot of your ivys do. Columbia.
I actually talked to make about this. He's going to neuroscience. Okay,
He's going to Columbia for neuroscience.So I asked him. I was
like, so his theater just goingto take a back seat. He said,
no, I'm just not going togo to college for it. I'm
going to go to a place whereit's a hub. Where is a hub
(17:56):
like New York. Okay, Sohe won't he won't make that part of
his normal training, but he's goingto just be in the same So well,
yeah, okay, And I thinkthat's a smart way to do it,
because as much as I love toperform. You have to really really
like know that's what you want todo. One if you want to go
to someplace like Ameda, right,conservatory. Right, So my plan actually
is to go to somewhere like youChicago and then get my degree in anthropology.
(18:21):
But that's like my safety net,all right. Okay, as much
as I love acting and I lovethe show Bizz World, I love it,
you've got to have a backup plan. Kids, listen to this.
Yeah, if you want to bea YouTube influencer, that's great, but
you need a backup, backup himbecause, like I said earlier, you're
a dime a dozen. So it'sa very oversaturated market, like especially being
(18:44):
a YouTuber, right, and likejust go on YouTube channels and boom,
you can see how oversaturated that marketis. Yes, so obviously give your
entire self to your art and toyour craft, but please don't be stupid
about it. Yes, Like RyanReynal he went to college for I think
it was criminal justice, right,Ryan Reynlands for criminal justice grad pit for
(19:07):
journalism, right. Yeah, veryrarely do you see these people are like
I'm going to be an actor andthen they just go out and they throw
themselves into the industry, and thenthey become desperate and they flounder and you
have a starving artist. Yes,it needs to be your passion, but
not your money maker until you canget yourself established. Yes, and that's
the biggest thing for me. That'swhy I'm going to go to college for
(19:27):
I guess you'd see, like anacademic degree, but make it to where
it's in a hub for live entertainmentor filming stuff like that, so I
could still get my auditions out there, build my portfolio up while also building
up my academic background. Sure.Sure, so anthropology, you're wanting to
go into like teaching with that probably? Yes, so anthrow, I was
(19:48):
hoping while I'm still young, goinginto being a field anthropologist with the specialization
in Nordic studies. Right, soupp learn like Norway, Sweden, just
somewhere cold because I lived in thisheuth for too long and I don't I
don't want to. I don't wantto live anywhere hot. And then yeah,
eventually try and get my doctorate aprofessor so I can settle down,
(20:10):
have a little like retirement gig asa professor. Yeah, especially if you
get to like having those like biggercolleges they give a lot of lenients with
their professors. Yeah, you know, and that's a great plan. Yeah,
that's a great general plan. Butif something good with acting comes up,
because that is my passion, right, Acting is my passion. Filming
is my passion. If that comesup, I'm not going to look a
gift horse in the mouth, rightsure, but I need to get that
(20:33):
degree squared away for whenever I wantto get out of the gig. You
know. So if you had theopportunity, you know, there's all these
shows that tour and do, wouldyou would you possibly be injured? Yeah?
Okay. I actually I got anoffer from a touring show when Anastasia
came through. They I worked.I worked crew for that one because they
needed a crew. We worked tilltwo a m. On that one.
(20:56):
It was a nightmare. Uh yeah, but going there, Abby Hayden got
offered a job offered too. Sothey offered for me to go on tour
with them whenever I turn eighteen,if they're still touring, go with that
company. So I have that joboffer ready to go. And that's only
because I made a first impression.Yeah, got your foot in the door,
got your foot in the door.Yeah, and if you get up
(21:18):
to the high school, Sellers hassome serious weight in the theater world.
I don't know that's true. Thisman's insane. Yeah, we've talked about
Steven Sellers before and how phenomenal heis, which is absolutely true. The
man does not get enough credit foreverything he does. He doesn't sleep,
no, hardly if they paid himhourly or school would be bankrupt. I
can't district. I can't count thenumber of shows I showed up at that
weren't even all my productions. Andthey're Steven Sellers there. The pack is
(21:41):
his baby, and it's a goodreason. We have one of the best
facilities I've ever been in. Yeah, and I've been to a lot.
I've performed a lot of performing inopera houses, of performing in colleges,
even like professional venues, and almostnone of them can hold a candle to
Alma unless you go somewhere like RadioCity. Sure, because our stage and
our facilities we have here, we'respoiled, Yes, so spoiled we are.
(22:03):
We totally are. Not a lotof people understand that. YEA For
specifically theater, Yes, we havea very very good program, and a
lot of that is because of sellers, sellers has made us like I think
the sixth year in a row numberone at the International Fespian Festival for our
tech. So yes, yeah,Alma has a reputation so much so that
when I went to AGS for dramaand I told the others I was from
(22:25):
Alma, everyone was like, oh, okay, that makes sense, all
right. It was just envy.They were throwing it, yeah all the
shade. It was yes, yes, well I went and watched. I
mean, are they called the packmules they still? Yes, I went
and watched them, and it isamazing. Like the competition, you don't
realize it. When there's a Thespianfestival. Everyone thinks of like plays and
(22:45):
that's part of it. It's abig part of it. But the tech
has their own individual like entire.It's like an Olympics. Yeah, and
they're doing all these different things,not tying and setting things up and breaking
things down and who can do itthe fastest. And there's like design for
like if you're more like artistically likevisual arts oriented, you have like set
design, you have costume design,sewing, there was sewing elements to it.
(23:07):
It's it's really amazing. So whenyou think a theater. Like my
son isn't really big on he's acut up, he's a hand, but
he doesn't want to get in frontof people. Well, I've tried to
push him to the back. I'mlike, well, do do set production,
you know, do do tech?Yeah? Absolutely tech. Tech is
for people who are dramatic but area little shy. Yeah, that's what
that's what tech is for. Becauseif you go to TECH, they know
every line, every dance. Theyjust don't want to do it on stage
(23:30):
exactly. So if you think youhave an interest in performing, but you're
you're just too scared of the stageand you just will not go out there,
go to TECH and you will findyour people. Yes, that's what's
about. Yeah, absolutely, Andthat's that's great for GT people that are
nervous about getting in front of peopleand you know, have that anxiety and
stuff, and that's all your scholarship. Tech is where the scholarships coming from
(23:51):
as far as performing goes, becauseauditions you have to really like throw yourself
out there. Sure, with techit's a lot more secure and you're still
able to get into the inter tameat business. Yeah, Like I know,
Abby Hayden, I can speak forher. She's gotten full rides already
offered to her. I know,it's awesome, so jealous, it's like
I could do it. Good forher, good for her, very good
for her. I'm I'm like,I'm really proud of her because she's representing
(24:14):
Alma's so well. Yeah, youknow, just to make sure she doesn't
hear this, because if she foundout that I was praising her, then
I wouldn't like, that's it,that's my entire career. She would she
wouldn't let me live that down y. Yeah, well, don't let her
listen to It's okay. So youmentioned AGS, which to everyone out there
is Arkansas Governor School, which isa like a summer program for gifted kids,
but it's so much more. Couldyou kind of talk about that,
(24:36):
Denver? Yes, So the GovernorsSchool is paid for by the governor surprise,
surprise. Yes, it's an entiremonth taken out of your summer,
so you got to be dedicated ifyou want to actually go to it.
But I went into this thinking thatI had just wasted a month of my
summer. But by the time thatI had finished, I I'm not even
getting like I still talk to thefriends that I made their Yeah, awesome.
(24:57):
So the actual school part of GovernorSchool, I'm not gonna lie,
it kind of takes a backseat.You have like your art students or drama
students, your vocal music, yourmusicians, your engineering like they have developmental
engineering, physics courses, math likeanything under the sun. However, there's
no grades. It's all seminary based, and it focuses a lot on student
(25:19):
cooperation, and that was the environmentthat like I longed for for a long
time. However, the main focusof Governor School is to teach you how
to live as a college student,teaching you how to rastion your money,
how to do the dorm life,how to make friends, and then being
able to balance your schedule. Andespecially for these kids who may not have
(25:40):
the opportunities to be as independent likemaybe they have like helicopter parents like something
like that. Yes, this isthe biggest opportunity for you to get out
there and be like a trial versionof being a college kid and maybe struggle
and struggle. Yeah. I walkedin there with like four hundred dollars and
I barely was able to like afour food on the third week. I'm
(26:00):
not even getting no, because like, you don't think about rationing when you're
out here in the normal world becauseyou can just go and get a job,
right, But it's like, oh, I can't get a job.
I have studies, I have likestuff to focus on. Right, So
yeah, AGS was a phenomenal.You have college professors teaching new college courses
(26:21):
and they break it down to threeareas. You have your first area,
which is like what you're there for, like you you're engineering whatever. You
have Area three, which is yourI guess you can say like your self
realization. Class focuses a lot oncharacter development, becoming more self aware,
thinking about the world around you andhow can you fit into it. And
then the one that I really likedwas area two, which is just straight
(26:42):
up philosophy. It was it was, oh my lord, I hated it,
but I loved it because I hadit, did yes, Because I
had John Kirk who was from England, right, No, I have a
serious philosophy, English philosophy who satdown and he talked to us and he
was like so he would he wouldtell us about like the u oh man,
(27:07):
I'm blanking right now. But hewould run through these like different thought
experiments and then we would be like, so John Kirk, doctor John,
can we call you John? Okay? Yeah, talk to us about like
what do you think? And he'slike, I don't know, what do
I think? What do you think? Why are you asking what I think?
How does that? And it's likeshut up, ye yes. He
had the saying that was turtles allthe way down, right, So it's
(27:30):
like the entire universe is on theback of a turtle. And then someone
would be like, okay, sowhat's on what is that turtle standing on?
And then he would be like,it's just another bigger turtle, and
so on so forth. It's justturtles all the way down. And that's
how that's how your philosophy course is, which is you run around in circles
and it gets it pin up andyou don't actually come up with any answers
because no one's found at answers tothese for a thousand ar But the critical
(27:53):
thinking that gets involved in it,it's so good. And that's what that's
what you know. Because parents willcome in and they'll be like, you
do philosophy with fourth and fifth gradestudents. I'm like, oh, absolutely,
yes, yeah, no you youIt started them off yell. Yeah,
yeah, because getting them to sitthere and think about super abstract concepts
and then being able to apply thatin a very concrete setting. And it's
(28:14):
getting them to think it's I mean, and it's so easy. That's what
I say. I'm like, Idon't I don't need materials, I don't
need manipulatives. I can just sitthere and like you said, I can
have this conversation. Here's this question. What do you guys think. I'm
a big proponent of I'm not antigrading, right because I think there needs
to be some structure in a class. But I think that how it was
taught at AGS is the ideal learningenvironment where it's very casual. You want
(28:41):
the kids to learn for the sakeof learning. Yeah, because you find
a topic that you're interested in andyou just have your classmates and you talk
with them and you cooperate with them. And of course that's a perfect world,
but it's going to be kids thatsure participate. But and an AGS,
you have a certain clientele there.That is, you know, you
have people you're giving up your summerto go to school. Yes, you
(29:02):
understand what there you get are goingbut no AGS, I wouldn't trade it
for the world. Okay. Sowe did the Governor School, we did
theater, So let's talk about apbecause that was originally you know where I
was like, Hey, Denver,do you want to come on and talk
about this? So and it justkind of blossomed into these other things.
So you took a push, rightblush, ap lange and this upcoming year,
(29:26):
I'm taking APERO, ap STAT andAPLT. Okay. So yeah,
I'm very familiar with the AP.I guess you'd say curriculum. Yeah.
And one of the things we definitelywanted to talk about was a PUSH,
which was something I noticed and youeven kind of brought to my attention and
had to do with the with theessay question, So you want to kind
of talk about that a bit,Okay. So for a PUSH, it's
(29:48):
broken down to your multiple choice sectionand then you have three essays give out.
You have your short answer questions,which are like your mini essays.
You have your document based question,which is your You have your essay,
but you need to refer back toyour documents and like give them their sources
throughout, and then your LQ.On both the DBQ and LQ, everyone
(30:08):
was running out of time. Andthis wasn't just a mean thing because I
thought I was just slacking that Ididn't pace myself. Yes, everyone in
the classroom, specifically for the la Q. Yes, was they weren't
even halfway done? Yes, AndI can I can back that up.
I wasn't reading anybody's responses college board, just in case you want to know.
But I was walking around looking athow much of their essay they had
(30:30):
written, and I could tell youknow, some of them were half a
page and these are these they giveyou plenty of pages to do this,
and they were they had ten minutesleft. Yeah, And I was,
I was really and like I was, I was actually thinking about that a
lot. Why was it so easyfor these kids that are good, like
they're phenomenal s? Yes? Whywere all of them gassing out? And
(30:51):
I think the biggest thing that Inoticed was we put so much of an
emphasis on the like short answer questions, the document based questions, and they're
like, at least how we weretaught, they need to be as thorough
as possible, but you realistically can'tget that level of thoroughness that you get
in the classroom right whenever you're takingthe actual AP exam well, and it
seems like it would grind you down. I mean, after you've done that
(31:14):
first question, you're onto that secondquestion and that third question, and then
to look up and see you gotten minutes, fifteen minutes, ten minutes
has to be pretty demoralizing. Yeah, Like it's a miracle. I got
a five on that. It is. It was especially I think a big
thing is how it was structured,because the l Q is a lot more
(31:34):
cerebral before is a lot more abstractthought rather than something like the DBQ or
the short answer question. And puttingthat at the end, I think is
really what just kind of gases youwhat killed people? Yeah, because you
are going there's two different mindsets thatyou need, and it almost feels like
it should be in two different testsbecause you have your this is your historical
(31:56):
facts, make an argument based onyour fat make your facts relate to each
other, and then you have okay, we'll recall general information and get a
little bit more creative and think alittle bit outside the box. Yeah,
and you have those all in thesame test, and I think it creates
a sort of like three different avenuesof thoughts. It creates just this uh
(32:19):
not not like a fallacy, butyour brain kind of has to restart in
the middle of the test. AndI think that's really what gas people out.
At least that's I'm speaking from experience. That's what really got me was
I was going from DBQ, whereyou're referencing information that you're directly given.
Then you have your multiple choice question, which is multiple choice, and your
short answer question, which typically hasa stimulus, and then going from that
(32:40):
to here is a prompt. Here'san essay writing. You know, you
have no structure, you just havean essay, and it's like, okay,
wow, all right, just gottachange my brain here. I gotta
be into like ap lang mode nowright right. So, hey college board
people, if you're listening, youknow you want to talk to somebody about
maybe how to revamp some things.Mister Kelly would be open for a conversation.
(33:01):
I'm sure. The biggest thing Ithink is for a push specifically breaking
that into two separate classes. Yeah, because I know in college you have
a push one and a push two. Right in high school you do all
of it. You do a pushone and a push two, yes one
sitting, So you have the entiretyof American history, right, learn all
of it. Yes, yes,man, that's that's rough it is.
(33:22):
It was rough. So you haveall these experiences that I think we've kind
of gone over and tested too.So a lot of our you know,
like I said, the kids thati'd directly deal with their fourth and fifth
grade students to what you've said isa lot of what I preached to them.
So if you got if you couldtalk to those fourth and fifth grade
students, I'm just going to giveyou the floor here. What kind of
advice would you give them? Okay, I gotta get back into the or
(33:43):
young GT students. Yes, becauseI was a GT kid and I love
the GT program. However, Ithink that it can create some unrealistic expectations
for kids going forward, because youwill have people your entire life who tell
you you're smart, You're the smartall that. My biggest advice to them
would be, don't be afraid tofail, don't be afraid to experiment with
(34:08):
who you are, and to notput yourself in a box too early,
and for the love of God,don't grow up too quickly. Yeah,
because I see a lot of theseGT kids and they're so independent because they're
smart kids, so they want tobe out there, they want to be
independent, and they rush so quicklyinto being these many adults. Yes,
you flounder and you don't get toreally give yourself time to grow. And
(34:32):
one thing for me is reconciling likewho I was as a child, right
because I have these high expectations formyself. Sometimes it's okay to like,
let yourself calm down. It's not. You don't always need to be the
best at everything you do, right, And it's okay to be happy with
(34:52):
yourself, be happy with who youare and not have to be the best
at everything. And if there's someonewho you see who is bragging about I'm
the best, YadA, YadA,YadA, it's okay to be competitive,
but you don't feel that you don'tneed to go out there and prove that
you're better than someone than for thebest that you can be simply because you
need to be. Yeah, it'sokay to have your niche and have your
(35:14):
thing that you're good at and nottry and be the best at everything.
Sure, because you'll over extend yourselfand yeah, and you'll burn out.
Yea burn And that's the biggest thingwith GT kits isn't burn out, Yeah,
because you give so much so quicklythat you don't ration it out and
give yourself time to find your passionsfor your interests. I did a presentation
on how GT perfectionism is like adouble edged sword. It's great because it
(35:36):
will drive you and it's bad becauseit will drive you into the ground.
Sometimes will you burn out because youwant things to be you know what you
want. You want things to beperfect. But it's okay to not live
up to your own expectations sometimes.And that's tough. It's a tough thing
to do. I'm not saying it'sgoing to be easy, but it's okay
to not be the best all thetime, right, Because if you think
(36:00):
like that all the time, youdon't give yourself time to I guess,
calm down, time to relax,you will burn out, yeah, and
you won't have the drive to actuallydo what you love, and that will
lead to a not fun time foranyone involved. I remember going into middle
school, right, I was soburnt out from being a GT kid,
(36:22):
from being you know, the bestwhatever, that by the time I got
to middle school, I was justa brat and I was a brat and
intermediate school too. It took awhile for me to calm down, but
because I was like, man,I know, I already know everything here.
I don't need to And it's like, no, you don't, kid
Like, Yeah, it's okay tonot know. You can admit to yourself
(36:43):
that you don't know. And insteadof trying to take pleasure out of being
the best, take pleasure out ofyour passion for learning, which is what
most kids in GT have. Theyjust have a passion for learning. Yeah,
use that passion as your fuel insteadof your want to be the best
rise or fuel. And that ismy sure fire away to not burn out,
(37:04):
because that's how I've been able tomanage AP classes, sure, high
school, professional life. Right.Everything I'll come together is love learning for
the sake of learning. Yeah,and stop viewing learning as a competition.
Yeah, and be okay to fail. And I mean that's why we talked
about why philosophy is so great,because you don't come to an answer.
You can't. I mean, you'reeventually It's it's like you said, it's
(37:25):
these age old questions that have beenaround for thousands of years. Plato's Caves
two thousand years old yes, ifyou're not more so, and it's not
like you can answer it just okay, well I've found the solution to it,
because your solution might not be someoneelse's. Absolutely okay, So we've
done all this talking. Now it'stime to where we do the shout out.
(37:45):
So somebody that you just want tosay, hey, thank you,
I appreciate what you've done, whatyou're doing, and I give the floor
to you. Who you got ashout out? All right? So my
shout out is going to be toDanny mac hobbs in the second who is
my theater teacher. Okay. Throughoutmy time at the high school, he
has almost been a father figure.He's been very much a mentor really helped
(38:09):
me figure out my own being becominga young adult. He's really gone above
and beyond as just a teacher.Not only does his shows that he puts
on phenomenal right, right, buthis genuine care that he has for his
students, being able to sit down, have these one on ones and talk
to them about their character, notjust about their performance in his classroom.
(38:30):
He's helped me work through a lotof my personal stuff and has really been
the catalyst for my professional growth andmy I think my future success going forward
because he saw something in me thatI didn't see and he was able to
nurture that and let it grow andkind of shaped me into the man that
I am today, all right,and the young man I will become later.
(38:52):
Well, well said, that's that'spretty good, as Nicholas Cage would
say, that's high praise. Somister Hobson, this one's for you.
That good? Is that? Rtwo D two? Very good? I
was like, Okay, I'm gonnajudge this whole podcast on whether Denver gets
this or not dying. Yes,yeah, but it had to be a
(39:14):
shout out. Do you know howhard it is to find good sound clips
of people shouting on the internet.That's when he's on Daga book. Yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, youhear him even smashing. Let's let's listen
to that again. Okay, Okay, there you go, there you go.
So well, Denver. I knewit was gonna be good. I
knew it was gonna be long,But thanks for all of you who stayed
(39:36):
in and listened to it, becauseI think Denver had some very very good
input, not just for high schoolers, but definitely for kids. You know,
intermediates, middle schools, everything likethat. So Denver, I just
want to say thank you again forshowing up. Of course, of course,
any any last words for anybody.I think I've said my piece.
Really, this was very fun,all right. Didn't expect it to be
(39:59):
the fun. Honestly, I thoughtit was going to feel a lot more
business. But this was this wasgood. I really enjoyed this. No,
I told you, I'm easy.I like Sunday morning. Man,
it's we're gonna come in here andwe're gonna talk, we're gonna have a
good time. So hopefully this hasopened the door for more middle schoolers and
high schoolers. You were the firsthigh schooler I've had. I just had
a middle schooler on my last podcast. So if you're out there and you're
a GT student, this is notjust for intermediate kids. This is for
(40:23):
you as well. So if yougot a topic you want to talk about,
you know my email address, hitme up and I'd be more than
happy to have you in here,and just like I had, Denver.
So Denver, thank you so much, all right, phenomenal And remember everybody,
we'd like to thank you for listeningin and we just want to say
to always remember to embrace your innerweirdo. There it is, Thanks everybody.
(40:45):
Embrace your weirdo. And I likethat. Let's good, it's not
bad. Come up with it myself. Really, I may need to,
like, you know, maybe dosome like marketing or something. You know.
Make sure I get that and goback, yes, Stea
Well, you know what that soundmeans. School is back in session.
The very first day of the twentythree twenty four school year is upon us.
Summer went quick and we're back.Did one episode for you over the
summer, and I actually did anotherone yesterday which you're getting ready to hear
(00:35):
in just a moment, which wasthe day right before school started. So
special thanks to our guest Denver Kellyfor showing up the day before school started
to do a podcast. We aregreatly appreciative. My name is Michael Bridges
and I am the GTNAP coordinator hereat the Alma School District in Alma,
Arkansas, and we would like towelcome you to the number one GT podcast
(00:59):
in the state of ark Saw thepodcast. It has the audacity and the
unmitigated goal to just come right outand ask, hey, what is your
deal? I hope you guys hada great summer. We are back,
We're excited to be back. We'reready to get started. As I said
again, I've got an excellent guestfor you. We had an excellent conversation.
(01:19):
A bit longer podcasts this time,but it's well worth it, so
I would highly recommend you stick aroundfor all of what Denver Kelly has to
say. Before we get to thatpodcast, have a little bit of housekeeping
I'd kind of like to talk toyou about. Previously another podcast, I've
spoken about the two major gifted andtalented organizations in our state, which are
(01:40):
a GAGEA and aget A GAT.So I'd like to give you just a
little bit of information about these placesand give you a little bit of information
about what these programs have to offer. So AGIA is the Association of Gifted
Educational Administrators, so basically that's foryour supervisors and administrators, and it's a
(02:02):
great organization. I joined it myfirst year as a GT coordinator. They
provide mentoring, which is awesome,you know because as gifted coordinators, we
kind of kind of feel like we'reout on our own little island. We're
a little bit different than your averageeducational curriculum, so we have a tendency
to feel like we're out by ourselves, and I think a GIA does a
(02:23):
great job of making you feel connected. I've made a bunch of friends across
the state just through attending online events, going to their convention which is coming
up, which I'll tell you about. They offer scholarships if you're interested in
getting your masters and gifted and talented. So they do a lot of great
(02:45):
things and I serve as the Districtthree representative for them. So if you
want any information about that, youknow the My contact information is in the
podcast notes, so you can checkthat out, send me an email and
be more than happy to tell youabout them. And as over right now,
if you're a new GT coordinator outthere, you may be a little
overwhelmed. You may feel like nobodyout there is on your side and you're
(03:07):
kind of by yourself. So Agiaoffers a new GT Coordinator's workshop. I've
gone just about every year, eventhough I'm not a new GT coordinator,
just so I could be there forother people. It's a great, great
thing if you can attend, andit's just it's it's a four hour workshop.
It's going to be on September fourteenthin Little Rock. I believe it's
(03:29):
at the Solution Tree offices in LittleRock, which you are right there on
Capitol Avenue. And again that's Septemberfourteenth. I can't remember if that's a
Monday or Tuesday. I know it'searly in the week, but you can
go to the AAEA website and lookat affiliates and AGIA is in there and
you can check that out. Clickon their link and you know it'll give
(03:52):
you more information about that. Theyalso have their state conference which is coming
up in Benton, Arkansas on Octoberfourth. On October fifth, I don't
believe they've opened registration to that oneyet. New Coordinators Workshop is open.
You can register through esc works Forthose of you teachers out there, you
can register through your cooperatives and getsigned up for those. Again, highly
(04:15):
recommend it. Have any questions,send me any questions you may have.
And the other organization is Aggate andthat kind of deals with teachers, administrators
and even parents. That is thatis more for anybody that wants to join
basically and learn about the gifted community. They're great because they offer several different
(04:39):
online events like little workshops and thingslike that that you can attend webinars and
it's information for parents. You know, if you if you're having trouble dealing
with your gifted child, they'll giveyou things that you can do. They
they're really great about letting you knowabout opportunities in the state and it's it's
the best I remember, I thinkthe membership fee is anyw between twenty or
(05:00):
thirty dollars, can't remember exactly,but it's well worth it for all the
information you get. And again,it gives you that chance to be plugged
in and not feel like you're aloneand by yourself. And their conference will
be coming up February twenty first throughthe twenty third, and I believe that
one. I believe that one's inHot Springs. I think so. But
(05:21):
I'll be giving you more information here, you know, so stay tuned into
the podcast because I will update youin any information that's coming that way.
And now, without further ado,I would like to get you to our
guest because he's got a lot ofgreat things to say. He's the one
thing I got from talking to himis like it just reaffirmed why I love
(05:44):
teaching kids, because he's the olderend of the spectrum of what I usually
get. I teach fourth and fifthgrade, so I'm trying to develop them
into something like Denver has become.You know, that this person who who
Yeah, he may have those selfouts in everything, but he believes in
himself enough to where he puts himselfout there and he puts himself in these
situations to succeed, and sometimes he'sgoing to tell you he doesn't succeed,
(06:09):
but when he does succeed, itopens doors for him and has open doors
for him in his life. Icould sit here and continue going on and
talk about him for a couple moreminutes, but I think I'm just gonna
let mister Kelly tell you himself.All Right, everyone, we are here.
You know, normally I do thesepodcasts and I think I've got a
(06:30):
pretty good voice, and I don'tlike have to worry about somebody coming after
my job or something like that.But right now I am here with somebody
who can probably give me a runfor my money. And this is a
Alma senior High student that is alsoa GT student, and his name is
Denver. Kelly Denver, how areyou? I am doing great? Just
well, I mean for starters himto the middle school first. Yes,
(06:53):
that actually coming here, which isa total GT thing to do about.
They all go yeah. And thenI I was walking down the hallway.
I told him on the way andI was walking down the hallway thinking I
probably should have just, you know, just reaffirmed that, Hey, I'm
at the intermediates cool, say it'sokay whatever, which is good. I
didn't come to meet you because Iwould have gone to the high school.
(07:13):
Oh yea. So then we justbeen everywhere, every everywhere, everywhere.
So Denver, you know, we'vegot you on here. And Denver and
I really didn't know each other untillike last year, and I saw him.
It was really awesome. I sawhim in our production of Matilda,
and he was I get the trunchbowl, yes, okay, and mistress
(07:34):
and okay, look, I knowhe's one of our kids, he's hometown
boy. But he was absolutely incredible. And what was even more incredible was
that I found out what you'd onlyhad two weeks notice on there. I
had two weeks and that was overThanksgiving break to to actually get the think
figured out. So what happened wasMick Clausen, who was originally supposed to
(07:56):
play I got the trunch bowl,he got nodes. Yes, we talked
about if it's perfect, it's likeessentially your throat crystallizes. You can't speak
much less sing. So I wasapproached in the middle of my math class
and I was just here. Iwas just doing algebra, and then I
get a knock on the door andI see Hops and he's just like come
here. So I'm like, Hops, and what's up? Is everything okay?
(08:16):
Everything fine? And he's like,Mick can't play trunch bowl. We
have two weeks left. You needto learn a role, full choreography,
full songs, the like, allthe lines. You have two weeks and
we need to see you after schooland fitting. And when we say role
here, people need to understand theyhaven't seen this production. You weren't a
(08:37):
minor character. You had probably justas much as many lines as the lead.
Yeah, me and Matilda we actuallydid a scene. In comparison,
we have equal number of scenes.Wow. Yeah, so it was it
was not not great, but Iwouldn't trade it for the world. Actually
getting out there in front of theaudience and putting on a good show.
Yeah, it's a rush. It'sa rush, yeah, because doing doing
(09:01):
lead roles if it feels different becausewhen you're doing ensemble you have that safety
net, but when you're the lead, you are the safety net. You
can't you can't mess up, tobe frank. So, having two weeks
literally I'm talking like five am toten pm, like just constant, like
yeah, no, because it's awonder your voice didn't wear out. It
almost did. Actually I had togo and I had to get like this
(09:24):
esoteric. I had like teas andhoneys yes, because we were making sure
because it was just me or Mick, we were the only two that were
actually being thought of for trunch Bowl, and because he was a senior,
he got priority right. But sinceit fell on me, if I went
out, it would I mean,it'd be Kaputzi. No one else who
could actually feel the role. Soit was a little bit of pressure.
I was starting to feel that,like Hollywood rush. I was like okay,
(09:48):
because like I would be backstage andsomeone would talk to me back I
would just I'd explode at them becauseI mean I was. I was stressed.
Yeah, it was insane. WellI will I will tell you this
to keep yoursel props. I waswatching it with somebody else and they were
writing next to me, and bothof us could not tell that you were
like, oh this guy will wellthis it's obvious. This guy just picked
(10:09):
up throw you were. It wasone of those things where I couldn't see
anybody else doing what you did.No disrespect to Mick. Because mix mix
awesome, phenomenal. I've seen himin several things too, but I was
just like, I was like,I don't know who that is back there,
but they are phenomenal, and you, you really were, Denver.
You did an excellent job with that. So that was the goal, was
to make sure that no one couldtell that I wasn't that I wasn't the
(10:31):
first choice. Yeah. Well,and the good thing that I liked about
what you said there is you weren'ttotally cool with it. It wasn't just
like, oh yeah, yeah,I'll tackle this and do it. I
don't because I talked to my GTstudents, you know, my fourth and
fifth graders all the time about look, sometimes you just gotta you gotta be
brave. You just gotta get outthere. You gotta step out there.
And that's so hard for gifted peopleADHD people with you know, especially gifted
(10:56):
kids, because I know from experience, whenever I was like their age,
like fourth fifth grade, right,the thought of failure not an option.
It just wasn't. Ya. Sotaking on something where you very easily you
could fail, Yes, you havetwo weeks. Yeah you could mess up
on stage. I did mess upon stage several times. But you just
you have to take that on thechin. Yeah, for the team at
the end of the day. Well, and it makes you stronger and it
(11:18):
makes you better. If you constantlygo and never lose, you it does
nothing for your character. And thefirst time you fail, you're going to
flounder. Oh yeah, yeah yeah. Failure. Yeah, failure is totally
growth mindset stuff, and it issomething that GT kids. I was I
was talking to the parent of theGigi child this morning and we were both
comparing kids and being like, mykid just doesn't like to fail. If
they think they're gonna fail, theywon't even try something exactly, and that
(11:41):
that's that perfectionist aspect. So noteto all you kids out there, you
got Denver Kelly in here telling youyou know, sometimes you just got to
step out there and be willing tofail. So especially if you're going into
drama, because there's a say inthe professional world which is you get a
thousand knows and one yes, andthat's that's how it is. Because you
(12:01):
will fail, especially in something likemusic, drama, art, anything that's
creative. You are a small dropin the bucket. So you have to
understand that, like, there willbe times that you just you won't,
you won't make it. And sothat's why the times that you do make
it, you cherish those and youput everything into it. Yes, even
if you're going to fail, youhave to make sure that you put your
(12:22):
entire self into it. And howmany stories are there that, you know,
those superstars in Hollywood that they wentto call after call after calling,
got nothing, nothing, nothing,and then they got that one part and
they broke and it was huge forhim. Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt's the
biggest example he was. He wasan extra for so long until he eventually
(12:43):
I forget his breakout role Delman Louise. I think that's what it was.
That was a big one, Yeah, because before that he was like waiters.
He would try and sneak lines inand they would chastise it. You
get out of here. No,like Brad Pitt came from, Like he
was born in Shawnee, Oakland.Yeah, he's an Oklahoma boy. Yeah
yeah, and no one, noone thinks about that. And his education
he went to just University of Missourifor journalism, didn't even finish. Yeah.
(13:07):
So if Brad Pitt can do itall right, then I think we
all can that's true, that's true. But Brad Pitt is also a very
very pretty man. He's like sofree. I mean, I mean,
you know, I'm secure enough inmy masculinity to admit that is one good
looking man right there, A handsomefellow. Absolutely. I don't ever want
to stand in a picture next toBrad Pitt. Ever. It would like
(13:28):
if like you're a six and youstay next that you're a two. It's
it's a nice see I was gonnago three. I'm just gonna give us
at least the benefit of the doubt. It's my personality. I'm a three,
but I got a great personality.Yeah, yeah, Okay. So
because you stepped down there, becauseyou've gotten involved in theater, which I'm
a big proponent of, and we'vetalked about how the GT world in the
(13:52):
theater world definitely, you know,they intermix. You had You've had a
lot of chances for schooling and scholarshipsbecause it so could you talk about some
of those. So after Matilda,that's where I guess my professional journey really
began, because I was approached bythese talent agents and these people who actually
came to the public showing little scoutsWow, and that's where AMDA actually first
(14:16):
saw me, right, and AMDAis that is that the That is the
American Academy for the Dramatic Arts.They have campuses in LA and New York.
Yeah, so getting out there.Really my breakout role was trunch Bull
because that's what got me on theradar. And now I'm cementing myself with
these smaller roles. But really scholarshipsand the professional I guess coming together that
(14:39):
didn't really happen until this summer,with things like Governor School being the big
one because you would have colleges thatwould contact me because we're going into the
I guess you could say the recruitment, yes, of colleges. So yeah,
so talking about scholarships there, thebiggest thing if you're a performer and
you want to get a scholar hipis to talk to the colleges directly and
(15:03):
not go through the typical portals.Okay, you need to talk directly to
the like I guess you could saythe head of their theater departments respectively,
and I can set you up foran audition, so like not even admissions.
You need to go find the theaterperson to find you can find them
and set things up through them,because your admissions will go through like a
normal academic admission. But if youwant to get your audition and get like
(15:26):
priority for audition, you need tomake sure you get yourself out there.
And the best way to do thatand the best way to secure those performance
scholarships is to actually talk to theheads of these apartments directly, right.
And you did this yourself, right, you were You were the one picking
up the phone and being like,hey, my name is Denver Kelly,
and I'm interested in your program.Can yeah, Okay, it makes a
good impression too. Yeah. Onthese colleges if the like okay, this
kid wants to go here, right, that shows interest and that puts you
(15:50):
pretty high up there when they're offeringscholarships or if they're offering money to go
to your school as far as likenormal academic scholarships though, just things like
the cool Ridge scholarship, little thingsas they come here and there. And
what we have really good here atAlma, at least at the high school,
is we have the counselors. Theywill tell like all the kids about
(16:10):
these like big scholarships that are comingthrough. Yea, our counselors are really
really good at that. Awesome.That's one thing to any kids who are
listening to this right now, trustyour counselors, all right, because that's
something I wish I did when Iwas like younger, going into like my
freshman year of high school. Right, Trust your counselors and really tell them
what your plans are for the future, because they want to help you and
(16:30):
their workaholics, every single one ofthem, so like they will make sure
that you have what you need tobe successful. And when they tell you
to fill out paperwork and don't waittill the last minute, fill out the
paperwork and don't wait till the lastminute. And as yeah, as someone
who has ADHD and procrastination, I'ma procrastinate. Yeah, I put the
(16:52):
pro in procrastinate. Uh no,I heck even for AGS. I waited
down to the last week to getmy stuff put in. And it's a
miracle that I got in. Yes, it's It's not something that I take
lightly. Right. Oh yeah,So going back on the college side of
it, Yeah, so you hadyou had the one in LA and you
said you had there was another onein New York. There's one in New
(17:12):
York. There's the Atlantic in NewYork. Okay, NYCDA is also in
New York. There's University of Chicagoand Rockford up in Illinois. Yes,
right. I haven't put in anyaudition material for Yale, Harvard, any
of the IVY leagues. Okay,but you Chicago's up there as far I
knew you Chicago. I'd heard ofyou Chicago as far as stellar program.
(17:33):
So do Yale and Harvard have likeYale their theater program Harvard. Harvard has
kind of a lackluster theater program.A lot of your ivys do. Columbia.
I actually talked to make about this. He's going to neuroscience. Okay,
He's going to Columbia for neuroscience.So I asked him. I was
like, so his theater just goingto take a back seat. He said,
no, I'm just not going togo to college for it. I'm
going to go to a place whereit's a hub. Where is a hub
(17:56):
like New York. Okay, Sohe won't he won't make that part of
his normal training, but he's goingto just be in the same So well,
yeah, okay, And I thinkthat's a smart way to do it,
because as much as I love toperform. You have to really really
like know that's what you want todo. One if you want to go
to someplace like Ameda, right,conservatory. Right, So my plan actually
is to go to somewhere like youChicago and then get my degree in anthropology.
(18:21):
But that's like my safety net,all right. Okay, as much
as I love acting and I lovethe show Bizz World, I love it,
you've got to have a backup plan. Kids, listen to this.
Yeah, if you want to bea YouTube influencer, that's great, but
you need a backup, backup himbecause, like I said earlier, you're
a dime a dozen. So it'sa very oversaturated market, like especially being
(18:44):
a YouTuber, right, and likejust go on YouTube channels and boom,
you can see how oversaturated that marketis. Yes, so obviously give your
entire self to your art and toyour craft, but please don't be stupid
about it. Yes, Like RyanReynal he went to college for I think
it was criminal justice, right,Ryan Reynlands for criminal justice grad pit for
(19:07):
journalism, right. Yeah, veryrarely do you see these people are like
I'm going to be an actor andthen they just go out and they throw
themselves into the industry, and thenthey become desperate and they flounder and you
have a starving artist. Yes,it needs to be your passion, but
not your money maker until you canget yourself established. Yes, and that's
the biggest thing for me. That'swhy I'm going to go to college for
(19:27):
I guess you'd see, like anacademic degree, but make it to where
it's in a hub for live entertainmentor filming stuff like that, so I
could still get my auditions out there, build my portfolio up while also building
up my academic background. Sure.Sure, so anthropology, you're wanting to
go into like teaching with that probably? Yes, so anthrow, I was
(19:48):
hoping while I'm still young, goinginto being a field anthropologist with the specialization
in Nordic studies. Right, soupp learn like Norway, Sweden, just
somewhere cold because I lived in thisheuth for too long and I don't I
don't want to. I don't wantto live anywhere hot. And then yeah,
eventually try and get my doctorate aprofessor so I can settle down,
(20:10):
have a little like retirement gig asa professor. Yeah, especially if you
get to like having those like biggercolleges they give a lot of lenients with
their professors. Yeah, you know, and that's a great plan. Yeah,
that's a great general plan. Butif something good with acting comes up,
because that is my passion, right, Acting is my passion. Filming
is my passion. If that comesup, I'm not going to look a
gift horse in the mouth, rightsure, but I need to get that
(20:33):
degree squared away for whenever I wantto get out of the gig. You
know. So if you had theopportunity, you know, there's all these
shows that tour and do, wouldyou would you possibly be injured? Yeah?
Okay. I actually I got anoffer from a touring show when Anastasia
came through. They I worked.I worked crew for that one because they
needed a crew. We worked tilltwo a m. On that one.
(20:56):
It was a nightmare. Uh yeah, but going there, Abby Hayden got
offered a job offered too. Sothey offered for me to go on tour
with them whenever I turn eighteen,if they're still touring, go with that
company. So I have that joboffer ready to go. And that's only
because I made a first impression.Yeah, got your foot in the door,
got your foot in the door.Yeah, and if you get up
(21:18):
to the high school, Sellers hassome serious weight in the theater world.
I don't know that's true. Thisman's insane. Yeah, we've talked about
Steven Sellers before and how phenomenal heis, which is absolutely true. The
man does not get enough credit foreverything he does. He doesn't sleep,
no, hardly if they paid himhourly or school would be bankrupt. I
can't district. I can't count thenumber of shows I showed up at that
weren't even all my productions. Andthey're Steven Sellers there. The pack is
(21:41):
his baby, and it's a goodreason. We have one of the best
facilities I've ever been in. Yeah, and I've been to a lot.
I've performed a lot of performing inopera houses, of performing in colleges,
even like professional venues, and almostnone of them can hold a candle to
Alma unless you go somewhere like RadioCity. Sure, because our stage and
our facilities we have here, we'respoiled, Yes, so spoiled we are.
(22:03):
We totally are. Not a lotof people understand that. YEA For
specifically theater, Yes, we havea very very good program, and a
lot of that is because of sellers, sellers has made us like I think
the sixth year in a row numberone at the International Fespian Festival for our
tech. So yes, yeah,Alma has a reputation so much so that
when I went to AGS for dramaand I told the others I was from
(22:25):
Alma, everyone was like, oh, okay, that makes sense, all
right. It was just envy.They were throwing it, yeah all the
shade. It was yes, yes, well I went and watched. I
mean, are they called the packmules they still? Yes, I went
and watched them, and it isamazing. Like the competition, you don't
realize it. When there's a Thespianfestival. Everyone thinks of like plays and
(22:45):
that's part of it. It's abig part of it. But the tech
has their own individual like entire.It's like an Olympics. Yeah, and
they're doing all these different things,not tying and setting things up and breaking
things down and who can do itthe fastest. And there's like design for
like if you're more like artistically likevisual arts oriented, you have like set
design, you have costume design,sewing, there was sewing elements to it.
(23:07):
It's it's really amazing. So whenyou think a theater. Like my
son isn't really big on he's acut up, he's a hand, but
he doesn't want to get in frontof people. Well, I've tried to
push him to the back. I'mlike, well, do do set production,
you know, do do tech?Yeah? Absolutely tech. Tech is
for people who are dramatic but area little shy. Yeah, that's what
that's what tech is for. Becauseif you go to TECH, they know
every line, every dance. Theyjust don't want to do it on stage
(23:30):
exactly. So if you think youhave an interest in performing, but you're
you're just too scared of the stageand you just will not go out there,
go to TECH and you will findyour people. Yes, that's what's
about. Yeah, absolutely, Andthat's that's great for GT people that are
nervous about getting in front of peopleand you know, have that anxiety and
stuff, and that's all your scholarship. Tech is where the scholarships coming from
(23:51):
as far as performing goes, becauseauditions you have to really like throw yourself
out there. Sure, with techit's a lot more secure and you're still
able to get into the inter tameat business. Yeah, Like I know,
Abby Hayden, I can speak forher. She's gotten full rides already
offered to her. I know,it's awesome, so jealous, it's like
I could do it. Good forher, good for her, very good
for her. I'm I'm like,I'm really proud of her because she's representing
(24:14):
Alma's so well. Yeah, youknow, just to make sure she doesn't
hear this, because if she foundout that I was praising her, then
I wouldn't like, that's it,that's my entire career. She would she
wouldn't let me live that down y. Yeah, well, don't let her
listen to It's okay. So youmentioned AGS, which to everyone out there
is Arkansas Governor School, which isa like a summer program for gifted kids,
but it's so much more. Couldyou kind of talk about that,
(24:36):
Denver? Yes, So the GovernorsSchool is paid for by the governor surprise,
surprise. Yes, it's an entiremonth taken out of your summer,
so you got to be dedicated ifyou want to actually go to it.
But I went into this thinking thatI had just wasted a month of my
summer. But by the time thatI had finished, I I'm not even
getting like I still talk to thefriends that I made their Yeah, awesome.
(24:57):
So the actual school part of GovernorSchool, I'm not gonna lie,
it kind of takes a backseat.You have like your art students or drama
students, your vocal music, yourmusicians, your engineering like they have developmental
engineering, physics courses, math likeanything under the sun. However, there's
no grades. It's all seminary based, and it focuses a lot on student
(25:19):
cooperation, and that was the environmentthat like I longed for for a long
time. However, the main focusof Governor School is to teach you how
to live as a college student,teaching you how to rastion your money,
how to do the dorm life,how to make friends, and then being
able to balance your schedule. Andespecially for these kids who may not have
(25:40):
the opportunities to be as independent likemaybe they have like helicopter parents like something
like that. Yes, this isthe biggest opportunity for you to get out
there and be like a trial versionof being a college kid and maybe struggle
and struggle. Yeah. I walkedin there with like four hundred dollars and
I barely was able to like afour food on the third week. I'm
(26:00):
not even getting no, because like, you don't think about rationing when you're
out here in the normal world becauseyou can just go and get a job,
right, But it's like, oh, I can't get a job.
I have studies, I have likestuff to focus on. Right, So
yeah, AGS was a phenomenal.You have college professors teaching new college courses
(26:21):
and they break it down to threeareas. You have your first area,
which is like what you're there for, like you you're engineering whatever. You
have Area three, which is yourI guess you can say like your self
realization. Class focuses a lot oncharacter development, becoming more self aware,
thinking about the world around you andhow can you fit into it. And
then the one that I really likedwas area two, which is just straight
(26:42):
up philosophy. It was it was, oh my lord, I hated it,
but I loved it because I hadit, did yes, Because I
had John Kirk who was from England, right, No, I have a
serious philosophy, English philosophy who satdown and he talked to us and he
was like so he would he wouldtell us about like the u oh man,
(27:07):
I'm blanking right now. But hewould run through these like different thought
experiments and then we would be like, so John Kirk, doctor John,
can we call you John? Okay? Yeah, talk to us about like
what do you think? And he'slike, I don't know, what do
I think? What do you think? Why are you asking what I think?
How does that? And it's likeshut up, ye yes. He
had the saying that was turtles allthe way down, right, So it's
(27:30):
like the entire universe is on theback of a turtle. And then someone
would be like, okay, sowhat's on what is that turtle standing on?
And then he would be like,it's just another bigger turtle, and
so on so forth. It's justturtles all the way down. And that's
how that's how your philosophy course is, which is you run around in circles
and it gets it pin up andyou don't actually come up with any answers
because no one's found at answers tothese for a thousand ar But the critical
(27:53):
thinking that gets involved in it,it's so good. And that's what that's
what you know. Because parents willcome in and they'll be like, you
do philosophy with fourth and fifth gradestudents. I'm like, oh, absolutely,
yes, yeah, no you youIt started them off yell. Yeah,
yeah, because getting them to sitthere and think about super abstract concepts
and then being able to apply thatin a very concrete setting. And it's
(28:14):
getting them to think it's I mean, and it's so easy. That's what
I say. I'm like, Idon't I don't need materials, I don't
need manipulatives. I can just sitthere and like you said, I can
have this conversation. Here's this question. What do you guys think. I'm
a big proponent of I'm not antigrading, right because I think there needs
to be some structure in a class. But I think that how it was
taught at AGS is the ideal learningenvironment where it's very casual. You want
(28:41):
the kids to learn for the sakeof learning. Yeah, because you find
a topic that you're interested in andyou just have your classmates and you talk
with them and you cooperate with them. And of course that's a perfect world,
but it's going to be kids thatsure participate. But and an AGS,
you have a certain clientele there.That is, you know, you
have people you're giving up your summerto go to school. Yes, you
(29:02):
understand what there you get are goingbut no AGS, I wouldn't trade it
for the world. Okay. Sowe did the Governor School, we did
theater, So let's talk about apbecause that was originally you know where I
was like, Hey, Denver,do you want to come on and talk
about this? So and it justkind of blossomed into these other things.
So you took a push, rightblush, ap lange and this upcoming year,
(29:26):
I'm taking APERO, ap STAT andAPLT. Okay. So yeah,
I'm very familiar with the AP.I guess you'd say curriculum. Yeah.
And one of the things we definitelywanted to talk about was a PUSH,
which was something I noticed and youeven kind of brought to my attention and
had to do with the with theessay question, So you want to kind
of talk about that a bit,Okay. So for a PUSH, it's
(29:48):
broken down to your multiple choice sectionand then you have three essays give out.
You have your short answer questions,which are like your mini essays.
You have your document based question,which is your You have your essay,
but you need to refer back toyour documents and like give them their sources
throughout, and then your LQ.On both the DBQ and LQ, everyone
(30:08):
was running out of time. Andthis wasn't just a mean thing because I
thought I was just slacking that Ididn't pace myself. Yes, everyone in
the classroom, specifically for the la Q. Yes, was they weren't
even halfway done? Yes, AndI can I can back that up.
I wasn't reading anybody's responses college board, just in case you want to know.
But I was walking around looking athow much of their essay they had
(30:30):
written, and I could tell youknow, some of them were half a
page and these are these they giveyou plenty of pages to do this,
and they were they had ten minutesleft. Yeah, And I was,
I was really and like I was, I was actually thinking about that a
lot. Why was it so easyfor these kids that are good, like
they're phenomenal s? Yes? Whywere all of them gassing out? And
(30:51):
I think the biggest thing that Inoticed was we put so much of an
emphasis on the like short answer questions, the document based questions, and they're
like, at least how we weretaught, they need to be as thorough
as possible, but you realistically can'tget that level of thoroughness that you get
in the classroom right whenever you're takingthe actual AP exam well, and it
seems like it would grind you down. I mean, after you've done that
(31:14):
first question, you're onto that secondquestion and that third question, and then
to look up and see you gotten minutes, fifteen minutes, ten minutes
has to be pretty demoralizing. Yeah, Like it's a miracle. I got
a five on that. It is. It was especially I think a big
thing is how it was structured,because the l Q is a lot more
(31:34):
cerebral before is a lot more abstractthought rather than something like the DBQ or
the short answer question. And puttingthat at the end, I think is
really what just kind of gases youwhat killed people? Yeah, because you
are going there's two different mindsets thatyou need, and it almost feels like
it should be in two different testsbecause you have your this is your historical
(31:56):
facts, make an argument based onyour fat make your facts relate to each
other, and then you have okay, we'll recall general information and get a
little bit more creative and think alittle bit outside the box. Yeah,
and you have those all in thesame test, and I think it creates
a sort of like three different avenuesof thoughts. It creates just this uh
(32:19):
not not like a fallacy, butyour brain kind of has to restart in
the middle of the test. AndI think that's really what gas people out.
At least that's I'm speaking from experience. That's what really got me was
I was going from DBQ, whereyou're referencing information that you're directly given.
Then you have your multiple choice question, which is multiple choice, and your
short answer question, which typically hasa stimulus, and then going from that
(32:40):
to here is a prompt. Here'san essay writing. You know, you
have no structure, you just havean essay, and it's like, okay,
wow, all right, just gottachange my brain here. I gotta
be into like ap lang mode nowright right. So, hey college board
people, if you're listening, youknow you want to talk to somebody about
maybe how to revamp some things.Mister Kelly would be open for a conversation.
(33:01):
I'm sure. The biggest thing Ithink is for a push specifically breaking
that into two separate classes. Yeah, because I know in college you have
a push one and a push two. Right in high school you do all
of it. You do a pushone and a push two, yes one
sitting, So you have the entiretyof American history, right, learn all
of it. Yes, yes,man, that's that's rough it is.
(33:22):
It was rough. So you haveall these experiences that I think we've kind
of gone over and tested too.So a lot of our you know,
like I said, the kids thati'd directly deal with their fourth and fifth
grade students to what you've said isa lot of what I preached to them.
So if you got if you couldtalk to those fourth and fifth grade
students, I'm just going to giveyou the floor here. What kind of
advice would you give them? Okay, I gotta get back into the or
(33:43):
young GT students. Yes, becauseI was a GT kid and I love
the GT program. However, Ithink that it can create some unrealistic expectations
for kids going forward, because youwill have people your entire life who tell
you you're smart, You're the smartall that. My biggest advice to them
would be, don't be afraid tofail, don't be afraid to experiment with
(34:08):
who you are, and to notput yourself in a box too early,
and for the love of God,don't grow up too quickly. Yeah,
because I see a lot of theseGT kids and they're so independent because they're
smart kids, so they want tobe out there, they want to be
independent, and they rush so quicklyinto being these many adults. Yes,
you flounder and you don't get toreally give yourself time to grow. And
(34:32):
one thing for me is reconciling likewho I was as a child, right
because I have these high expectations formyself. Sometimes it's okay to like,
let yourself calm down. It's not. You don't always need to be the
best at everything you do, right, And it's okay to be happy with
(34:52):
yourself, be happy with who youare and not have to be the best
at everything. And if there's someonewho you see who is bragging about I'm
the best, YadA, YadA,YadA, it's okay to be competitive,
but you don't feel that you don'tneed to go out there and prove that
you're better than someone than for thebest that you can be simply because you
need to be. Yeah, it'sokay to have your niche and have your
(35:14):
thing that you're good at and nottry and be the best at everything.
Sure, because you'll over extend yourselfand yeah, and you'll burn out.
Yea burn And that's the biggest thingwith GT kits isn't burn out, Yeah,
because you give so much so quicklythat you don't ration it out and
give yourself time to find your passionsfor your interests. I did a presentation
on how GT perfectionism is like adouble edged sword. It's great because it
(35:36):
will drive you and it's bad becauseit will drive you into the ground.
Sometimes will you burn out because youwant things to be you know what you
want. You want things to beperfect. But it's okay to not live
up to your own expectations sometimes.And that's tough. It's a tough thing
to do. I'm not saying it'sgoing to be easy, but it's okay
to not be the best all thetime, right, Because if you think
(36:00):
like that all the time, youdon't give yourself time to I guess,
calm down, time to relax,you will burn out, yeah, and
you won't have the drive to actuallydo what you love, and that will
lead to a not fun time foranyone involved. I remember going into middle
school, right, I was soburnt out from being a GT kid,
(36:22):
from being you know, the bestwhatever, that by the time I got
to middle school, I was justa brat and I was a brat and
intermediate school too. It took awhile for me to calm down, but
because I was like, man,I know, I already know everything here.
I don't need to And it's like, no, you don't, kid
Like, Yeah, it's okay tonot know. You can admit to yourself
(36:43):
that you don't know. And insteadof trying to take pleasure out of being
the best, take pleasure out ofyour passion for learning, which is what
most kids in GT have. Theyjust have a passion for learning. Yeah,
use that passion as your fuel insteadof your want to be the best
rise or fuel. And that ismy sure fire away to not burn out,
(37:04):
because that's how I've been able tomanage AP classes, sure, high
school, professional life. Right.Everything I'll come together is love learning for
the sake of learning. Yeah,and stop viewing learning as a competition.
Yeah, and be okay to fail. And I mean that's why we talked
about why philosophy is so great,because you don't come to an answer.
You can't. I mean, you'reeventually It's it's like you said, it's
(37:25):
these age old questions that have beenaround for thousands of years. Plato's Caves
two thousand years old yes, ifyou're not more so, and it's not
like you can answer it just okay, well I've found the solution to it,
because your solution might not be someoneelse's. Absolutely okay, So we've
done all this talking. Now it'stime to where we do the shout out.
(37:45):
So somebody that you just want tosay, hey, thank you,
I appreciate what you've done, whatyou're doing, and I give the floor
to you. Who you got ashout out? All right? So my
shout out is going to be toDanny mac hobbs in the second who is
my theater teacher. Okay. Throughoutmy time at the high school, he
has almost been a father figure.He's been very much a mentor really helped
(38:09):
me figure out my own being becominga young adult. He's really gone above
and beyond as just a teacher.Not only does his shows that he puts
on phenomenal right, right, buthis genuine care that he has for his
students, being able to sit down, have these one on ones and talk
to them about their character, notjust about their performance in his classroom.
(38:30):
He's helped me work through a lotof my personal stuff and has really been
the catalyst for my professional growth andmy I think my future success going forward
because he saw something in me thatI didn't see and he was able to
nurture that and let it grow andkind of shaped me into the man that
I am today, all right,and the young man I will become later.
(38:52):
Well, well said, that's that'spretty good, as Nicholas Cage would
say, that's high praise. Somister Hobson, this one's for you.
That good? Is that? Rtwo D two? Very good? I
was like, Okay, I'm gonnajudge this whole podcast on whether Denver gets
this or not dying. Yes,yeah, but it had to be a
(39:14):
shout out. Do you know howhard it is to find good sound clips
of people shouting on the internet.That's when he's on Daga book. Yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, youhear him even smashing. Let's let's listen
to that again. Okay, Okay, there you go, there you go.
So well, Denver. I knewit was gonna be good. I
knew it was gonna be long,But thanks for all of you who stayed
(39:36):
in and listened to it, becauseI think Denver had some very very good
input, not just for high schoolers, but definitely for kids. You know,
intermediates, middle schools, everything likethat. So Denver, I just
want to say thank you again forshowing up. Of course, of course,
any any last words for anybody.I think I've said my piece.
Really, this was very fun,all right. Didn't expect it to be
(39:59):
the fun. Honestly, I thoughtit was going to feel a lot more
business. But this was this wasgood. I really enjoyed this. No,
I told you, I'm easy.I like Sunday morning. Man,
it's we're gonna come in here andwe're gonna talk, we're gonna have a
good time. So hopefully this hasopened the door for more middle schoolers and
high schoolers. You were the firsthigh schooler I've had. I just had
a middle schooler on my last podcast. So if you're out there and you're
a GT student, this is notjust for intermediate kids. This is for
(40:23):
you as well. So if yougot a topic you want to talk about,
you know my email address, hitme up and I'd be more than
happy to have you in here,and just like I had, Denver.
So Denver, thank you so much, all right, phenomenal And remember everybody,
we'd like to thank you for listeningin and we just want to say
to always remember to embrace your innerweirdo. There it is, Thanks everybody.
(40:45):
Embrace your weirdo. And I likethat. Let's good, it's not
bad. Come up with it myself. Really, I may need to,
like, you know, maybe dosome like marketing or something. You know.
Make sure I get that and goback, yes, Stea
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