Innovative Leadership: Balancing Tradition and Technology

Transitioning from the classroom to the principal's office, Steven reflects on how roles in multiple roles can foster leadership skills. We dive into the evolving landscape of education with a focus on technology, particularly AI, and how it serves as a co-pilot rather than a competitor. Steven also highlights the positive impact of recent AI training on educational practices. Drawing parallels to past technological fears, like those surrounding calculators and desktop computers, Steven underscores the importance of historical perspective in embracing new advancements. Tune in for an episode filled with passion, innovation, and a call to action for all educators.


About Stephen Rodriguez:
Stephen Rodriguez has been an educator for 28 years and has served in four districts throughout his career.  He began by teaching special education, having served in Elementary, Middle, and High School classrooms.  In 2005, he began serving in the Pottstown School District, first as the High School Principal and later as the Director of Human Resources.  Since 2016, he has been at the helm of the district as superintendent of schools.

He serves on the Foundation for Pottstown Education board, he is the current president of the Pottstown Area Economic Development (PAED) board, and he is also the Treasurer of the Pennsylvania League of Urban Schools (PLUS) Caucus and current representative in the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, (PASA).  Outside of Pottstown, Stephen is best known for his public advocacy in equity and fair funding for minority students in public education at a state-wide level.  

Want to send us a show idea or just say hi?  Email us at: thechangedpodcast@gmail.com! 

Transcript

The Value of a Doctorate

Stephen Rodriguez 0:00

and they were like all right, so you've done the job for a long time, why don't you want your doctorate? So the people stopped calling me doctor and me having to correct them and they're like that's not a very good reason.

Patrice Semicek 0:12

It's a lot of money and a lot of time. That's my whole dissertation. You're squashing it, yeah, yeah.

Stephen Rodriguez 0:17

So I was like you know you're right, because I'm not sure that there would be an another major reason for me to put myself through that. Yeah, benefit me that much yeah it's always beneficial.

Andrew Kuhn 0:30

Yeah, well, I just know like in montgomery county and this is me as an outsider, because I I'm a transplant but in montgomery county there's a lot of emphasis put on the status that comes along with that doctorate so yeah, my main reason was asking if you had written a dissertation we could talk about, like, what your topic was, because that tends to be something people are usually super passionate about because you have to spend so long on it.

Patrice Semicek 0:54

But and we we actually just recently had a very big, lengthy conversation about the. Exactly what she said in montgomery county that the value that we put on that but does that, does that equate to your ability to lead?

Stephen Rodriguez 1:12

and to do this work so I talk about that yeah, we could do, but I don't, so I um yeah yeah, for what it's worth, and I'm I'm ready to go when you guys are. Yeah, there's nothing we talked about that. I couldn't that. I couldn't fabulous.

Andrew Kuhn 1:35

All right, we're just gonna get into it then yeah, great, I would, I would okay, let's start with how you got where you are. Is that okay?

Patrice Semicek 1:45

Yeah.

Patrice Semicek 1:48

And then that'll spark some questions and I think what we'll do, if you're okay with it. We're trying to do things a little bit differently with how we record it. We usually would just start off with our normal introduction, then we get it going into things. We've been trying to move that to the end so that we can actually kind of give them a little bit of a teaser while we're talking about, you know, as we introduce you. So if you're okay, we'll kind of jump into it and then we'll come back and do the intro at the very end.

Andrew Kuhn 2:13

Feels weird, but it actually works out really well for us.

Patrice Semicek 2:15

You're like I've already talked about myself. Why are you asking?

Andrew Kuhn 2:18

me.

Patrice Semicek 2:19

So yeah, and you prefer Steven, is that okay?

Stephen Rodriguez 2:25

Yeah, so yeah, and you prefer Stephen, is that okay? Yeah, people call me Stephen or Mr Rodriguez, and I'm good with whatever you guys normally do. I mean, just don't call me doctor, but Stephen is fine, we're all talking to adults, right?

Andrew Kuhn 2:35

Yeah, yeah yeah, we don't want to assume nicknames.

Patrice Semicek 2:38

Yeah, and if you had a preference. Yeah, just not Steve.

Andrew Kuhn 2:44

You know, there are some people who that's their name, but that's yeah, yeah, for sure well, that's why we ask preference, because I get called patty a lot and I really don't like it. It's patrice, yeah, yeah and I'm not. I'm not andy so when somebody calls me anyone like we're not friends or it's patrice, and she's doing it on purpose either way I do that to make him mad.

Patrice Semicek 3:04

So yeah, stephen, if you don't mind just introducing yourself to the Change, that Nation, and sharing with us who you are, where you are and maybe even how you got there.

Stephen Rodriguez 3:14

So we're recording or this is practice.

Andrew Kuhn 3:16

Nope, we're recording, we're recording.

Stephen Rodriguez 3:18

Yay, yay, okay, very good. So what was the question again?

Patrice Semicek 3:24

Take seven. I'm just kidding. Well, we're thrilled to have you on the show. If you wouldn't mind just introducing yourself, sharing maybe who you are where? You are and yeah what you do, how you got there.

Stephen Rodriguez 3:37

Sure, my name is Steven Rodriguez and first and foremost I'm a teacher. I happen to have the role of superintendent, where I've actually had that role now for eight years, 27 or 28 years in education, something like that.

Stephen Rodriguez 3:52

Started out as a special education teacher did my first stint in three different districts in Berks County I won't bore you with the list there, but you know, suburban, including rural and I actually started out in the Reading School District, then moved on to Pottstown where I've been here since 2005, believe it or not. First as the high school principal, then as the director of HR, where I got to hire a lot, a lot of people and that gave me some excellent perspective. And then again, for the past eight years I have been in the lead role here as superintendent of schools or, as I like to call it, head teacher.

Navigating Leadership With AI Perspectives

Andrew Kuhn 4:30

I love that. Sorry, we're writing down notes. How did you go from special ed? I'm a special ed. I taught autistic support for a few years, so my heart is in autism. But how did you go from special ed to principal? Was that like a major leap? How was that transition? How did that go?

Stephen Rodriguez 4:56

For me it was really easy. I mean if you can handle an emotional support role assistant principal takes notice of you. Then you get offered an assistant principalship because you can handle the toughest kids.

Andrew Kuhn 5:08

Yeah, you can.

Stephen Rodriguez 5:09

And then you learn how to be a principal while you're assistant principling and you know, the rest is history.

Andrew Kuhn 5:17

I have always felt like if you can handle emotional support, you can handle anything. Yeah, yeah, you've got the parent side of it, you've got the kid side of it, you've got all of that, and if you can handle that without losing control or your mind, you've got it on your solid.

Patrice Semicek 5:35

you're good and hearing you talk, just giving us that you know the the cliff notes of your experience and even what you all, you both, just were talking about. What I'm hearing is that you have this unique perspective of everyone because even with, like you said, with the hr and you're hiring, and so you have this unique perspective of all of these positions. So now, in this position of leadership, you're seeing so parts, not just kind of one direction or one aspect. You see all of it and I imagine that would really inform you as you're making decisions or having conversations on direction and direction, the impact on education.

Stephen Rodriguez 6:17

Without a doubt, and I'm one of those people who actually used my master's degree. I got my master's in curriculum and instruction.

Stephen Rodriguez 6:25

So, you know learning how we effectively teach kids and how, if you map things out in the most efficient way, you get the biggest bang for your buck. Yeah, it's been super helpful. And when you're a leader, you must be a generalist. You know you might have more of a specialty. You know we were talking a little bit before about musicians. You know, musicians like to be really, really good at whatever it is they're performing and they hone in on that very much so, but as a leader you can't do that. You got to be pretty decent at a lot of things. You don't have to be an expert, but you definitely have to have that view. So, yeah, that's been helpful. It certainly is helpful when you're dealing with new technology coming through the system and the potential impact that that has for all different stakeholders.

Andrew Kuhn 7:16

Constantly. I feel like we're constantly in a state of change and flux when it comes to technology and even with the addition of AI. Right, covid sent us on a very different trajectory in terms of just even one-to-one access, and now we have all these kids with one-to-one access, and now they have AI to go and do all this other crazy stuff. So, yeah, your ability to understand and I also have a master's in curriculum and instruction and once I went through that program, that definitely changed the way I see things and the way that I can it almost kind of like opens up your eyes to be able to like map stuff out in a very different, more coherent way. I think that that was one of the biggest gifts my masters did for me was to give me the ability to see things in a very different light, like that.

Stephen Rodriguez 8:06

And for what it's worth. Just a little plug for you guys the training that I went through I mean in terms of how I viewed AI, you know pre versus post talking to you guys and what was that was a total of maybe three hours yeah, I think it was like two hours yeah it was yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't like huge, but it was.

Stephen Rodriguez 8:26

You guys did a great job, thank you I have approached things a lot differently and and the word co-pilot may be permanently stuck in my brain and I have shared that with other educators and I'll tell you it's, it's's. You know we talk about certain concepts are very sticky, you know. Like as soon as you hear it, it kind of sticks to you. That's a that's a very sticky concept. So, as I've talked to both both students as well as teachers they're like yeah, I get it, that makes a lot of sense and it's a whole lot less scary. Yes, because when you first think of it you go back to, you know, 1984 and terminator and skynet you know, like oh ai is gonna do all the thinking for you.

Stephen Rodriguez 9:09

And then when you realize, well, wait a second, that's not what this is, it's, it's. I've used it more since that training than I ever had before.

Andrew Kuhn 9:19

That's great news. Yeah, we're very fortunate. We get to go to a lot of trainings and a lot of stuff, and it's been a lot of. When we talk about artificial intelligence a lot of tools and the tools change. Every five minutes you have a new tool doing something different or updating or all this other stuff. And we've also talked to a lot of people who see AI as competition or something to be feared, and so when we shift the narrative, like you said, to the co-pilot mindset, it allows the fear of it's taking my job, it's taking away the kids thinking it's doing all of these things, it becomes a little bit, like you said, a little more palatable, right, a little bit more like OK, I can use it and make my life a little bit easier, while also encouraging kids to think differently there you go, so that oh good oh, you gave a great historical narrative.

Stephen Rodriguez 10:09

So I had some one parent, a couple of board members, and they were like, oh yeah, this ai thing, it's just going to destroy learning. And I was able to say, like I want you to know, I kind of held some of the same fear, but you know, that's what they said about the calculator and that's what they said about the desktop computer. So you know, like, maybe we need to have a historical view on this so that we see like, wait, is this just another tool that we can highly utilize? And it was again, talk about sticky. They were like, yeah, I get it, you're right, graphic calculator turns out. Still had to do math after that.

Andrew Kuhn 10:47

Yeah, really good stuff and it allows you thank you, it allows you to take it further. So now we're extending the learning even further than just the rote memorization of the facts and the things that we've been talking about in the past. Now, not do I only have to remember some of this, but I can free up my working memory while not having to remember all of it, and then take that information and then go 10 steps farther.

Patrice Semicek 11:09

So we're actually encouraging kids to think more when we use it as a co-pilot, as opposed to letting it prevent us from doi ng things and and there are so many things that by our human nature, we've actually stunted our growth on whatever they may be, and so by having conversations this way about AI, it opens up the possibility. You're like, wow, this really is endless. Right, there are so many things that we could do, and I think we also find that there are gifts that you get back right. Being able to put information and data into the spot that can synthesize it for you in minutes, versus us taking days to comb over it is incredible. We've even been part of learnings where they were talking about the nanoscience and how quickly they're able to get information back and learn about bees, about mosquitoes, about bugs instantaneously, versus let me study you for a whole season. I'll gather all the information. I'll take the next season or three seasons to process it. They said they're getting the information instantaneously, so now we can learn things faster, we can react quicker and be more informed. But then a big part of you know, a big part of the conversations that we've had, is well, what do we do with that? Now that we have it? How are we informed consumers who know what the right thing to do is?

Patrice Semicek 12:28

Because just getting information faster, as we all know from the power of Google or the internet doesn't necessarily mean that that that that's the right information or the right thing to do.

Patrice Semicek 12:39

So that's where I really believe the, the power and the foundation of education in general comes in, to be like how have we empowered students to be critical thinkers to you, know, really process through information and then know what to do with it? So in so many ways, we are the best positioned option for learning how to use ai because we have all of these tools that we've used. Even when we see things you know in education, we say, well, I understand the depth of your learning or understanding by the quality of your questions. That even comes into play with AI. Right Like again with that co-pilot idea, it's like okay, we asked for this, now I need to know enough about what I'm asking about to be able to read through it and say, let me modify that a little bit. Right Like, that's not exactly what I was looking for, but, again, it speeds up the thinking process. But we, like I said, we have to know how to process that ourselves and what to do with that information once we get it.

Andrew Kuhn 13:35

Which is shift in the way we teach. So I think that you, being a superintendent, have one hard, very hard job right now, because the way we're asking teachers to shift their instruction is not how they've ever been taught before in their life, and we do tend to teach the way we were taught. And so, as a leader, being a generalist is extremely helpful, I would assume, because you're able to walk into a classroom and say I feel you. I end being able to be so open and say I was kind of afraid of it too, and now I'm looking at it from this lens and let's work on it together as a team. I think that that is a very different way that we're approaching education, because, again, we don't have to know all of this stuff. We have to know what to do with all of this stuff, and we're setting our kids up for a significant amount of success if we can teach them how to think as opposed to regurgitate information.

Stephen Rodriguez 14:28

And in s ome ways the pandemic actually helped us with that argument because things are so different. Things are so different. What I find when I speak with teachers and principals and parents is we just want to figure out a way to win.

Stephen Rodriguez 14:46

Like we see that things are changing underneath our feet. So when there are methods that others have used that are research-based and we know that the probability is that they're going to work as opposed to sage on the stage or you know, let's put up the new transparencies. Yeah, all PowerPoints, yeah. And you know, have you go through the homework from the night before that? We know the kids didn't actually do Like it, just for me. What I try to tell teachers is teachers is listen. There's a lot of shoulds in the world. Well, they should be doing this and they should be learning that, but that's not what they are doing. So as teachers, we need to get out in front of that and figure out where are they going. Let's let's map it out and give them what they need to succeed in in the world that we don't even know what that's gonna be, it's gonna be different tomorrow, right yeah?

Stephen Rodriguez 15:46

yeah, for sure, yeah, chinese proverb.

Andrew Kuhn 15:49

May you live in interesting times, I'd I would like a little less interesting, just for five minutes.

Stephen Rodriguez 15:55

Just for five minutes yeah, yeah, give us all all a break, but that's the attitude of a lot of teachers. So if teachers are listening to us, I think the one thing that I would say is trying to do things the old way is actually far more frustrating and stress-inducing than simply saying, okay, it's not the way I mean, I acknowledge it is not the way it used to be. It's not the way I mean, I acknowledge it is not the way it used to be. What do I need to do to get ahead of it so that I can have a little bit of peace and I can have, you know, students who are achieving and feel like I'm a successful teacher and I acknowledge that that's really important? I mean, if we don't feel successful, that's what leads to burnout and that's just not good for our kids.

Andrew Kuhn 16:41

Sorry go ahead.

Patrice Semicek 16:42

I was going to say I think a great example of exactly what you're talking about, that we've experienced in our own work, is that we'll say our executive functioning is not one of our strengths right, we're very creative, but we're figuring out how, yeah you know, we're one of those creative minds uh as a, as a musician, I'm sure you can appreciate that.

Patrice Semicek 17:02

So we've talked about a lot of different ways to do it and actually we it's been proposed to us more than once about why don't you use, like a project online project management system tool and and you know when it was originally proposed it was beginning like we're in mid-year.

Patrice Semicek 17:18

I'm like I can't process shifting in this train wreck in the middle of here. But to your point now it's like we're looking at get a different one and I'm like, wait, this will like queue up to email somebody when something you know, like it makes it so much more efficient. So it's not that it's taking away my job, it's helping me to stay at a higher level longer. Say you know, stay in my strengths, which, again, is exactly what AI does is let's help you stay in your strengths and eliminate these mundane tasks. So, so, not that they're not important, but if something else can help you do that, then you can stay where you work best and allow them you know, these other tasks to be done as well, making us all more efficient and, quite honestly, be able to achieve greater things, because we can kind of, you know, stay where we're best.

Embracing Change in Education

Stephen Rodriguez 18:11

Yeah, nice, I mean, I will say that there's not a whole lot. One of the things that I did to begin with is just not resist, but fail to understand how AI could help me in my role, you know, as a classroom teacher, when I've been able to do just a couple of things as it relates to instruction, you know, thanks to your training, I've been able to apply it pretty well. But I've always struggled with well, wait a second as a superintendent, you know, like, how can AI help me? And you know that's a significant question. And I talked to a couple of other folks who have my position and they're like, oh well, I have to do this. And they're like, oh well, I have it to do this. And it's just not. It's very inapplicable to my situation because we all lead differently right.

Stephen Rodriguez 19:02

So any communication that I give you know like, let's say, you're doing a letter or something of that sort Well, for me, that letter is always going to be super specific and no program can give the information that I can, because I know what's going on. However, as a result of using it a little bit more, what I find is that it saves me a ton of time in research. So where I used to have to, you know, google 15 different things and read a whole bunch of reports, so that I could go back to my constituents or my board or teachers and say, hey, here's what we know, here's what we found. That I mean it hasn't dropped down to zero, but the time that I have utilized for research has gone down as a result of AI.

Andrew Kuhn 19:49

That's awesome. Well, we're at 20 minutes already.

Patrice Semicek 19:54

All right.

Andrew Kuhn 19:56

So, if you're okay, we'll do our opening. Are you okay with what we talked about?

Stephen Rodriguez 20:00

100%. I was expecting. You know, like Philadelphia Inquirer, when they call me or whatever you know, they're always asking me super deep, hard questions. So, yeah, this was fun.

Andrew Kuhn 20:12

We like to keep it surface.

Stephen Rodriguez 20:14

But I feel like we actually went deep, though.

Andrew Kuhn 20:14

Like to keep it surface, but we went. I feel like we actually went deep though I feel good about where we went.

Patrice Semicek 20:17

I really, I really you listen you want to come back whenever this was.

Stephen Rodriguez 20:22

This was actually a lot of fun when you guys hit a snag and you're like man we need somebody.

Andrew Kuhn 20:27

We're calling steven, yeah go ahead.

Stephen Rodriguez 20:30

I've been known as a rabble rouser and a troublemaker, so so I don't want to work with you I like it.

Patrice Semicek 20:35

You want to work at the EIU. We're calling Steven.

Andrew Kuhn 20:38

We have a job opening. We're calling you there you go.

Patrice Semicek 20:42

You know, one thing we do I mean, we've talked about so many great things One thing that we do like to do is offer you like a closing thoughts.

Andrew Kuhn 20:50

Oh yeah, Sorry, I forgot about the thoughts do you have any closing thoughts that you'd like?

Stephen Rodriguez 20:52

to add in there, just from our conversation, maybe something you didn't get to say that you'd like to share closing thought you know we have so many challenges in education and I think a lot of times we we don't give ourselves enough credit that that we can figure out some really cool and creative ways to meet those challenges.

Stephen Rodriguez 21:15

And doing something different isn't an enemy, it isn't the negative or bad thing, it's just different. And when we are able to do that to me that's where you find out how to make the secret sauce when you're able to try something different and and do something new, all of a sudden everybody wants to do what you're doing, or vice versa. Maybe you just decide that you're going to try something because somebody else had success with it. Yes, it might feel weird, but that's how we make differences in children's lives, and I'm really glad that there were teachers in my life that were brave enough to do something new, because it's made a difference for me. So that's what I hope to do for the next generation. That's what I hope that all of us in this field will do is just be brave enough to do something different, because we're preparing kids for a world that we don't even know what that looks like.

Andrew Kuhn 22:13

Yeah, so true.

Patrice Semicek 22:17

Throughout our conversation I was thinking about moments, how there are moments in time where we can specifically look back and say, oh, yes, this is when that happened, my lifetime. One of those moments could be the OJ Simpson chase, or it could be Princess Diana, or even the 9-11 with the Twin Towers. There's so many moments that I remember, but there are also moments that I would say capture a longer period of time. So COVID was more. It was a moment, but it was a long moment in time and in a lot of ways, I feel like where we're at is so incredibly exciting and there so much possibility. And it will end up being one of those moments where we say, you know, uh, grandchildren will look back and say, oh, when you know, at the birth of the generative ai, where were you, what were you doing and what was it like? And and that's an incredible moment for us to say, oh, you know, it was this. Endless possibilities and so much exciting. We didn't know what was going to happen, we didn't know that it would be like it is now. We were just so excited and that's for me, the possibility is just so boundless, and then we can lean into it or we can, you know, shy away from it.

Patrice Semicek 23:29

Either way, this is something that's happening and what I appreciate so much about what you've said today is just that you know no harm, no foul. And let's take a look at it, let's kind of peek under the hood, let's see what's there. And you know, as we said earlier, a tool is a tool. If you find a tool that works for you, awesome. That doesn't mean that that's all that AI has to offer, but that might be a tool that really works for you and lean into it, but more so, lean into the opportunity and the possibilities that we have just in education in general. There's so much that we can do and it means so much to not only our students, to their community, to going on and on, but our potential for impact is so great and it's so meaningful. So thank you so much for coming on to the show and for giving us your time and sharing with us your insight, and also for all the nice things that we did not pay you to say about us.

Stephen Rodriguez 24:29

Yeah, my pleasure. I didn't come back any time, it was fun.

Andrew Kuhn 24:33

We definitely will.

Patrice Semicek 24:35

Yeah.

Andrew Kuhn 24:35

Yeah, thanks.

Patrice Semicek 24:36

So we want to remind all of our ChangeEd Nation to make sure that you follow us and for more information.

Andrew Kuhn 24:44

I was going to say make sure you do something different.

Patrice Semicek 24:48

Oh, yeah, yeah, obviously yeah, do something different, because I wrote that down in quotes.

Andrew Kuhn 24:51

I'm going to put that on my wall, Stephen.

Stephen Rodriguez 24:53

No, you're going to be on our wall.

Andrew Kuhn 24:56

Do something different, stephen Rodriguez.

Stephen Rodriguez 24:59

Wow, good Teacher extraordinaire.

Andrew Kuhn 25:04

Yeah, that's your new title Teacher extraordinaire.

Patrice Semicek 25:06

All right, should we do the intro?

Andrew Kuhn 25:08

Yeah, let's do the intro.

Patrice Semicek 25:09

All right, welcome back to Change Ed. Change Ed, I am your host of your favorite podcast show in all of the education world Andrew Kuhn, education consultant from Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, and here with me.

Andrew Kuhn 25:26

Patrice Semicek from the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit with the same title, even though we have explicitly said we're not doing them anymore.

Patrice Semicek 25:34

Yeah, it's sticking though.

Andrew Kuhn 25:35

For you. It's very sticky, it's aggravating me.

Patrice Semicek 25:37

It's almost like the. You know that. What is that? Like that rub-on glue, what are they? Glue sticks? It's like that, like that sticky glue that you just can't like get.

Andrew Kuhn 25:46

Oh, it's like museum glue.

Patrice Semicek 25:47

Yeah, yeah, it's sticky Well yeah. We have an awesome show for you today, as always, and today we have with us a super person.

Andrew Kuhn 25:58

Super Teacher extraordinaire.

Patrice Semicek 26:01

Yeah, with a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge and.

Andrew Kuhn 26:05

Super fun to talk to you.

Patrice Semicek 26:07

We're going to end up with more than one quote. We have quotes that we want to write down. Yeah, based off multiple conversations. Yeah, so we'd like to welcome to the show Stephen Rodriguez. Welcome, sir.

Stephen Rodriguez 26:19

Thank you very much. Thanks for having me, guys Fabulous.

Patrice Semicek 26:23

And then we'll jump right into, would you mind? Introducing yourself. Tell us about you.

Andrew Kuhn 26:26

All good, thank you, this was fabulous, really.

Patrice Semicek 26:30

Thank you for your willingness.

Andrew Kuhn 26:32

You're the first superintendent.

Patrice Semicek 26:33

You are and how are you?

Andrew Kuhn 26:34

I just really thank you for your willingness and like you're the first superintendent and I just wanted to reach out and talk to us. So everyone else was like thanks, but no thanks. I think yanni might have wanted to, but he jumped ship. So he's not going to leave the county, you don't get an opportunity I mean, I guess I could go over to cb and be like come on, yanni.

Patrice Semicek 26:48

But he's, he's on a no-fly list. Yeah, yeah, I'm just kidding, no, but but also I, I seriously have a big thank you, because not only the kind of things that you said, but your willingness to be like I'll do it, yeah, it was awesome. Right, we're like, okay, we want to talk to you because, as you can imagine, appreciate, we've had other people who are willing to talk, but then, like, your personality is like, oh man we could talk all day right like this is easy listening and you can tell that this this guy's passionate about what he does and he believes it, and that's what we need is people like that.

Stephen Rodriguez 27:20

So thank you I'm happy to help and and really glad, quite frankly, to be working with you guys. Look forward to the future yeah, thank you, us too all right, sir have a fabulous rest of the summer.

Andrew Kuhn 27:31

Hopefully you get some time to yourself yeah, rest of the two weeks.

Collaborative Review of Documents

Stephen Rodriguez 27:35

So yeah, it's, it's coming down by. I don't know what happened yeah I sent you via email the view that I have.

Patrice Semicek 27:44

Oh, I can't wait to see and I actually sent you this intro.

Andrew Kuhn 27:48

I just looked up yours so I don't even want to anyway hold on, take a.

Stephen Rodriguez 27:51

Hold on, take a look.

Andrew Kuhn 27:52

Thank you, gosh, okay. We're trying to look fun and all that, but I totally understand what's happening.

Patrice Semicek 27:59

Oh wow, we are not hip, that is not a word to describe. Change Ed. Oh man, all right, I see you, steven. Have fun folks.