Lead, Don't be Led

David Smith, with an easy smile and plenty of jokes, serves as an ideal role model for Leadership in Community Engagement students due to his impressive résumé at such a young age. David is the Executive Director of the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC). Prior to joining NCoC, David founded and directed Mobilize.org, a national organization that improves democracy by investing in Millennial led solutions. Under his tenure, Mobilize.org expanded from a team of 10 students to over 30,000 activists in over 200 communities and published the acclaimed Mobilizer's Guidebook and Democracy 2.0 Declaration. David has been honored with awards including the Independent Sector’s “American Express NGen Fellowship”, YouthVote Coalition’s “30 under 30” and the International Youth Foundation’s “YouthActionNet Fellowship” for social entrepreneurship. He has been featured in books including the Millennial Manifesto and Generation We, and has published an essay in Rebooting America. 

When David came to talk at William & Mary on October 25^th, he spoke about everyday situations and how, with critical thinking, impactful changes can result. As an example, David spoke about a firefighter who developed an App for smartphones that alerts the owner of the phone when someone within 200 yards of them is in cardiac arrest and how to perform CPR, both through text and a video demonstration. This App was developed because this firefighter had seen many people die due to the inefficiencies of the emergency response system. Instead of calling 911, wasting precious time, and hoping for the best, this App allows everyone to make a difference and potentially save a life. In addition, David talked about his passion for making a difference through responsible citizenship and political participation. Though we are at a time in our country’s history where confidence in national politics is at an all-time low, David expressed his view that the only way to change this is to stay calm and become more engaged both in the community and with politics. As best said by our acclaimed alumnus, Thomas Jefferson, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”