Charting His Own Path

By Xan Hopkins '24, May 11, 2023

David Stills ’04 wants to empower children with his new YouTube show.

David Stills' The City Love Show debuted in summer 2022 and has run nearly a dozen episodes.

(Photo submitted)

It’s been a winding road for David Stills, whose career path has taken him from the halls of Ithaca College to the decks of a cruise ship to performing on stages and, now, to producing a children’s show. The common thread through all of his experiences has been his love of performing, social justice, and education.

Stills was a psychology major who transferred into Ithaca College and, for a time, was unsure of what he wanted to do. On South Hill, several options developed. He joined Ithacappella, eventually becoming the club’s president, and his involvement with the group was a key period of growth for him.

“What Ithaca represented for me was, ‘Okay, David, it’s time to grow up,’” he said. “I had a lot to learn at the time, and the environment I was in kind of forced me to learn it rapidly. I mean that with a lot of respect.”

After graduating, Stills joined a professional a cappella group, BC3, and spent several months performing on cruise ships. While he loved the experience, he knew it wasn’t sustainable. A conversation with his wife led him to focus on childhood education, helped by his IC courses that had an emphasis on neuroscience, and he worked to become a certified Montessori teacher.

“If you have a desire to express something. I recommend that you actually do that, because you have no idea of what the benefit or the payoff will be.”

David Stills '04

Stills was also interested in social justice and, with his friend Brian Caselli Jordan, formed City Love, a so-cial justice music and education group. Performing at schools around the country, as well as conferences host-ed by the National Association of Independent Schools, the group presented songs featuring themes of equity, self-love, and community building.

It wasn’t long before the group grew into something bigger.

“Brian and I got together to talk about what we could do,” Stills said. “We were really influenced by shows like Reading Rainbow and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and we’re both comfortable performing. We thought, What if we could make a show?”

And so, The City Love Show was born. The episodes are approximately 10 minutes in length and feature the duo discussing topics, like sharing, before performing a song encapsulating that theme. The show debuted in summer 2022 and has run 10 episodes.

“We wanted the show to have some principles there for the children to hold onto,” Stills said. “People are people, and we want to treat people a certain way regardless. If we have empathy and we’re able to step into their shoes, we’ll realize that despite all the differences being blasted into our systems, most of it is the same. We’re all trying to have a good experience and to feel empowered. That’s the root of the show.”

Stills is also the author of a children’s book, The Happy Way Every Day, which was published in December 2021. With a career that has taken him down a lot of different avenues, he has one piece of advice that’s served him well: “If you have a desire to express something,” he said, “I recommend that you actually do that, because you have no idea of what the benefit or the payoff will be.”