Upon meeting Daniel Zimmerman, one notices that he seems to be a bundle of energy who's constantly smiling.

No doubt, all of that energy comes in handy as his job as principal of Chicago's Foreman High School, located in the city's Belmont-Cragin area.

Zimmerman grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He graduated high school in 1986 and then attended Boston University and the University of Rhode Island. He returned to Fort Wayne ( to get master's degrees and where he also worked in college admissions ) and then moved to Chicago in 2002.

Zimmerman got his first full-time instructing job as a cheerleading coach/English teacher. ( His employer noticed that he had "aerobics instructor" on his resume. ) He steadily worked his way up the ladder, becoming English department chair in Chicago.

At North Lawndale, he wrote curricula along with being department chair, "meaning I had the same kids for four years," Zimmerman said. "It was an amazing experience." Three of the students are now English teachers, he added. Eventually, Zimmerman became head of Foreman, and he's now entering his fourth year as principal.

Change has been a hallmark of Foreman. "We had labeled as a failing school for the better part of 10 years before I arrived," he said. "My first year, we leveraged our strengths and downplayed our weaknesses; we moved to Level 2 school in good standing. We kept that and got the probationary status removed. Our ACT scores are higher than ever, and we have more students taking college-level math than any other [CPS] school in the city."

As for a "typical" day, it normally starts at 4:30 a.m., when he walks his dogs and goes to the gym. He tries to get to the school between 7 and 7:30 a.m., with the students arriving around 7:45 a.m. What follows is going "at breakneck speed all day until school is out at three," Zimmerman said. "I have hundreds of emails a day because you're like a mini-CEO, and there are all sorts of situations."

Zimmerman started the gay-straight alliance at Foreman, with the school being so supportive of the LGBTQ community that it recently hosted this year's CPS ( Chicago Public Schools ) Queer Prom.

As for what he improve about the CPS, Zimmerman would want a more level playing field. "Sometimes it's harder motivating students when you're a neighborhood school, as opposed to a selective-enrollment school," Zimmerman said. "The kids may feel like they they couldn't get in anywhere else, and we're the last stop. In an ideal world, it would just be attendance boundaries where each school would be the vibrant center of the community. We have the talent at Foreman ... [and] we certainly [make the most of] what we have."

THE STATS

Age: 47

Occupation: Principal of Edwin G. Foreman High School

Lives in: Lincoln Square

Relationship status: Boyfriend of four years

Pets: A "Shorkie" ( shih tzu/Yorkie mix ) and a "Maltipom" ( Maltese/Pomeranian mix )

Favorite snack: Dark chocolate-covered almonds

Best part of job: "When you do things that touch people"

Worst part of job: "There's all the compliance, federal [and otherwise], that you have to do."